Double Bass Forgot my mic, pick-up no gain

[basss]

Unless there's something wrong with Jason's pickup, the issue is that the Realist straight into a line input on the board just isn't going to have any signal strength for a variety of technical reasons. A DI like the Radial Stagebug SB-4 or Radial PZDI has a hi-Z input to interface with the piezo and unity gain to send the full signal strength from the pickup. Also, it plugs into a mic preamp with gobs of gain on tap, so there's no need to have another signal booster.

There's nothing wrong with those preamps suggested (all are great and have many useful features), and they would also solve the issue, but they might be more than Jason needs or wants to simply plug his bass into a typical mixing board on a pub gig.

It sounded like he was plugging into a line input which is why I suggested a preamp instead of a DI. A full preamp with gain boost would would be useful in more situations like no XLR available or plugging into the back of a powered speaker. You still have the DI if you just want to plug in to a mic channel. I'd rather have one of those in my bag and be ready for any situation. The smaller ones are not that much more expensive than a decent DI and easy enough to use.

 

[BobKay]

Not to beat a dead horse, but here is the K&K sitting in my gig bag. It is really simple, gives a significant signal boost, 1Mg input impedance and is designed for piezo pickups. Any way, just my $0.02.