Double Bass Double Bass & Sub Woofers

[Kristian]

I secretly disconnect them. Seriously!

 

[All Three]

I played a 4 day theme cruise a few years ago with a swing/dance group and the sound contractor provided the upright (a decent ply with a realist) and also a Fender for me. Same problem, big stack of speakers, subs about five feet away, uncontrollable feedback. I picked up the electric for the rest of that show and arranged for the sound guy to meet me the next day an hour before our show so we could fix it. We spent over a half hour and could not overcome it, so I had to do the rest of the shows on the Fender.
That was before I discovered the fdeck hpf, that probably would have made a huge difference.
(By the way, the other bassist on board that cruise was Victor Wooten, he was playing with a really fine Cabaret Singer from Nashville. Of course, he played beautifully.)

 

[Vince Waldon]

That was before I discovered the fdeck hpf, that probably would have made a huge difference.

Adjustable gain, HPF, and phase... at your fingertips (in my case clipped to my bow quiver) so that you can tweak it on the fly during sound checks or as the room fills with people...PRICELESS!!

 

[Pat Harris]

In general, most systems with subs on a "local" level have wayyy too much low end happening, at lest in my experience.

My work-around with upright bass in unruly situations has been to use a HPF on my end, and I roll off A LOT of low end content before my signal even gets to the FOH board. This forces the engineer to "beef up" the lows on their end, if they need to, and the result is typically a nice woody/punchy tone without boom.

For the gigs I play, I'd rather have the kick drum occupying the bottom of the FOH mix, with the upright bass sitting on top of it. This ensures that the instrument speaks instead of just being felt.

 

[matt holt]

Adjustable gain, HPF, and phase... at your fingertips (in my case clipped to my bow quiver) so that you can tweak it on the fly during sound checks or as the room fills with people...PRICELESS!!

I use the headway EDB-2 for the same reasons. It has variable HP and notch filters, and a mic stand mount that keeps it a close enough to adjust during a pizz half-note.

 

[Ric Vice]

Anyone have any experiences/preferences surrounding a PA equipped with subs and the double bass.
Let me know your thoughts on subs. Curious if i should start requesting the sound guys to use as little sub as possible in the future.

My experiences with Sub's are all dependant on the engineer who runs the FOH mix. If they know what their doing it's not an issue. While I was at the ISB convention in Ithica, NY this June, Brian Dozertz
gave a one hour presentation on "Amplifing the Upright Bass". Unfortunately, he only had an hour to discuss what should have been 3 hour workshop. He has a great insight to dealing with DB on large
stages since he is the "Manager of Recording Services" at Ithica and a legit professional bassist. In short, he uses his ears to find the frequencies that are likely to cause problems and rolls them off, then
EQ's the bass in "around the drums" so that it doesn't conflict with the ride cymbal and bass drum. Sorry for my layman's explanation. He was getting a very usable sound from a Realist into several different
kinds of amps.

Ric