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Double Bass Felix users! What pickup are you using?

Nathan Levine

Nathan Levine

Supporting Member
Apr 25, 2008
980
328
Anchorage, AK
#1
I have been using the Felix mostly with a Remic Red microphone. Sometimes a Troll or the Remic Green. But in general just microphones. When I first got my Felix I did a bit of blending with a Lifeline pickup. It sounded great and had plenty of output, but my amplification needs are pretty minimal so out of ease of setup I've gone with just the mic nearly all the time.

I've been messing about with the piezos again and have been surprised to find the output on the Lifeline is now woefully low. As in, I have to crank the gain all the way up to get any kind of signal. Seems like something went bad with my pickup. I bought another Lifeline here on TB to try out and same results. I then bought a Headway Band here and same results.

So that got me wondering if there is a problem with the Felix. That was answered by having a guitar player in my band staying after rehearsal last night, plugging a piezo equipped guitar in and having no problems at all.

What has me scratching my head is that my AI Clarus does just fine with the Lifelines.

So in a nutshell... what pickups are you using and getting good results from? Thanks!
 
#2
The felix has some buttons in the back and side that are easy to bump when setting up and tearing down while also not being very obvious. I think there's a dB cut or line/mic button in the back for each channel input.

Also if you're using two inputs, you have to keep an eye on the phase buttons on the side - bump one of those and you'll potentially get a very different sound from your mix.

As for inputs - I think most people using the felix are blending a mic and a piezo.
I'm using a yamahiko bridge pickup with an ischell contact mic.

The knobs on the felix can be intimidating. I ended up making a printable pdf to keep track of the different settings on mine.... just popped for a Yamahiko

I keep a printout in the felix bag and refer to it often.

Another trick - the input gain knobs are super easy to bump and change. The other knobs on mine seem to be fairly stiff to operate (which is good). So I removed the input gain knobs and put wafers of neoprene rubber under them. Now, they're harder to mess up when packed.
 
#3
Maple said:
The felix has some buttons in the back and side that are easy to bump when setting up and tearing down while also not being very obvious. I think there's a dB cut or line/mic button in the back for each channel input.
Click to expand...

There is definitely a line/mic button for Ch 1 but I am pretty sure no db cut button. Will look closer when I get home. Thanks for your reply!
 
#4
I use an Ehrlund EAP, typically by itself, or sometimes blended with Heil PR-40, into Felix, MAS 1.8. Plenty of room with just EAP - in a semi-loud, 2 horn, guitar, piano and drum combo I often have the gain fairly high, about 2:00 on the dial, and the volume at about 11:00. There is no cut, but the selectable input impedance may be a factor.

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