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Double Bass Good little practice/support amp

Chef

Chef

In Memoriam
May 23, 2004
41,814
18,945
65
Columbia MO
Disclosures
Staff Reviewer; Bass Gear Magazine
#1
I need a good little practice/support amp. Something smaller than my swr redhead. Like a roland cube, or ibanez sw35, peavey microbass...It wouldn't hurt my feelings to have it cost less than $200:) It just needs to provide some fill to round out my sound as I play with a piano/sax/guitar/and upright jazz combo once a week...Thanks for thoughts, Alan
 
#3
Chef said:
I need a good little practice/support amp. Something smaller than my swr redhead. Like a roland cube, or ibanez sw35, peavey microbass...It wouldn't hurt my feelings to have it cost less than $200:) It just needs to provide some fill to round out my sound as I play with a piano/sax/guitar/and upright jazz combo once a week...Thanks for thoughts, Alan
Click to expand...
The Roland Cube seems a good idea!
Also, SWR WM10 or WM12.
Playing acoustic only with piano and sax seems too much IMHO.
There's no way someone can play relax in such situation, unless you put yourself right in the room's corner, to get the most of the natural room's acoustics. (but it may end up very boomy)
 
#4
I play in a Jazz trio(guitar/bass/drums) a few times a week, and I can get away with playing my Juzek acoustic. However, if we are out in the sun, I use my plywood bass(pretty dead sounding). I use a Realist through a Roland Cube 30 and it sounds great. Really full sounding with good clarity.
 
#5
I play acoustically almost all of the time, with everything from a voice/bass duo up to quintet/quartet. Played with an 11 piece band the other night (20's stuff) and had no problem at all. It does depend a bit on the band and certainly the room to some extent. Trust me, I'm not religious about the amp thing, but a drummerless quartet is very do-able...
 
#6
I guess I should also add I'd be playing the King DB pictured in my avatar. Having never played anything else, I dunno how loud it is compared to other plywood basses...Also, I'm sure my right hand technique is not all it could be:)
Or left hand either...heck, I'm just a hack really, but I really enjoy it! I just want something to help me out a little...
 
#7
I haven't heard the bass either, so you'll have to make your own judgement.

It takes a while to develop your sound on the big fiddle -- both in tone and volume. Unless the bass is particulary low in volume, you should be able to keep up ok after time.

Try to get your back to a hard wall or in a corner to help get all of your sound going where it's supposed to go. Bass frequencies tend to be omni-directional, and it seems that about half of the sound (the nicer half) comes off the back of the bass. You also have to learn to tune into your sound. Remember that you're standing in the worst spot in the room to hear yourself -- the body of the bass is below you and in front of you, plus it takes some distance for the whole sound the actually develop -- those dang bass frequencies are LONG. Coming from Slab and having the amp behind you, you are accustomed to hearing your sound much more directly that you're going to get acoustically.

I've also found the playing the bass high on the endpin helps get you ear closer to the bass. This I discovered when I started getting more serious with the bow as I had to raise the bass to get in good body position. You can also try playing on a stool, which will get your head up and over the top of the bass a little better.

If you keep trying, you'll eventually learn how to coax the sound out.
 
#8
Tried the swr "strawberry blonde" acoustic series amp today with my upright, and bought it. 80 watts, 12ax7 tube powered preamp, 1x10" speaker, and a switchable tweeter (off, -6db, and full on), and I thought it was very nice. Clean, maintained the acoustic sound of my bass, and I can mix the fingerboard element of the k&k pickup in or out (along with the bridge twin transducer) to provide either a nice fat warm tone, or a little more "fingers and wood" sound.
(and yeah, I can hear you purist's scoffing at a painted db having tone, but my luthier likes it enough I think he's going to sell his 50's Kay and buy one-I can hear some of you scoffing at Kay's too, and that's cool!)
I'm pretty happy, and I think it will serve me well. I passed on the swr baby blue II 2x8 (the master Chris loves a lot) that's on ebay as the seller seemed a squirrel, and I got the swr blonde for the same price new...So there ya go...
 
#10
Exactly. Last time we played my Thursday night quartet job, I had a db freind of mine play for me for one song, and it was just a little hard to hear my db over the crowd and the piano. I just want a little support...

It's the first amp I've ever had that I could carry with one hand...
 

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