Double Bass Delay Pedal to Mimic Resonance

[BigBadBen67]

I'm wondering if anyone has ever done this. I ran across an article once that talked about how EUBs may be great but lack the natural resonance of an acoustic upright, commenting that people had dome some interesting things to overcome this with delay pedals.

Has anyone done this or used any other effect to mimic acoustic resonance? I would be curious to hear details.

 

[Anthony White]

I haven’t, but have thought a bit about doing it. My thought experiment involved a nice digital reverb with some pre-delay, and a high pass filter to pull out some of the low muddiness.

I’m still thinking about getting the EUB though, so am some way off real world experiments.

 

[Wasnex]

I'm wondering if anyone has ever done this. I ran across an article once that talked about how EUBs may be great but lack the natural resonance of an acoustic upright, commenting that people had dome some interesting things to overcome this with delay pedals.

Has anyone done this or used any other effect to mimic acoustic resonance? I would be curious to hear details.

I have done experiments with this and yes it can add a sense of resonance on the attack. I don't current have access to an EUB, so my experiment was actually done with my fretted BG. I also tried adding chorus and flanger. I was able to take the sound in the right direction but I would not say was able to create any sort of authentic upright tone.

The relevant pedals I have are: Empress Vintage Modified Superdelay, MXR 117R Flanger, MXR M134 Chorus, MXR KFK EQ.

My experiment was several years ago, so I don't remember many details other than the delay was set up with a very short decay time, so it emphasized the attack by died out quickly. I probably had the flanger dialed in to emphasis a resonance in the low mids, and the chorus more the mids.

 

[Wasnex]

I would like to add that I felt applying these effects quickly started sounding plasticky and fake. Essentially a little improved the sound, but I am not sure it was enough to go through the hassle.

It might be possible to create a more useful effect if you used dual channel processing and blended the two channels back together. The you could create a really intense effect, but blend in just a little.

It's been awhile since I thought of this, but I think there are other types of effects that could be useful as well, but unfortunately, they are not common. One idea is an Expander gate that opens instantly with the attack, and then closes musically to create something approach the decay of an acoustic bass. A problem with this sort of approach is it would be tied to playing dynamics...which reminds me. I think I did some experiments with one of my auto-wahs that showed a bit of promise. The one I have is very vocal sounding; it's a BJF SWAW (Snow White Auto Wah).

 

[ClusterFlux]

My guess is you're not going to make an EUB sound like an upright by adding a little delay.

There are some acoustic simulator pedals out there.

A better option is something like the 3Sigma impulse responses for upright basses.

 

[Hoyt]

I play a lot of roots/rockabilly type stuff and recently started using a very slight reverb on just the “clicky” signal to give it a little life.

I don’t think delay would have the desired effect, but a very subtle amount of reverb might give an EUB some “air” under it.

 

[Ray175]

I can't answer from experience, but I will shortly be taking delivery of an EUB. My intention is to put it through the Fender Tre-Verb pedal that I use with my Höfner Violin bass using the "plate" setting with a very small amount of reverb. It adds depth and texture to the violin bass and I see no reason why the Warwick Triumph Lite EUB should be different. Availabilty is 10 weeks, so once I have it I will try to give some feedback.

 

[BigBadBen67]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm looking forward to playing with it some. I think I'll pick up a reverb pedal first as I kind of want one for my board anyway.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

An impulse response from a real bass top (under tension with damped strings) in an effect unit that can convolute that with the input signal would be best. But even that uses a limited impulse answer length and resonances from the top might take longer to die out. There is no feedback in convolution with impulse answers.
If you try a reverb use a short reverb time with a room type reverb. But a reverb should not color the sound too much by resonances whereas the bass top has a lot of resonances which color the sound.
But something might be good enough for the money.
But don’t expect too much. The mechanical feedback from the top to the string is always missing, but this is mostly recognizable when using the bow.

 

[bherman]

I play out often with an Eminence EUB and have tried all but a delay pedal. Chorus is sometimes helpful but you lose some note definition. Reverb doesn’t do much - sounds ok with the bass by itself but don’t notice anything in the mix. A touch of octave up is interesting but ultimately sounds artificial. So far I haven’t found a holy grail.

