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Double Bass ehrlund contact pu-mike

#461
MrSidecar said:
Drurb,

I somehow should have known this would come up... :-) I should have been more specific. By "not bother with parametric eqs anymore" I meant something that basdanne and I had spoken about way back when he first got his dyn-b, and he found it overly annoying (at least so I remember) to use lots of eq-ing just to make the dyn-b loose its midrange honk and sound even remotely nice in an unproblematic room. Thus, my remark was kind of an inside comment (perhaps more adequately to be sent via pm) referring to his prior experiences, NOT a general "this pickup eliminates the needs for eq use, can percolate coffee and even save your marriage". Even though it probably came across that way.

Of course there sometimes can be the need to use a param eq to tame a problematic room situation (not that it occurred to me yet, but I'm most likely just lucky).

And just to make sure, no offense taken.

Best
Sidecar
Click to expand...

Oh, I didn't really think you meant that it eliminated the need. The "smiley" was supposed to signal the light-hearted nature of my comment. ;)
 
#462
I had been using the EAP with a headway EDB-1 into my bergantino IP112 powered speaker for over a year and was generally quite happy with it but some posts on here about ehrlund's own pre-amp prompted me to order it to see what I was missing. The verdict: you guys were right, WAY better with this pre-amp. I will still use my EDB-1 when I need a DI but the ehrlund pre-amp straight into the powered speaker sounds amazing- my days of obsessive eq knob tweaking are over.
 
#465
Wow. That is amazing Aaron. I imagine the Berg is really flat except for the coloration the cab design provide! My amp (TC rh450) has a very strong coloration to the tone that boosts mids and low mids which sounds great on electric, but I have to dial them down quite a bit to get close to "flat" on the upright. Then it sounds pretty good.
 
#469
Did my 4th gig with the Ehrlund today, and it continues to deliver just killer tune. Played the melody on Summertime with the bow, and did a bowed arco solo on the same, and it sounded excellent! Better by leaps and bounds than any other amplified bowed tone I have achieved. Pizz tone was clear, present, and not overly colored. Awesome.
 
#470
Pastor Hal said:
I tried a few spots on the G string side, but the sound was very thin. Apparently there is a big variation among different basses, though, so you'll probably have to just experiment with yours to see what placement you like best.

- Hal -
Click to expand...

In General, most basses are very active in the area on the e-string side besides the tailpiece (lower bout?). So, with most basses, that's where most of the output is for top plate coupled transducers. IME, YMMV, the usual disclaim routine applies.

Best

Sidecar
 
#474
MrSidecar said:
Hi all,

some words on placement- even though it's different per bass probably. Few caveats hold water though:

-the longer you get down from the f-hole, the better the chance for a balanced sound of all strings. My experience.
-stay away from bass bar vicinity, due to balance reasons again. Strange: the dyn-b with all its weirdities sounded BEST when close or over the bass bar- makes you think a lot about how (un-)balanced the pickup itself is.

For me, a great placement can be described as follows: Take the inner edge of the e-string f-hole. Draw an imaginary straight line down, enlengthening that edge. On that line, move the pickup down approx 15 cm from the f-hole. Point the triangle top so it points to the f-hole-edge, press reasonably firm to top. Again, mileage varies, ass basses differ.

With this placement, I recorded direct tracks and sounded amazing, and i just played a couple gigs (with and w/o drums) with this placement and a PJB Flightcase. Dynamite sound ("Coming from you, Bruce..." for all you SNL lovers). Is what the colleagues said, going so far as to say by far the best amplified bass sound they have heard from any of the guys they played with so far. I myself was quite blown away.

I might add, EQ on my Flightcase was almost completely flat, a hair boost on bass, som more hairs on high treble for definition. And I had to find a good balance of input volume and preamp-volume, with the preamp set to "high". The balance can make the difference between amazing and boomy-whoofy.

In terms of volume, with drummers it was absolutely sufficient and trouble free (some headroom left), and without the drummer, I could have easily gotten too loud (that was outdoors and far away from walls!).

Best

Sidecar
Click to expand...

