Double Bass ignorant newbie in need of advice, explained without big words!

[benny802]

Hey all, new to the forum. I have been playing upright for about 6 years now, and I play out in a couple of bands, a bluegrassy one and an americana/jug/honky-tonk one. I am trying to teach myself about the process of amplification. I currently have a K&K bassmax pickup, and I go back and forth between going into my old Fender BX100 bass amp and going from my pickup right into a PA head. most times I play out, we are at small gigs doing our own sound. I am looking for advice on making my live sound better. I have almost never been completely satisfied with the sound I get. I guess there is probably no way to recreate exactly what I hear when I play acoustically, but I would like to capture it as close as possible. I feel like the sound is always too boomy, and too much bottom end sound, and doesn't capture the tone I want. the one time I was really satisfied with a recording of my bass was through an expensive condenser mic, and because of the different types of venues I play at, that is usually not an option because of feedback issues. I have been told by people that I should get a good DI box and then go into the PA head with that.
here is my real issue... I am incredibly ignorant about all of this. I have looked around these and other forums, and I always get lost by all of the technical terms that are over my head. I would appreciate any advice on how to get better sound that is explained in terms that a 5 year old could understand. I don't have a lot of money to spend on gear, but a decent DI box could be a good investment, right? thanks in advance for any tips.

 

[GrowlerBox]

Hi, Benny, and welcome!

Just an opinion, of course, but the Fishman Platinum-Pro EQ Bass would probably work well for you. Affordable and useful features for your application. Check out Gollihur's website for more details and good pricing/service (I have no affiliation, I'm not even in the same country, but I am a very satisfied repeat customer).

 

[benny802]

thanks for the advice. the fishman is one that I looked at. any other advice, or things I should know about?

 

[drurb]

...I guess there is probably no way to recreate exactly what I hear when I play acoustically, but I would like to capture it as close as possible.... I would appreciate any advice on how to get better sound that is explained in terms that a 5 year old could understand.

Welcome to the club and to TB, Benny. Many of us view amplification as a necessary evil. The holy grail is that the sound be "my bass but bigger."

As for explaining how to go about this in terms a five-year-old could understand, that could be done but it would require pages and pages and pages of text. I've added posts here over the years in which I've tried to explain many of the fundamentals in clear, straightforward terms. Whether I've been successful is up to you and others to judge. The search function is your friend here. I suggest that you pour a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and have at it.

So, meet me (us) half way. There's really no way to have a good understanding of sound reinforcement and to efficiently achieve success without a willingness to learn about how it works.

So with that preamble, I'll try to summarize the basics as I see them:

It starts with the transducer, that is, the pickup (pup) or mic. No one pup works well for everyone and every bass. Still, there are some clear winners around here among players: Realist, Full Circle, Rev Solo, Ehrlund, etc. I suggest that you read about them. IMO, the what the BassMax affords in terms of convenience, it denies in terms of quality of sound. Boomy, mid-range heavy, and makes a DB sound like a giant BG. That's been my experience and it seems to square with yours.

Next is how the transducer is loaded. In five-year-old terms, what you plug it into. If the pup is a piezo transducer, as many (most?) are, it will like to "see" what's called a high impedance in order for it to yield a good low-end (bass) response (sound). Good pre-amps (Fishman, fdeck's device) will provide the impedance (1 Mohm, 10 Mohm) that the pizeo wants to see. The inputs to some amps will provide this too but pre-amps also provide other features that can be very useful, such as high-pass filtering (gets rid of some low frequencies that you don't want and can cause havoc-- search here for "infrasonics") and some tone-shaping (adjustable increase or decrease of various frequencies).

Next comes the amp itself. Oh my goodness, so much to consider! Tone-shaping (again), input-output features, and the main topic-- how much power? Search here on "think SPL, not watts". In short, what matters is how much power ends up coming out of the speaker, not the wattage rating of the amplifier. No way around it, you just gotta learn the basics. One aspect not often discussed is "voicing." Does the amp treat all frequencies equally (unvoiced) or has the manufacturer built in a certain default tone-shaping by emphasizing certain frequencies over others (voicing)?

Then there's the speaker cabinet (the cab). How efficient is it? That is, how much power does it require to achieve a given output power (in five-year-old terms, how much has to go in so that you can get a certain amount out). This is part of "think SPL, not watts. Yeah, you have to search and read about that one! How is the cab voiced? How much power can it handle and put out at its limits? Does it have a solid low-end? HOW DOES IT SOUND?

Just as with pups, favorite amps and cabs for DB that have been used for countless hours by real players are discussed here regularly. The treasure-trove of experience related in these threads can save you a huge amount of time and $$$, but... you gotta invest some time of your own. Sure, I could tell you exactly what I think you should go and buy and you'd probably be happy. I wouldn't likely nail YOUR preferences on the head, though and you'd have no basis to modify and change your rig.

I'm sure I've missed (and I've deliberately left out) some important aspects but I think I've gone on long enough. The bottom line: start reading here and many good folks will help to guide you.

 

[benny802]

thanks for the tips, and for the 5 year old lingo! I understand a few of these concepts... but one time when I read about what DI boxes do, I got lost in the explanation. I have a hard time understanding things that I can't see or put my hands on (like electricity).
thanks again, and I will start my research. I will try to keep ya'll updated on what I come up with!