Hey guys. Does anyone know if Lee Rocker used a clicky pick up and a preamp. From what I understand he used a magnetic pick up and steel strings to slap but what else. Apologies if this has been covered before.
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Double Bass Lee Rockers gear
- Thread starter Slaphound
- Start date
Sorry, can't answer your specific questions. My band opened for The Stray Cats back in the 90's. They were the best sounding 3 pc band I'd heard. Lee Rocker was as nice as could be and showed me his custom doghouses [been too long to remember any of the components]. I was a fan before meeting him and bigger fan after.
We opened for Big Blue in the late 90’s and he was using a magnetic pickup that looked like a tall P-bass staggered pickup with Jargar strings. He was slapping the hell out of steel strings and told me that a magnetic pickup was the only way to go for no feedback. He was using an Ampeg SVT 410 cabinet with a newer SVT head.
He was so cool and we ended up hanging out with him and the band at our hotel later that evening. They partied hard!
He was so cool and we ended up hanging out with him and the band at our hotel later that evening. They partied hard!
I think he's using guts now.
It's worth checking out his Instagram page and checking out the photos he's posting.
Looks lkike he's playing a chadwick on most of his solo gigs. Blast Cult on the Stray Cat gigs
It's worth checking out his Instagram page and checking out the photos he's posting.
Looks lkike he's playing a chadwick on most of his solo gigs. Blast Cult on the Stray Cat gigs
Hey Keith. Do you know if he was using a clicky pickup and a preamp too? I am working towards a magnetic pickup and steel strings for volume. I want to hear myself better and I don't know if I'm going to continue to use a preamp and clicky pickup as I am now.
Recently, many folks I hear from are saying their bridge wing pickup picks up their slap too (at least with Vic's). That means they don't have to have a blending pre-amp. When I blend my wing and fingerboard with my pre-amp, the fingerboard side doesn't need to be very high a all, like about 1/4 compared to 1/2 on the wing. I know Vic's uses two piezo crystals in each of his pickups, that could be why there's so much headroom.
I'm using the K&K Rockabilly set up. Two pickups wired into one stereo out into the pre. How can I tell if my piezo is right for me? I have it wedged into the bridge with a saxophone reed holding it in tighter. She wouldn't stay otherwise.
Since a sax reed is graduated in thickness, it makes an ideal wedge that you can test with, testing it pressed in at varying depths. The reason to test this is that if piezo pickups are too tight in the bridge wing, it will suppress the piezo crystal vibration, and if they're too loose, the piezo won't have a good connection to the bridge wing. With your sax reeds you can adjust, testing amped, until you get the best tone and volume that you can get. Do take care not to make it too tight -- piezo crystals can crack, rendering them un-usable...
Then, assuming these are old reeds or reeds that you can dedicate for this task, you can simply cut off the material that extends beyond the pickup and the bridge wing.
Overall, knowing your "piezo is right for you" is very subjective and it's going to be difficult to know for yourself without testing a huge number of pickup options -- this is a rabbit hole, after all. But especially if you're after "crazy high" volume, you may encounter feedback depending on your DB acoustics, venue accoustics, other instruments involved, and the type and position of your amp. Most piezos are similar in that they contribute an electric tone to the instrument, but compared to mics they are much less prone to feedback. Mics on the other hand capture the real tone of your instrument, but they are very prone to feedback especially at high volume.
I'm using the K&K Dual Channel Pro ST which is almost identical to your Rockabilly. And I'm using a Vic's model C bridge wing/fingerboard stereo setup, so like you I'm blending a stereo signal into a mono output.
I'd suggest setting the Rockabilly's internal EQ pots to flat, or perhaps like me, flat-high to get as much headroom as possible, and then controlling your actual EQ at your amp where it's easier to get to. I also have my internal gain pots set to between 15% and 20% each, you can try different as you like. For me, I have set these pots once and have never re-visited them, again, controlling those items completely at the amp...
What I control at the pre-amp is channel blending and overall volume; it keeps things simple and I have exactly the level of control I need on the fly.
I also have a mounted dynamic mic on my DB, a Sennheiser e604, which provides a clear feed either to my amp or to an FOH, and works very nicely for more volume sensitive situations where real tone is a concern. It is a completely separate system and can be used at the same time as my piezo/pre-amp system or by itself.
Edit: I forgot to mention one other thing... I use wireless TX/RC dongles for all my outbound connections. This makes moving the DB around much much easier. I'd highly recommend this approach to anyone plugging their DB into any kind of sound system.
Then, assuming these are old reeds or reeds that you can dedicate for this task, you can simply cut off the material that extends beyond the pickup and the bridge wing.
Overall, knowing your "piezo is right for you" is very subjective and it's going to be difficult to know for yourself without testing a huge number of pickup options -- this is a rabbit hole, after all. But especially if you're after "crazy high" volume, you may encounter feedback depending on your DB acoustics, venue accoustics, other instruments involved, and the type and position of your amp. Most piezos are similar in that they contribute an electric tone to the instrument, but compared to mics they are much less prone to feedback. Mics on the other hand capture the real tone of your instrument, but they are very prone to feedback especially at high volume.
I'm using the K&K Dual Channel Pro ST which is almost identical to your Rockabilly. And I'm using a Vic's model C bridge wing/fingerboard stereo setup, so like you I'm blending a stereo signal into a mono output.
I'd suggest setting the Rockabilly's internal EQ pots to flat, or perhaps like me, flat-high to get as much headroom as possible, and then controlling your actual EQ at your amp where it's easier to get to. I also have my internal gain pots set to between 15% and 20% each, you can try different as you like. For me, I have set these pots once and have never re-visited them, again, controlling those items completely at the amp...
What I control at the pre-amp is channel blending and overall volume; it keeps things simple and I have exactly the level of control I need on the fly.
I also have a mounted dynamic mic on my DB, a Sennheiser e604, which provides a clear feed either to my amp or to an FOH, and works very nicely for more volume sensitive situations where real tone is a concern. It is a completely separate system and can be used at the same time as my piezo/pre-amp system or by itself.
Edit: I forgot to mention one other thing... I use wireless TX/RC dongles for all my outbound connections. This makes moving the DB around much much easier. I'd highly recommend this approach to anyone plugging their DB into any kind of sound system.
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He did not have a clicky pickup or an external mic on the bass for the slap. He seemed to get a great slap tone and click without any additional help. I did not notice a preamp, but I was kind of star-struck and didn't pay as much attention to that as I probably would have now. He let me check out his bass but I couldn't really play it because he plays with the endpin dropped all the way into the bass because he's smaller in stature. I had to really lean over to even be able to slap the strings.
