Low output on PA'ed Shergold...

[Fassa Albrecht]

Usually when I've played live, I've been amped, so when I went to play at my home church, playing PA'ed was a bit weird. I know close to nothing about PAs.

Anyway, during soundcheck I was just playing solo, with nothing else coming through the speakers but bass, and I noticed that what I could hear sounded really weak in volume. I was at full volume and when I'd asked the bandleader, he wasn't aware of any problem with the PA itself.

When we began to play, the weakness of the sound began to really show. The bandleader couldn't hear me at all when the band (acoustic lead guitar, electric rhythm guitar, bass and drums) began to play properly, despite me being at full volume both on the board and on the bass itself.

Obviously there's something wrong, but I'm at a loss to say what. My bass is stereo with the single stereo output- would that make a difference?

 

[modulusman]

Were you plugged straight into the PA with no DI? What is the PA? Need more info.

 

[Fassa Albrecht]

Were you plugged straight into the PA with no DI? What is the PA? Need more info.

The PA is a 32-track mixer running into two large speakers.

Most of the instruments are DI-ed into the PA through DI boxes, including the drums (a Roland V-Kit with a feed).

 

[modulusman]

What about your bass? Is it plugged into a DI.

 

[TimmyP]

Sounds like an equipment fault, or an error on the part of the PA operator (turn the bass up!).

 

[Munjibunga]

If you have stereo output going into a mono input, you're probably not going to get as much volume, because either the tip or the ring will not be engaging the input jack.

 

[TimmyP]

I missed the stereo. Yes, that's the problem. What you are getting when plugging your stereo-TRS-out bass into a balanced-TRS-in mixer is the two stereo outputs blended with one side polarity reversed. In other words, if the stereo out is the neck pickup on one out, and the bridge pickup on the other out, you are not getting the combination of the two pickups, you are getting only what is different about the sound of the two pickups.

Your options are:

A two channel preamp to blend the stereo to mono;

A cable that is TRS to come out of the bass and dual TS to go into two channels of the mixer;

A standard TS guitar cable, which will give you the sound of one pickup and will short the other output to ground (which may or may not be ok - read the instruction that came with your bass or internal preamp.