 

[brianrost]

TC Electronic makes a body resonance pedal. $100 online.

There's already a thread here.

 

[BigBadBen67]

Interesting. I'll definitely take a closer look at that. Thanks!

 

[Zbysek]

I have been trying it (reverb, not delay). It doesnt do much for me. So I think I will end up using reverb for arco only.

I have had better luck with tc Bodyrez and BOSS ad2.

I am considering 3Sigma IRs...

 

[PaulCannon]

Delay probably is not the answer. That won't affect the tone so much as the articulation and presence. A reverb pedal also won't change the tone so much, but they are nice to have and worth buying. I like the TC electronic Hall of Fame. If you want to really overdo it, the Eventide H9 includes some really fantastic reverbs in addition to a million other effects.

I recently tested a Boss acoustic simulator, and I was surprised to see that it does actually work. There was some extra hissing noise, which can be fixed with noise cancellation. It's still not as good as the real thing, but if you wanted a more acoustic-type sound then the Boss AC-3 is a viable option.

 

[Nick von Nick]

I play a lot of roots/rockabilly type stuff and recently started using a very slight reverb on just the “clicky” signal to give it a little life.

I don’t think delay would have the desired effect, but a very subtle amount of reverb might give an EUB some “air” under it.

A little late to the game, but for what it's worth, I frequently use my EHX Holy Grail reverb (Hall setting with the 'verb at 9:00) with my fretless bass to add that air to the sound. It gives it a little more life.
~NvN

 

[Ric Vice]

TC Electronic makes a body resonance pedal. $100 online.

There's already a thread here.


View attachment 4244702

Brian,
I have a question for you. Here's what TC electronics says about the Body Rez.

"BODY REZ is the new must-have tool for every acoustic player out there.
Designed to restore the natural acoustic resonance of your instrument when using under-saddle pickups, BODY REZ gives you a more pristine sound simply with the turn of a single knob".

Will this little box enhance a "solid body EUB? Just wondering.

 

[brianrost]

Will this little box enhance a "solid body EUB? Just wondering.

I've never tried one myself. Most EUBs use piezo pickups at the bridge, which is what "under saddle pickups" on acoustic guitars are. The original linked thread had links to some sound samples, but the links are dead.

 

[bherman]

Brian,
I have a question for you. Here's what TC electronics says about the Body Rez.

"BODY REZ is the new must-have tool for every acoustic player out there.
Designed to restore the natural acoustic resonance of your instrument when using under-saddle pickups, BODY REZ gives you a more pristine sound simply with the turn of a single knob".

Will this little box enhance a "solid body EUB? Just wondering.

I tried one with an Eminence EUB and the difference was barely noticeable. Especially in a band setting.

 

[Ray175]

I can't answer from experience, but I will shortly be taking delivery of an EUB. My intention is to put it through the Fender Tre-Verb pedal that I use with my Höfner Violin bass using the "plate" setting with a very small amount of reverb. It adds depth and texture to the violin bass and I see no reason why the Warwick Triumph Lite EUB should be different. Availabilty is 10 weeks, so once I have it I will try to give some feedback.

After a 4 month wait my Warwick Triumph Lite EUB finally arrived today. Fairly easy to assemble although an IKEA type sheet would have hepled to be certain the right parts were going in the right places.
I've tested it quickly with the standard strings but will replace with a set of Thomastic Spirocore fairly soon. I played through a tc electronic BAM200 head into aToob Metro 6.5 BG speaker housing.
As for most of my instruments a little bit of eq helps bring out the better characteristics. A slall aomunt of reverb gave some depth that was missing; the 63 and 65 settings had to much splash unless you want a rockabilly sound so I used the plate setting between 1 and 2. The sound gave more of an impression of a natural acoustic, which was nice. A small spot of compression also helped, without becoming squishy.
In a live mix, I think it would be easy to "hear" an acoustic bass - but on a fine-detailed recording or simply playing at home I think I would detect a difference.
That's what I heard on day one with standard strings. It will be interesting to hear how much difference the Spirocores will make.