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Double Bass New Acoustic Image 'DOUBLESHOT'
- Thread starter rickwolff
- Start date
This is my impressions using the doubleshot in different situations, and a review of the accessories I got for it.
I got the doubleshot to replace my wizzy 10. At first, I liked the mid-forward sound of the Wizzy because it was so easy to hear my intonation, but that quality eventually started grating on me. Then I bought an upshot. I like the sound and the unique soundstage the upshot delivers, but it is limited in volume. Many of my jobs include drummers, and the upshot did not have enough headroom, or punch to handle those properly. That said, the upshot would be my preferred choice with a piano duo.
The doubleshot seems to be the "sweet spot" of good volume and punch with lovely balanced sound. I have found my replacement for the wizzy 10, and anticipate that I will use it on most of my jobs.
The accessories I bought for it were the Gator 1210 tom bag, and the On Stage RS7500 amp stand. The tom bag fits a little tightly, and could be a bit more padded, but overall works fine. The stand works fine too, but I don't think I will use it much. The speaker is designed to sit on the floor and utilize the bass coupling with the floor, and it adds a lot to the efficiency. When I land on a "stage from hell" I will use the amp stand, but my default will be to place it on the floor.
I have used it with upright/full circle, electric bass, and one job with a latin band where I play upright with a magnetic pickup, and the doubleshot did fine with all.
Best, All Three
I got the doubleshot to replace my wizzy 10. At first, I liked the mid-forward sound of the Wizzy because it was so easy to hear my intonation, but that quality eventually started grating on me. Then I bought an upshot. I like the sound and the unique soundstage the upshot delivers, but it is limited in volume. Many of my jobs include drummers, and the upshot did not have enough headroom, or punch to handle those properly. That said, the upshot would be my preferred choice with a piano duo.
The doubleshot seems to be the "sweet spot" of good volume and punch with lovely balanced sound. I have found my replacement for the wizzy 10, and anticipate that I will use it on most of my jobs.
The accessories I bought for it were the Gator 1210 tom bag, and the On Stage RS7500 amp stand. The tom bag fits a little tightly, and could be a bit more padded, but overall works fine. The stand works fine too, but I don't think I will use it much. The speaker is designed to sit on the floor and utilize the bass coupling with the floor, and it adds a lot to the efficiency. When I land on a "stage from hell" I will use the amp stand, but my default will be to place it on the floor.
I have used it with upright/full circle, electric bass, and one job with a latin band where I play upright with a magnetic pickup, and the doubleshot did fine with all.
Best, All Three
By all accounts and listening to the Double Shot in the audience at the ISB convention in Bloomington, I think it’s a stellar DB cabinet. Floor coupling is a beautiful thing when it works, but that’s not always the case. The distinct advantage of the Double Shot is that it can be elevated without loosing the low end or clarity. That did not work with the Ten2 or Contra. IME
P.S. in addition to this, the "shells" for the Contra and Ten2 are manufactured by a
second party, to Acoustic Image's specifications. They are by no means inexpensive to
fabricate. Rick's been working for a long time to come up with a cabinet that they can built "in house" rathere than outsource.
P.S. in addition to this, the "shells" for the Contra and Ten2 are manufactured by a
second party, to Acoustic Image's specifications. They are by no means inexpensive to
fabricate. Rick's been working for a long time to come up with a cabinet that they can built "in house" rathere than outsource.
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I could be wrong, but the cabinet for the Doubleshot looks an awful lot like a section of Quikrete Quik-Tube / Sonotube. I can even see a helical seam through the Duratex finish. (Photos of assembly in the AI Facebook page seem to hint at this, too.) Not a knock. Just an observation. If that’s the case, it’s actually pretty genius in terms of a novel use of materials.
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yup. there were a few guys around TB that made DIY single cabs (similar to a car 'subwoofer cannon' and the Upshot). Rick saved me the trouble of making my own!
yup. there were a few guys around TB that made DIY single cabs (similar to a car 'subwoofer cannon' and the Upshot). Rick saved me the trouble of making my own!
I think a lot more goes into the Double Shot's build. It's re-enforced with some kind of composite spray, I believe the drivers are custom Eminence's with surrounds teaked to work in that small cabinet,
and the grill mounts look customized as well. So, I'd rather Rick build mine as well.
Does anyone in the general LA area have a doubleshot by chance? I'm very interested in trying one out.
I think the composite enclosures are one of the coolest design elements for AI. They did indeed post a video on Facebook a while back that showed the uncoated double shot tube and talked about coating it to create composite structure. I'm sure it's more than duratex, but the raw tube did indeed appear to be cardboard.
They have to be very special drivers. It's worth emphasizing just how tiny the enclosure is. I estimated that it's only slightly over 0.5 cu. ft. of internal volume, or a quarter cu ft per driver. That's crazy! Most other bass worthy 10 inchers need a cubic foot or more per driver, and I bet they still don't produce as much low end!
