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Double Bass Doubling with Wireless on Upright

jasonrp

jasonrp

Feb 19, 2015
996
759
49
vt
#1
I've been trying to find the answer in the search and I got nothing. I'm going to set up a wireless rig for my upright and just wanted to make sure that I don't need a pre-amp with a filter or higher impedance before my transmitter. I'll be at higher volumes so I will need some feedback protection but I'm not sure where in the chain I need to put it. I'll just put my setup plan down and tell me if it makes sense please

Upright >pickup>transmitter>receiver>
a 2 channel radial pedal with high pass to GK or EA doubler
Electric bass> channel two >

I'm staring to lean towards the doubler just for the sake of less pedals and cables but have been tossing around a Gen II tonebone or their two channel distortion pedal and just going with a GK head because I'm more familiar with them
 
#2
I doubt that you will find wireless transmitter with a MegOhms input impedance.
But you can build one of these simple impedance buffer boxes like Francis Deck Quick'n'dirty or a mint box buffer and put it in between pickup and transmitter.
If you have room off a HPFpre you can use that one too. Anything after the impedance buffer could be put in front of the transmitter or behind the transceiver. But the impedance buffer needs to follow the pickup immediately, otherwise it has no effect.
This assuming that you have a high output impedance pickup like passive piezoelectric or electrically similar stuff. If there is a battery involved with the pickup, you might put the output directly into the transmitter, because the probability is high that the battery powers an impedance buffer which delivers a low(er) impedance output.
 
#3
Okay so, just to be clear, I need to have some sort of buffer or preamp between my pickup (k&K) and my wireless. I can't lower the output after it goes to the reciever but before the amp. Correct?
 
#4
The impedance buffer does not amplify the voltage but the available current. If the input impedance is too low, the voltage breaks down resulting in a more or less distorted signal (weak bass, more piezo quack, worse if you play louder on the instrument, probably also less voltage, so a smaller amplitude).
You can do what you want after the receiver, inserting a low pass (if you don't have one in the impedance buffer/preamp), amplify or cut down the amplitude, insert an EQ, whatever ...
 
#5
jasonrp said:
Okay so, just to be clear, I need to have some sort of buffer or preamp between my pickup (k&K) and my wireless. I can't lower the output after it goes to the reciever but before the amp. Correct?
Click to expand...
Yup.

You can check out the FDeck thread where there a few people (me included) mounting the preamp to the tailpiece with a beer holder.... otherwise it defeats the purpose of going wireless... Although to state the obvious - there aren't many people dancing around the stage needing a wireless bass on upright. :D
 
#8
vin*tone said:
.... there aren't many people dancing around the stage needing a wireless bass on upright. :D
Click to expand...

I'd love to have a reliable low mass wireless setup for my upright! I play with some fairly active, rowdy folks and and one of us is always getting tangled up in my bass cables amd the whole thing flys apart regularly when I'm spinning the bass!
 
#11
I used a wireless setup for a while, some years back. I was using a Schaller mag pickip, so impedance was not an issue. There can be other problems, however. At one venue, every time the compressor kicked om at the gas station next door, loud strange noises emitted from my amp. Another venue was in close proximity to high tension power lines, which distorted the hell out of my tone. Questionable wiring in some of the older venues can also cause problems.
 

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