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- Aug 1, 2005
- 3,546
- 1,421
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- Private Inventor - Bass Capos
17 piece big band? Yes, I think you want to amplify. What pickup? I can't say. The Fishman Full Circle has gotten really cheap, so is a good bet, but there are many pickups out there. You also need an amp though, and they can be expensive. This question is really open. Almost like asking what bass to buy.
You only need to amplify it if you want to be heard. I use a Krivo magnetic pickup, which some folks don't like, but I can get loud enough to be heard in any setting without hum or feedback. You will be surprised how quiet even the loudest double bass is without amplification.
Welcome to the rabbit hole of upright bass amplification.
I direct my students toward the Fishman Full Circle pickup ($230) and the FDeck High Pass Filter ($70) as a starting place. For about $300 (and perhaps the cost of having the pickup installed), you should be able to plug into most bass amps and achieve usable results. You can spend as much as you want on amplification, but this seems to be the most cost and time effective, in my experience, for folks who are new.
I direct my students toward the Fishman Full Circle pickup ($230) and the FDeck High Pass Filter ($70) as a starting place. For about $300 (and perhaps the cost of having the pickup installed), you should be able to plug into most bass amps and achieve usable results. You can spend as much as you want on amplification, but this seems to be the most cost and time effective, in my experience, for folks who are new.
Sending them to a luthier is the most cost and time effective? I'd go with a pick up you can install on your own like a realist. At that point you would decide to get a preamp or double bass amp, like a GK MB or better.
I use the old Barcus- Berry which comes off the bass very easy and sounds great with modern amps.
Whether you need a pick up in a big band will depend on your technique, who you study with and mainly with how the drummer plays. I'd say it will take a year to two years between getting the bass and a teacher and being able to make through a big band gig.
A Shen with a decent set up is great. Get a carved or hybrid, though.
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You need a teacher and better musicians. Not a Krivo. Sorry. A well set up double bass played well can fill a room.
I have studied at university level, maybe not at your level, sir, but enough to get a good sound out of my bass. I have played big band gigs, many of them, and don't feel the need to prove that my bass can be heard over multiple trumpets, saxes, trombones, grand piano, and drum set. I would rather relax, play with some finesse, and go home with the same pay as if I'd been more macho.
A Fishman Full Circle and a decent combo.
That's just nonsense. With 13 horns and a dummer, you need to be amplified.
I agree about the volume of other musicians(too loud) and that a bass can fill a room, to an extent. But when you are cutting your teeth on big band i don't think you can be too picky about who you play with, and if the group sucks at dynamics i say just plug in so you can actually be a part of it.
- Oct 12, 2004
- 1,327
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- Retailer: Shen, Sun, older European
Every year I supply 5 solid woods german basses to the Monterey Jazz Festival. Their listed requirements are broken in Spirocore mittel strings and Realist pickups on all 5, no exceptions.
Steve,
That's incredible. While I'm sure that is no mean feat, the pickup and strings they are asking for are used by many players. I'm surprised that they don't request Spirocore weich's, but the mittle's will produce a lot more sound from
the instrument. Just wondering how you transoport, 5 different basses to the festival site. That must be like cordinating a small gurellia army.
I'll vote for the ease of playing with an amplifier. I've had the good fortune to play in a 12 piece group for a long time. For some reason, having a few less horns, makes my job all the easier, but I wouldn't
even attempt it would out some kind of backline support. Just my take however.
Ric
P.S. I played unamplified in High School, but in those days drum set were only a few
ply's in thickness. Nodays they're much louder. The only pickups around in those days
was the DeArmond or Ampeg. Neither worked very well. I had a Tonnenges 4 magnet
pickup at one time, before Underwoods were avaliable, it sounded pretty narly, but I
found it useful in the few big band gigs I did at the time.
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You really can't compare 1939 with 2018. Volume, technique and equipment has changed dramatically.
And Jimmy Blanton didn't have a choice. Although the judge wouldn't allow my testimony because it's based on speculation, I'd be willing to bet that Jimmy Blanton would have gladly signed up for a good pickup, a nice amp, and anything else that allowed him to be easily heard without working so hard!
Apples and oranges. Volume, equipment, and people's expectations of the role of the bass have changed in the last 80 years.
He sure did, however those were much different times and Duke had a secret weapon. Eliington would actually put Jimmy directly in front of the P.A. microphone at least for solos. It’s doubtful they could do that at every venue, but they did do it. Oscar Pettiford and Chubby Jackson were both early Ampeg endorsees. Pictures below.
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I can and have installed Full Circle pickups for students if they have a bass with an adjustable bridge. I can get a great fit/connection with it, and teach them about setting up their instrument in the process. Even if they need to have their bridge modified for adjusters/the pickup, *in my experience,* the FC is a really great place to start, and they'll also then have the option of raising or lowering their string height. I stand by my earlier post.
I feel like the big assumption here is that everyone in this scenario would have to be playing without amplification, and that's pretty rare these days. For my own education, though, I'd be interested to know of some bassists that perform and tour exclusively without amplification in any genre. The legacy big bands I've played with all have sound reinforcement, players like Christian McBride and Dave Holland are always sending a mic and DI signal to the front of house, Ray Brown used a polytone amp, and Edgar Meyer has a mic on him when fronting an orchestra. I find it hard to believe that any of the named artists are lacking solid technique and a great, well set up instrument. We are in an era when just about everything has some kind of reinforcement on it, and there are too many musicians (on all instruments) that don't invest enough time in getting a reliably great amplified tone.
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