After all the discussion here about the EAP -- what, exactly, it is; what preamp to use; how to attach it; and the ways in which one can mount it on the tailpiece -- the remaining issue, and maybe the most important, is where on the top of you bass you find it picks up the sound you like the best. This mobility is something that pickups that are tied into a specific spot cannot provide.

I tried out several positions when I first got the EAP. Then for about a year I just left it where it did the job well, coincidentally where it is on the picture on Göran's website -- just below bridge E foot and near the E ff hole. It sounded good there. Just recently, after reading Sidecar's post, I got inspired and moved it way south to about 20 cm below the E ff hole, not near the bass bar and way away from bridge foot and ff hole. Yesterday I recorded some tunes with it in that position. The recorded sound was just awesome! It makes sense that this contact pickup works very well out away from bass bar and bridge, on a fairly freely vibrating portion of the top. Thanks Sidecar!
 
#475
The last few gigs, I've had problems on the gig (my pre-amp is on the fritz and it changes things). Late in the gig out of frustration I move it right between the bridge feet and I get a more focused, usable sound. I don't think it sounds better there, but in context it works better sometimes.
 
#476
aaronallen said:
I had been using the EAP with a headway EDB-1 into my bergantino IP112 powered speaker for over a year and was generally quite happy with it but some posts on here about ehrlund's own pre-amp prompted me to order it to see what I was missing. The verdict: you guys were right, WAY better with this pre-amp. I will still use my EDB-1 when I need a DI but the ehrlund pre-amp straight into the powered speaker sounds amazing- my days of obsessive eq knob tweaking are over.
Click to expand...

Have you tried Ehrlund pre into the EDB-1 then into powered speaker?

I'm curious as I recently bypassed the pre stage of my Shuttle 3.0-10 just with the Ehrlund pre. To my ears it sounded better but there wasn't quite enough gain for it to be usable on a gig.

I don't own the EDB-1, so I can't try running the two pre's in series. But given the good write up the EDB-1 has received, I'm wondering whether it could serve as a better EQ device than the Shuttle 3.0's pre.

Any opinions?
 
#477
SRL said:
Have you tried Ehrlund pre into the EDB-1 then into powered speaker?

I'm curious as I recently bypassed the pre stage of my Shuttle 3.0-10 just with the Ehrlund pre. To my ears it sounded better but there wasn't quite enough gain for it to be usable on a gig.

I don't own the EDB-1, so I can't try running the two pre's in series. But given the good write up the EDB-1 has received, I'm wondering whether it could serve as a better EQ device than the Shuttle 3.0's pre.

Any opinions?
Click to expand...


SRL,
Since I have both the Headway EDB-1 and the Ehrlund Preamp here's what I've learned.
The Ehrlund Preamp is more like FDecks HPF Buffer Pre Amp, the Fishman Pro Platinum EQ, or older Fishman Model B Transducer Interface.

The HPF, Full Circle, and the Model B raise the input impedance to 10 meg ohms. I know that the Ehrlund does this as well, but I don't know the specs.

The HPF, Full Circle, and Ehlund provide Phase inversion while the Full Circle and HPF have hi pass filters. With the exception of the Full Circle,
none of these boxes was designed to be used as a Pre Amp module that would drive a line level input for a Power Amp.

The Headway EDB-1 is a full featured pre amp that will definitely drive a Power Amp. I've used it into the Walter Woods power amp input and it worked flawlessly.
Clink is currently using a Headway to drive a SWR Amplite Power Amp. Several TBer's are using it to drive QSC K10's so it's got the juice to work as a pre amp section for a mini rig.
Although the Shuttle 3.0 pre amp is very DB friendly, IMHO the Headway has more tools for tone shaping
and a 5 band EQ

Ric
 
#479
sooo my realist died on me a few weeks ago on a gig. i rarely play amplified, but do need it ocassionally. i considered just going without one all the time, but for the larger halls it just is not possible. so after reading all 22 pages on the ehrlund, ive ordered the pickup/preamp combo. it should be here in a day or so, and i cant wait. after this weeks gigs i should have a pretty good idea of what this thing cn do. ill post my thoughts on monday
 

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