Double Bass Fishman Full Circle Sound

[carlospppena]

Esteemed friends;

I just bought my double bass. It is a laminated Estle Louis from Gollihur music, from which i recieved super-great sevice and products. I like the acoustic sound very much. But, the pickup sound (Fishman full circle) has a "thud" that I dont like. Turning the pickup 1/8 of a turn does not help with this. It is a lot more of "finger scratching the string" than I would like. It is rare that the "thud" sound its more pronounced in the "A" string. The lower i set the action the less "thud" i get, but the acoustic sound deteriorates. The sound its not all bad. What i wanted to know if there is any way -that you know of- to reduce this particular caracteristic, or if this is the nature of piezzo amplificated double basses.

I am running this through a Fishman Platinum preamp, an Ibanez Promethean 500 amp, and a Hartke 210 speaker.

Best regards,

Carlos Pepe Peña

 

[Marc Piane]

Try messing with the depth control on the Fishman. It is basically a HPF and should help with that. Also, I recommend that you set the eq on your amp flat and do the tone shaping from the Fishman. Nothing like eq-ing twice to screw up the sound.

 

[carlospppena]

Fingers;

Thanks for your helpful reply. The depth control of the fishman is set to zero (all the way to the left, counterclockwise in other words). Eq in the amp its almost flat. I only adjust the 800 all the way down, because that is the only thing that i think reduce the thump. I will work with eq and inform all the results.

Best regards,

Pepe Peña

 

[Bob Gollihur]

Also make sure that the signal from the preamp and input volume of your amp aren't set too high, back one and/or the other back a little and check the results. Higher level signals can overwhelm the input of amps if set too high, causing undesirable results.

 

[Mike Arnopol]

I find that most Full Circles are not set up well. It's really not a "swap it out for the adjuster and go".It has to be making intimate contact all around. If the bridge is set at an angle away from the FC being perfectly perpendicular it won't sound as good. I've noticed that if my bridge has moved to a slight angle over time I get weird resonances and a more hollow sound. When I move the bridge back to perpendicular everything comes into focus.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I find that most Full Circles are not set up well. It's really not a "swap it out for the adjuster and go".It has to be making intimate contact all around. If the bridge is set at an angle away from the FC being perfectly perpendicular it won't sound as good. I've noticed that if my bridge has moved to a slight angle over time I get weird resonances and a more hollow sound. When I move the bridge back to perpendicular everything comes into focus.

Agreed.