Mic preamp with Sousa/amp?

[JamesDC]

Hi. I was playing a festival with great sound guys, hit my envelope/ fuzz pedal and my levels dropped like crazy. I had zero monitor mix because I was so full in FOH I didn't need any, then suddenly I disappeared onstage. I could hear it through house sound- but even there It had thinned a good bit.
When I asked the sound guy,how to fix it - he suggested that a mic preamp would help not only with maintaining,my levels, but also in widening the number of settings I could use on my pedals - which, with a horn seem to work within a much narrower range.

Thoughts on this? Reccomendations? Though this gig was back lined, and I don't usually experience this level of signal loss in my regular club gigs. I'd really like to improve the response of my effects pedals.
I'm running a Shure 57beta to genz benz amp/epifani cab

Thanks

 

[JamesDC]

Oh. I forgot to mention - this is for a sousaphone, not a string bass.

 

[walterw]

so it's mic into a low to high Z adapter thingy into the pedals and then the bass amp?

yeah, that pedal isn't liking the mic. you need a little notebook mixer, like a $100 mackie 2-channel or something. run the mic straight into the mixer channel's XLR in (that's your mic preamp) then from there into the pedals.

if you go out of an aux to the pedals, then back into the mixer, then send the mixer's main out on to the house and your amp, then you can mix your pedals in with your dry signal, which won't change. that's what you want for delays and such.

if you want to only hear the signal the pedals make when you kick them on, then run the mixer's main out through the pedals and on out to the amp and the house.

(oh, and i'm talking like this is no big deal, but i never heard of tubas into bass amps until i read about it right here on TB a few months back )

 

[JamesDC]

Thanks! That's what my accordian guy does, and had been suggested before. I do run it straight through. Compression, then filter, then fuzz then amp- was using the effects loop but lost a channel and haven't had it fixed, I like the sounds I get - but like I said the pallet is more limited, for example on the filter between 11-2 oclock is really the only workable range and on some knobs is have to keep it jacked all the way up or down to one side. Fuzz is ridonkulous - the feed back is crazy cool. But unusable. For what I'm doing. So, same situation. Compression helps.

Here is my sound just through the amp pretty light on effects mostly.


http://blackmasala.bandcamp.com

 

[walterw]

Here is my sound just through the amp pretty light on effects mostly.


http://blackmasala.bandcamp.com

OK that's awesome. so it was mic'ed into your bass amp, then what, amp DI into the recorder? the result is a lot less "low brass" and a lot more "fuzzy bass guitar".

all your effects sound like gain and EQ types, so you'd want them series (so the entire signal goes through the pedals); that means pedals between the little mixer and the amp (keep the mixer's output low to not clip the pedal inputs, and bring the gain back at the amp) or get the amp's effects loop fixed and put the pedals in there.

 

[JamesDC]

Thanks again. Even more helpful. Looking now. Yeah- I go for a guitar sound most of the time then do acoustic overblown Sousa for in audience parts of the show.