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Double Bass Headway EDB1 preamp

#181
geoffbassist said:
Thanks for a great post Roger, really useful review I'm doing a regular residency with the clubs in house mark bass 12" combo. It sounds good but the lack of high pass filter is causing 'boom' problems so I'm looking for a pre to help. My new Bryant bass has a big sound which makes it harder to amplify like your upton. Sounds great though.
Cheers Geoff
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Hi Geoff. Interesting, isn't it, how 'good' basses often seem to give problems with amplification.
 
#182
Roger Davis said:
Hi Geoff. Interesting, isn't it, how 'good' basses often seem to give problems with amplification.
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I'm finding that my amped sound can get really boomy with loads of low end. I tried using the hpf on my clarus today which helped a bit. I might also try some spiros as the evah wiechs are quite dark on this bass.
It's fun having a bass with loads of low end though :-)
 
#184
I have two pickups on my bass (an Underwood and a Full Circle), and I use either depending on the acoustics of where I'll play. Sometimes I would like to mix the signal of the two to try to get a better sound. I plan to buy a pre Headway EDB-1 and I wonder if I could blend the two pickups and get a good result.
Any ideas?
 
#187
Chris--I'm pleased to hear that you're having the same experience that I am with the EDB-1. I find it makes just about any amp sound good with my bass, and I end up playing through a lot of really dilapidated back line bass amps in the U.K. It also makes you sound good through a house system even if the sound guy is only mediocre. It never leaves the pocket on my bass bag!

Erik Hansen
Scotland

P.S.: I also always keep FDeck's pre-amp in the bag as well, and it too comes in handy.
 
#188
Two good posts re 'front end improvements'. Only today I took a Henricksen jazzamp out of the back of my cupboard as I had promised to lend it to a fellow bass player who's GK had to go for a repair. I took it down to the gig for a handover and played it with an FDeck on the front. All the guys in the band (a seven-piece) remarked on how well my bass sounded.
 
#189
The EDB-1 pre sounds great with any pickup. My band has been getting live promo videos together and the latest is here: http://www.vimeo.com/17119610

For the arco section I combine a Vektor pickup and a Fishman Full-Circle with the Headway into channel one of my AI Focus amp. When we start to "rock out" I have a footswitch that brings in the Biesele magnetic pickup (at just 10 - 20% of the volume of the Headway system) that I run in the second channel of the AI for some punch.

As you can hear we play pretty loud and I don't have feedback issues. I probably would if I didn't have the Headway.
 
#190
Rob,

Very nice playing!! Did you write the tune as well? I'm impressed with the volume you're able to get without feeding back. I'm assuming you didn't have to do any other heroic feedback control stuff like taping f-holes and "deadening" every possible element of the bass. The Headway is an incredible piece of gear! Or kit, as they say in Scotland.

Erik Hansen
Edinburgh
 
#191
LowNote said:
Rob,

Very nice playing!! Did you write the tune as well? I'm impressed with the volume you're able to get without feeding back. I'm assuming you didn't have to do any other heroic feedback control stuff like taping f-holes and "deadening" every possible element of the bass. The Headway is an incredible piece of gear! Or kit, as they say in Scotland.

Erik Hansen
Edinburgh
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Thanks Erik. I used to play in a Greek folk band and that melody is a very popular tune in Greece:

One day I was playing the melody during band rehearsal and the singer started to play some chords behind me and he came up with some lyrics over the chord progression. We just melded the two together. Sort of like Sting's song "Russians" where he used the Prokofiev "Lieutenant Kije" melody.

I don't deaden the bass at all. I'm careful about positioning my cab up by my ear (Phil Jones cab behind me in the vid, however I now use a smaller AudioKinesis Thunderchild cab that I like better) and I use an amp head (Acoustic Image) that has a lot of headroom so you don't introduce any distortion.
 
