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Double Bass Headway EDB1 preamp

#221
Uncletoad said:
It took some fiddling but I do my gain staging like this:

(in clock positions)Headway input gain from the full circle around 9, output gain around noon or slightly less, Focus fx loop return either all the way out or back at 3, then master volume lives somewhere between 9 and noon depending on how loud I get.

The realist takes the input gain on the Headway up to around 11.

Seems like the headway front end is pretty hot so higher input gains lead to distortion down the line later. I tend to bring up the input gain on the Headway if I'm using any cutting with the headway EQ and down if I'm boosting.
Click to expand...


Just like the Uncle said. I have the EDB1 line from 9 to 12 then the master at noon and the Focus at 9 to 10 depending on the room (FX up all the way)
BTW I've been using 2 wizzy 10s for everything including small gigs...having this set up turned way down low (9 on the focus or just below for trio gigs) sounds fantastic, ballsy, acoustic, and makes for great monitoring of my sound. I have been using a mic blended in for sometime now, the EDB1 makes blending a mic into an amp not only possible but workable in all the different small and midsize rooms I play in....And in a big room with house sound I always can get a really good sound.
 
#222
Thanks Toad and Flatback. One more question: my pickup (Bassbalsereit) needs the Headway's XLR input with phantom power, so if I want to use a mic as well, it would have to run directly into one of the Focus channels with power from the Focus. Is there any problem in doing that? The two signals would not be blended by the Headway, but one is through the Focus preamp and the other through the Headway.
 
#223
William Hoffman said:
Thanks Toad and Flatback. One more question: my pickup (Bassbalsereit) needs the Headway's XLR input with phantom power, so if I want to use a mic as well, it would have to run directly into one of the Focus channels with power from the Focus. Is there any problem in doing that? The two signals would not be blended by the Headway, but one is through the Focus preamp and the other through the Headway.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with doing that. I'd use a different channel than I was running the Headway into.
 
#225
the Headway is a brilliant little piece of HiFi if used as directed tho...
blending the mic and pickup signal and eq ing them together, just works really well while reducing the complexity. I can plug into an amp, someone else's amp,
a powered speaker or the house and easily get that same sound.And almost always with enough mic to make me feel good.
 
#226
Uncletoad said:
It took some fiddling but I do my gain staging like this:

(in clock positions)Headway input gain from the full circle around 9, output gain around noon or slightly less, Focus fx loop return either all the way out or back at 3, then master volume lives somewhere between 9 and noon depending on how loud I get.

The realist takes the input gain on the Headway up to around 11.

Seems like the headway front end is pretty hot so higher input gains lead to distortion down the line later. I tend to bring up the input gain on the Headway if I'm using any cutting with the headway EQ and down if I'm boosting.
Click to expand...

Just fiddling with the EDB1 today. Yep, about 8 or 9 o'clock on the input gain, between noon and 1 or 2 on the output, effects wide open and master on the amp at about 11 or noon. Tried this on the Doubler and the Focus.

With the Ehrlund into Ch 1 of the EDB1 and into the Doubler Ch 1 with the Ten2Ex, gut strings sounded fuller, punchier, and louder with this rig than with the Ehrlund preamp. The Headway's EQ is so rich and variable, you can compensate for the tonal bent of the given amp or box.

A/B'd that with the Focus (everything else the same), which has more power and required less volume on the input gain. The AI Head has more power and lower frequencies, but again with EQ'ing on the Headway, the sound is close.

Not sure I like the Bass-Guitar-Violin HP Filter approach of the EDB1 and much prefer what Rick has done with the AI Head HPF. But all in all, this little box is worth every penny of the 187££ + VAT. I can see why so many here on TB were raving about it.

Thanks for the help.

flatback said:
Just like the Uncle said. I have the EDB1 line from 9 to 12 then the master at noon and the Focus at 9 to 10 depending on the room (FX up all the way)
BTW I've been using 2 wizzy 10s for everything including small gigs...having this set up turned way down low (9 on the focus or just below for trio gigs) sounds fantastic, ballsy, acoustic, and makes for great monitoring of my sound. I have been using a mic blended in for sometime now, the EDB1 makes blending a mic into an amp not only possible but workable in all the different small and midsize rooms I play in....And in a big room with house sound I always can get a really good sound.
Click to expand...

+1 and you can dial in the sound you like regardless of which head or box you're using. you aren't tied to the sound of a Wizzy or Ten2Ex or Focus or Doubler.
 
#227
William Hoffman said:
J
Not sure I like the Bass-Guitar-Violin HP Filter approach of the EDB1 and much prefer what Rick has done with the AI Head HPF.
Click to expand...
Absolutely.

