Double Bass Getting a good live sound through DI

[Bobby Scharmann]

Hi guys,

I have something that has been bothering me ever since the DI went out on my Little Mark III.

I've noticed that when I'm doing a gig and the soundguy gives me a direct box, it's a mixed bag. Sometimes I send the signal to my amp and everything is fine, but seems like more often than not now, I'm experiencing a noticeable loss of tone through my amp. Some boxes are different than others, but we're talking about an absolute wreckage from the live sound I've grown fond of through my amp. At this point I become embarrassed to play because my tasty old German bass has all of the life sucked out of it.

I tried a cheap Livewire box (awful) and the Radial Pro DI passive box (better, but still not great). Am I doing something wrong, or should I expect this, or what can I do to make this better? Active DI?

Thanks...

 

[robgrow]

Even the best passive direct box has an input impedance far below optimum for a piezo pickup. You need something like a Countryman Type 85 direct box, which has a buffered input with a 10 meg ohm input impedance. If you have one, you can also use an fdeck HPF-Pre as a buffer before a passive direct box. (bass pickup > hpf-pre > passive di and your stage amp).

I personally don't like to give a soundperson a direct out from my pickup. I've had far better results by micing the bass with something like an AMT or DPA microphone or micing the amp.*

*I was very reluctant to mic the amp the first time I tried this, but it can work great, and is much better than giving the soundperson a direct out from the pickup IMO. A Shure Beta 52 works well for this, and is pretty common for many sound companies.

 

[Bobby Scharmann]

Nice, that helps. The Countryman definitely seems like the DI of choice, clearly for a reason. I have always had a good experience with them. Being an active DI, it requires phantom power, right?

Mic'ing the bass is always my favorite option, but inexperienced soundguys always want to go direct because it's all they know. Maybe I will try to ask for a mic'ed option next time.

 

[robgrow]

The Countryman 85 has been an industry standard for many years. They sound great and are very high quality and very rugged. They will run on phantom power or optionally an internal 9 volt battery.

 

[Jay Corwin]

A quality preamp designed for piezos will typically have a DI to send to the soundboard, and a separate 1/4" to send to your amp our whatever you use for on stage monitoring. Thus you'll be sending the same signal to the house that you send to your amp, and it'll be EQ'd to your liking rather than an improperly buffered signal going to both.