#192
I'm amazed at the wide variety of products carried by internet giant Amazon dot com. Today, I found out the Headway preamp is available through Amazon - apparently via Musicians Friend.
 

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#193
Played another ampless gig with this box last night. Used a Latin Percussion LP592 Drum mic clamp to hook it onto my portable music stand just under the ledge of it where I could get to the knobs easily. Stayed out of my way even with cables in it. Music stand was a nice spot for the bow to live when I wasn't using it too.

pa-dj-tools-microfonos-accesorios-para-micro-latin-percussion-claw-lp592a.jpg

Perfect easy tweaking. Used my Sennheiser mic and a Realist mixed in the headway through a single XLR straight into the PA. Great sound. Really big and natural. Very powerful and woody. Even in the monitor where I eventually had them give me some as the gig got louder the thing sounded great.

Easy hump too. Music stand folds up in one hand, Headway and mic attachment into the bass gig bag with cables. Done.

Nice.
 
#194
Did a gig last night with two different acts in the same room separated by several hours. The first was an acoustic thing with no drummer where I used the Headway and the Realist straight into the PA without any other amp. Sounded great to me where I was standing.

Second act was a mixed set starting with a jazz trio and ending with a blues guitar 4 piece and finally a multi instrument messy jam. I used the VL208/Focus combo for stage monitor and sent the DI out from the Focus to the board.

Soundman loved the Headway, didn't like the Focus in comparison. Though the headway gave lots more transparency and upper end stuff where the Focus was just dark.

That's how it sounded to me too.

Probably time to rethink my amp sound again.
 
#195
Phil, I really dig that method of mounting the Headway on your music stand. I'll keep that in mind if I need to do the same.

I'm doing a big band gig Tuesday and I'll be putting my Realist and Audix D4 through my Headway and sending it to the PA (I know, sounds strange to be doing this on a big band gig, but it don't really pay too well at all, the venue doesn't care a whole bunch about musicians [shocker], and I've used this method with success in large part thanks to my already punchy Kay being made all the punchier w/ some nice guts). I used to just run the house Shure SM58 mic straight to the PA, which was okay, but w/ the Headway/Realist/Audix it's like night and day.
 
#196
Played the first set tonight with the Focus standard setup into the front end of the amp, second set with the Headway into the effects return. The latter was a way better sound. Less veiled more clear. Plenty of low end but more open. Much better. I had previously said it wasn't better than the regular Focus front end. i was wrong about that.
 
#198
clink said:
How does it compare to the little GK?
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Very different. Part is preamp voicing part is the Focus higher power. The GK is very muscular and smooth, more electric bass sounding. The Headway using Focus power is more open, less compressed more "natural"... to a fault perhaps. Sometimes I like the midrange and focus sound that little GK has depending on the tune or the act. I think in a strict Jazz setting or one with the expectation of a "true" acoustic sound the Headway is more authentic.

What I have yet to do is try the GK preamp into the Focus power amp to see what a bit more gas would give me to that sound. Next time round I'll A/B the GK pre with the Headway through that Focus power amp and see what I get.

The revelation for me is that I prefer both the Headway and the little GK preamp tones over the AI front end at this point in my playing days. The darkness of the AI makes playing louder easier but at the expense of some growl and buzz and clank I kind of like from my bass. I'm not playing super loud right now either, no drummers, so that might change my tune whenever I get back into that madness.
 
#200
Uncletoad said:
Played the first set tonight with the Focus standard setup into the front end of the amp, second set with the Headway into the effects return. The latter was a way better sound. Less veiled more clear. Plenty of low end but more open. Much better. I had previously said it wasn't better than the regular Focus front end. i was wrong about that.
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Uncle Toad,
This is also true of the Walter Woods. If you insert the Headway into the return or either of my amps the results are better using the Headway as the actual pre amp. Maybe it's the two class A stages in the Headway, or maybe the Headway just has too much juice when you run it into the input on certain amplifiers.

Ric
 

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