On my dream box I'd probably loose the notch and the midrange knobs and replace them with two filters having a full parametric structure while I was at it.
 
#229
Played my bass with an AMT mic/Realist through my EDB1 into a QSC K8 today and was pretty impressed with the clarity and general wump. I think a K10 would be a better choice but this little set up worked very well for a personal monitor. I preferred the mic alone in general and was particularly surprised by the natural sound I was getting out of the bass. I wouldn't call it stupid-loud but loud enough for me to not want to play any louder. I'm leaning heavily towards this direction for my rig for now. For $569 I think it will serve me very well for the time being and the type of work I do.
 
#230
I think I read somewhere in this thread about some people having trouble setting the EDB-1's gain in Channel 1 low enough to use with their pickups. Soon after getting the EDB-1, I started experiencing clipping with my Realist through it. I contacted John Littler at Headway and he offered to lower the amount of gain offered through that channel. I was concerned about using a different pickup in the future. Flash forward a couple weeks and I got an email from John today. He said he was told at a recent convention that several other companies have received complaints about too much output from the Realist overloading their products. He also said David Gage is offering an attenuated version of the Realist.

Not sure where I'm going from here. Maybe I'll have my Headway attenuated and have to push the gain a little harder to use other pickups with it, or purchase the attenuated Realist. It seems like it would be more expensive to buy a new Realist, and it would require more preamp to use it when going straight into an amplifier.

I figured this might help some people who have posted here.
 
#232
James Gibson said:
I think I read somewhere in this thread about some people having trouble setting the EDB-1's gain in Channel 1 low enough to use with their pickups. Soon after getting the EDB-1, I started experiencing clipping with my Realist through it. I contacted John Littler at Headway and he offered to lower the amount of gain offered through that channel. I was concerned about using a different pickup in the future. Flash forward a couple weeks and I got an email from John today. He said he was told at a recent convention that several other companies have received complaints about too much output from the Realist overloading their products. He also said David Gage is offering an attenuated version of the Realist.

Not sure where I'm going from here. Maybe I'll have my Headway attenuated and have to push the gain a little harder to use other pickups with it, or purchase the attenuated Realist. It seems like it would be more expensive to buy a new Realist, and it would require more preamp to use it when going straight into an amplifier.

I figured this might help some people who have posted here.
Click to expand...


yes, some pickups are just too hot for the EDB1. I'm currently working on changing the gain of my EDB1's input. If it turns out to work, I will offer this modification to others, too.
 
#234
I wonder if the Schatten RB-1 and some other of their double bass pickups would also be OK for most amps but too hot for the Headway pre-amp.
From the Schatten tech sheet.....

"The impedance of a non-preamped piezo (Schatten) is normally in the 5 to 10 mega ohm range and while this impedance is
considerably higher than most electric guitar amps regularly deal with, these amps will almost without exception handle the piezo without issue."

The Realist has a 10 meg output.
 
#236
I use my Headway mainly for my DPA4099 going into a powered speaker and it works very well. I put just a small amount of pickup bleed from an Underwood into channel 1. It doesn't need to be turned up much and I would have liked to be able to use the whole rotation of the gain control rather than be confined to barely a quadrant. It's not a show stopper, though. Just a tad inconvenient. I hope one day to have the confidence and go mic only. Matter of time.
 
#238
Roger, what gain settings are you using on your headway with the DPA? Seems like I really have to crank it up to the point of it being really hissy before any usable level comes through. The DPA works like a charm when powered by my AI Coda III, just don't like the preamp on the AI as much.
 
#239
macrotone said:
Roger, what gain settings are you using on your headway with the DPA? Seems like I really have to crank it up to the point of it being really hissy before any usable level comes through. The DPA works like a charm when powered by my AI Coda III, just don't like the preamp on the AI as much.
Click to expand...

I'm using the QSC at about two or three clicks and the Headway at 3 o'clock master and mic channel gain. Whether I should back these off a bit and crank up the QSC I'm not too sure. I am trying wherever possible to do away with the filter as it seems to muffle the signal. Last night on a boomy gig I put the QSC slider to 'external woofer' or whatever it's called - meaning I had a lot of bass cut.
 
#240
jonas said:
yes, some pickups are just too hot for the EDB1. I'm currently working on changing the gain of my EDB1's input. If it turns out to work, I will offer this modification to others, too.
Click to expand...

I'm curious as to how this turned out. When I'm just using a pickup, I don't have any trouble getting a good sound. But when I'm using a mic and a pickup and trying to blend, if i turn up the pickup channel past "1", it kind of blots out the mic signal even when it's turned up substantially higher. It would be nice to be able to attenuate channel 1, especially as I'm thinking about the possibility of blending again at some point.
 

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