This past Sunday, I took my Ergo 4 out live for the first time. I played through my Genz Neo-Pak head and an EA M-line Wizzy cab, running a line to the house. The Ergo has a set of Superflexibles installed.
I had thought I'd use the bass for a music theatre gig before now, but it hasn't worked out. This Sunday was with a worship team acoustic performance. We did regular worship tunes with acoustic guitars and hand drums. I thought I'd try the Ergo instead of using my ABG. What fun! It sounded a LOT better live in that big gymntuary/sanctuarium than at home.
I had to dial out a lot of mids to get rid of excessive growl/mwah. To do this, I hit the mids button on my Neo-Pak head. I also boosted the low EQ a couple of clicks, and cut treble a couple of clicks. DI was sent Post.
It went very well, after I adapted my right hand technique to lighten my pizz pluck, and made sure to pluck low on the strings, down closer to the bridge. The thing you notice with an Ergo is that you have to pluck across the strings, not down, because there is not much clearance between the strings and the body. You can't dig in with your fingertips like you can on a double bass.
I'm still running into the problem of the D and G strings being louder than the E and A strings, even with bridge tweaks and after replacing the piezo pieces. I had to adjust right hand for that also. Hopefully I can eventually figure out how to fix that.
With all that said, it was a lot of fun to play live. It got all the usual questions and comments.. "What is that thing?!?", "Where'd the body go??" and so on. It looked nice up on stage. I wish I had a picture to share.
A great first time out with the Ergo. I hope to use it more often now.
Edit: wanted to add this as well. The Superflexibles are fine strings for this bass, but are very smooth, exactly the same feel as a flatwound bass guitar string. My fingertips tended to adhere a bit too much to them, so I'm going to try using talcum powder and see if that promotes less stickiness.
Best wishes to everyone.
