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Double Bass Juilliard Jazz & The No-Amp

#81
Some chest-thumping, if allowed:

I played for the past two weekends in a local production of "My Way," a cavalcade of Sinatra numbers. Onstage trio plus four singers. I brought my Contra, but the soundman preferred running direct from my Full Circle and gave me a monitor. This was in a 400-seat theater.

During the intermission, the soundman told me my bass was too loud. I shrugged and said, "Alright, turn me down. I'm okay with that." He said, "You don't understand -- your slider is all the way down. You just need to lay back."

Yep.
 
#82
Mike Goodbar said:
Some chest-thumping, if allowed:

I played for the past two weekends in a local production of "My Way," a cavalcade of Sinatra numbers. Onstage trio plus four singers. I brought my Contra, but the soundman preferred running direct from my Full Circle and gave me a monitor. This was in a 400-seat theater.

During the intermission, the soundman told me my bass was too loud. I shrugged and said, "Alright, turn me down. I'm okay with that." He said, "You don't understand -- your slider is all the way down. You just need to lay back."

Yep.
Click to expand...

Classic
 
#83
MIKE LOUDBASS said:
Some chest-thumping, if allowed:

I played for the past two weekends in a local production of "My Way," a cavalcade of Sinatra numbers. Onstage trio plus four singers. I brought my Contra, but the soundman preferred running direct from my Full Circle and gave me a monitor. This was in a 400-seat theater.

During the intermission, the soundman told me my bass was too loud. I shrugged and said, "Alright, turn me down. I'm okay with that." He said, "You don't understand -- your slider is all the way down. You just need to lay back."

Yep.
Click to expand...



Bass player machismo: you get an ego boost when someone wants to hear less of what you're doing. :D
 
#85
Maybe it's because I've been so busy lately--3 to 5 rehearsals or gigs a week, part-time job, relationship, teaching lessons, housework, and hobbies--but I've been trying to pare down my DB rig to bare essentials for a minimum schlep factor. In many situations I'm getting away with playing unamplified and really liking it.

On Saturday I played a recording session at a friend's house. It was a quartet--acoustic drums and piano plus electric guitar--playing jazz and Latin standards in a wood-floored living room. I never felt like I was being drowned out, and at the end of the session the drummer was surprised that I hadn't used an amp--he said he could hear everything I played. To his credit, he was playing tastefully and dynamically on a small, well-tuned Tama kit, and listening.

Later that I night I played at a large art gallery in a with a keyboardist. We played Brazilian and Afro-Cuban jazz and people said they could clearly hear the bass throughout the gallery. Granted, we were playing at GB-approved background volume but my acoustic volume was sufficient.

It helps that my bass, a New Standard Cleveland, is the best-sounding laminate I've heard. The strings I have on it now, Innovation Honeys, don't have a whole lot of growl or sustain, but they do project a strong, gut-like fundamental that my fellow musicians enjoy.

I'm interested in hearing people's experiences with acoustic projection in different settings. Last month I had the opportunity to hear a lot of DB players busking acoustically, outdoors, at the Oregon Country Fair. I noticed that you don't really start to get the full tone of the instrument until you're about 20 feet away. I also observed that the basses seemed louder when I was about 45 degrees off axis, or even directly to the side, than when I was standing an equal distance away from the front of the bass.

Additionally, I noticed that the tone I heard standing 20 feet directly behind the bassist was about as loud and full as the tone from 20 feet out front. I know that low frequencies are essentially omnidirectional at distances shorter than the wavelength, but it was cool to notice this in action, and it gave me an appreciation for the role that the back and ribs play in the production of sound.

Note: I'm not claiming that my observations are scientific or the gospel truth--they're just some things that I noticed, having had the opportunity to hear various players on different instruments, in a fully acoustic environment with no reinforcement from reflective surfaces other than the ground.
 
