Double Bass Mixing multiple instruments into one amp

[bopeuph]

Last night, I played a high profile gig with upright, electric, and tuba. Switching cables was bad enough, but having the tuba go direct into the house was annoying to not have it come out of my amp. I was previously thinking about a Tonebone piece, but someone has told me that I'm better off keeping my FDeck instead of going for something like that.

I've been debating on using a standard tabletop mixer for my instruments, with the FDeck in the signal chain. The sound guy can also keep me in one channel on all instruments if he's limited on channels. I could run a wireless mic from the tuba into the mixer, and have everything come out the DI.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[chuck3]

I use the Radial PZ-Pre for two instruments and it works great. For your upright and electric, you might look at the new Bassbone OD, as I think the two channels are oriented one for piezo, the other for magnetic. Personally, I'd use that for the two basses and keep the tuba on the FOH on a separate line - that's such a different proposition.

But if you want to run all three through one piece, I'd recommend the Yamaha MG82CX, which comes with a mic stand adapter so you can use a disc-base mic stand, put the mixer on it and forget about the "tabletop." I'm not sure how that would sound with everything coming out through the DI, however. Not that it wouldn't work - just that I've never tried that.

 

[bopeuph]

I use the Radial PZ-Pre for two instruments and it works great. For your upright and electric, you might look at the new Bassbone OD, as I think the two channels are oriented one for piezo, the other for magnetic. Personally, I'd use that for the two basses and keep the tuba on the FOH on a separate line - that's such a different proposition.

But if you want to run all three through one piece, I'd recommend the Yamaha MG82CX, which comes with a mic stand adapter so you can use a disc-base mic stand, put the mixer on it and forget about the "tabletop." I'm not sure how that would sound with everything coming out through the DI, however. Not that it wouldn't work - just that I've never tried that.

Thanks. I was thinking about this, but I've been told the FDeck comes out still sounding better by some other guys, and I'm loathe to spend $300.

Instead of a mic stand, I'm about to grab up a wireless SM58 fastened inside. This is the rig used in one of the bands I sub in at Disney, and it sounds great...I didn't even know the mic was in the bell when I was studying the band for a few months! It solves all the issues of both the mic stand (I'm tall and stand usually when playing, so the stand won't reach that high) and the clip-on variety (can't rest the horn on its bell, and too many ways the mic can be bumped, not to mention that the mic would only reach just over the lip of the bell).

I was thinking a simple multi-channel mixer with a basic EQ would do a good job; I only use my amp these days for stage monitoring. When it's taking on most of the sound, I'm only using a single instrument 99% of the time. The bigger jobs would likely have a separate DI for each instrument, or one straight out of the mixer should work, too...and it looks like a 6-channel mixer can be found used for dirt cheap.