#86
Wins a ton:
I noticed exactly the same, when I was playing in folk music fest a couple of weeks ago. It´s not new to me, I´ve been there before, but it´s always surprising.
One example: I was listening to a very nice American folk band called White Water, they had a very good bass player, a young guy who played awesome stuff with the bow. The band was playing acoustic, just busking between gigs, in a kind of a corner. I enjoyed the the guy´s bass playing, he was happily sawing away, but in the same time I was wondering why his sound was so thin and weak. I was standing right in the front of the band, about 10 feet away.
Then I had to move on to my own gig. I walked to the side to go around the band, and suddenly all I could hear was this
H U G E bass sound....
Either it was the space, or the bass, but all the sound went directly to the side, and was at the loudest when I stood about 20-25 feet away.

R2
 
#87
I've made a funny experience tonight. I was playing at a private birthday party. We played as a duo guitar/bass, and as we were playing in an appartment, we only used very little amplification. Even when playing at very low volume, I usually prefer to have some sound from the amp. It's much easier to play when you get supported by some fundamental bass from the amp, I always thought. During the break before the last set, I switched off my amp, and used the 220V socket to charge my cellphone. After having finished the last set, I noticed that I have forgotten to switch the amp on again ... I was playing the whole set without even thinking of the amp. I haven't missed anything. I think I should have dared to play without amp earlier ;-)
 
#88
I for one enjoy not only being able to hear the bass when I go see a show, but I want to hear it loud, be able to hear all the notes, and hear the tone of the instrument. I've been to shows where the bassist didn't have an amp, or was just using a mic, and most of the time I could hear it, but if they had been using a pickup, I would have heard them better. Sure, it's often possible to get by without an amp, but I think most of the time it wouldn't be as good as playing with an amp. If playing with an amp will do as much as help the people sitting way in the back hear you a little better, then I believe it makes more sense than playing unamped.
 
#89
Went to play my trio gig last night and, it being labor day, there were hardly any patrons there! Also, the pianist showed up without any outboard amplifier (the club's piano is an electronic piano with an onboard amp/speaker). Thus, I figured it was as good a time as any to go without an amp. I've been raising the strings on my bass steadily over the last few months anyway and getting alot more acoustic volume than I've had in the past, which gave me some confidence to go for it.

I don't think I could have gotten away with it if the room was full of jabbering peope, or if I'd had an amplified guitarist or horn player to back up.

However, I had more fun playing my bass than I think I ever have. I've never felt a more personal connection with my instrument and then sound that was coming out of it. What's even better, I felt comfortable playing TONS of arco, which I never have through my amplifier!

More than anything, I think you've got to approach note selection and rhythm a little differently when you don't have an amp. You need to learn to utilize the "big notes" on your bass when you have to, and emphasize the registers your bass "sings" in acoustically when you're soloing.

The truly addictive thing, though, is being able to go arco without messing with your amp (I bow on spirocores, so some EQ shuffling is usually necessary when I'm bowing amplified).

I woke up this morning wishing I had a hella-loud 7/8 bass that would allow me to go unamplified more often.

My .02 on the matter. Try it!
 
#90
I woke up this morning thanking that I have a huge sounding 7/8ths that allows me to play acoustic! It makes so much of a difference. Playing acoustic really affects the way the other musicians sound around you. You have to change the way you approach the instrument like you said as well. Your sound has to be "big" so you need to choose notes and place them where they will have the biggest impact. Every note counts. It really is a great experience.
 
#91
You bastard! :D

My bass speaks ultra quickly and puts out a bunch of sound for its size and depth. However, I just can't allege that it's a big cannon of a bass.

I concur, playing acoustic is just a more intimate experience for both you and the rest of the musicians.
 
#92
I just finished a week in a dance troupe show where I had to play acoustic the whole run. It was with tap dancers so they had two mikes on the floors for the taps but wanted absolutely no amplification or miking of the band (trumpet, tenor sax, upright, drums). It was a good experience to generate all the sound against six tappers and a quartet but it worked and people said the band was very balanced soundwise. Again, the sensitivity of the other musicians is the key. I had no trouble being heard but I did dig in a lot more. It also helped that the theatre was not huge and had lots of wood and a very warm sound by itself. I really enjoyed that room.
 

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