Well, I’ve finally had a chance to try out the DoubleShot in a variety of situations: small ensemble jazz (piano/bass, quartet, both on upright), stage musical rehearsals (Newsies, 5-string G&L JB-5 with roundwounds), and 16-piece big band (upright, G&L M2500 5-string with TI flats). I’d been away from the big band for a bit because of conflicts. Finally got back there last week and the power went out 15 minutes into the rehearsal: some idiot had climbed a power transmission tower and was firing off a flare gun from up there. Police wisely got the power utility to shut down the power while they performed an idiot extraction. Ergo, it was last night before I got a good run in on that front. I’ve tried a bunch of configurations on various height stands and on the floor, with and without my Auralex Gramma isolation pad.
What’s the verdict? As we say here in Nova Scotia, I friggin’ love this thing!
It’s a tiny wonder with the upright and gives me the closest I’ve come to MBOL in any kind of a compact rig. With the mid switch in the right mode (I have no idea how to determine which it is), the sound breathes and is responsive to the details of the dynamics in my playing—such as they are. I use Innovation Ultra Blacks on my upright, so I’m going for a certain warm Verve-ish tone and I’ve gotten what I’m looking for along with nice detail in the string attack which the piano player in the duo appreciated. The drummer in the big band loves the Clarus SL/DoubleShot combo: the best, he says, of anything I’ve brought in to rehearsal and that’s saying something. We were doing a Thad Jones/Mel Lewis chart “Big Dipper” last night that has a lot of exposed bass off the top and I was just delighted with the naturalness of the sound.
With the electrics the DoubleShot’s not quite so jaw-dropping but certainly on the right side of very good—and it has no problem dealing with a 5th string. Like with all of AI’s speakers, electric bass sounds a bit characterless but that’s simply due to the absence of the colouration present in most EB speakers. (I’ve not tinkered to see if throwing the mid-range switch will make a difference here.)
Whether with the upright or the electrics I feel that I’m hearing the character of that instrument, surprisingly loud, and with headroom to spare. I’ve yet to get the DoubleShot to fart out with anything I’ve been doing—but there’s always a HPF engaged and there’s been no AC/DC tribute material on the menu.
I’ve found no advantage to having the DoubleShot on a stand over having it sit down low on the Gramma. That pad seems to give me all the floor decoupling I need without losing any low end authority, and I can hear myself just fine in any setting so far. (I’m a little annoyed at now having to carry that thing with me to get the results I want. Ah well...) I’m very happy with having the little rig disappear into the floor.
Bingo!
What’s the verdict? As we say here in Nova Scotia, I friggin’ love this thing!
It’s a tiny wonder with the upright and gives me the closest I’ve come to MBOL in any kind of a compact rig. With the mid switch in the right mode (I have no idea how to determine which it is), the sound breathes and is responsive to the details of the dynamics in my playing—such as they are. I use Innovation Ultra Blacks on my upright, so I’m going for a certain warm Verve-ish tone and I’ve gotten what I’m looking for along with nice detail in the string attack which the piano player in the duo appreciated. The drummer in the big band loves the Clarus SL/DoubleShot combo: the best, he says, of anything I’ve brought in to rehearsal and that’s saying something. We were doing a Thad Jones/Mel Lewis chart “Big Dipper” last night that has a lot of exposed bass off the top and I was just delighted with the naturalness of the sound.
With the electrics the DoubleShot’s not quite so jaw-dropping but certainly on the right side of very good—and it has no problem dealing with a 5th string. Like with all of AI’s speakers, electric bass sounds a bit characterless but that’s simply due to the absence of the colouration present in most EB speakers. (I’ve not tinkered to see if throwing the mid-range switch will make a difference here.)
Whether with the upright or the electrics I feel that I’m hearing the character of that instrument, surprisingly loud, and with headroom to spare. I’ve yet to get the DoubleShot to fart out with anything I’ve been doing—but there’s always a HPF engaged and there’s been no AC/DC tribute material on the menu.
I’ve found no advantage to having the DoubleShot on a stand over having it sit down low on the Gramma. That pad seems to give me all the floor decoupling I need without losing any low end authority, and I can hear myself just fine in any setting so far. (I’m a little annoyed at now having to carry that thing with me to get the results I want. Ah well...) I’m very happy with having the little rig disappear into the floor.
Bingo!
I currently use either an upshot+clarus or a Genz Benz shuttle 3-10, pretty much exclusively with the Chuck Israels microphone (although occasionally I use the Ischell contact microphone). The choice of cabinet is driven by the size of venue and whether I'm inside or outside. More often than not there is no pa support. (These work for me from duos to big bands.)
I'm wondering how much extra the double shot would give over and above the Genz Benz. Also whether a surround sound style of speaker would create problems with feedback for a microphone.
I know the Genz is small, but it still normally requires me to make two trips, and when you have to park 10 minutes walk from the venue it's a pain...
I'm wondering how much extra the double shot would give over and above the Genz Benz. Also whether a surround sound style of speaker would create problems with feedback for a microphone.
I know the Genz is small, but it still normally requires me to make two trips, and when you have to park 10 minutes walk from the venue it's a pain...
Martin Wind used one with the "Nadine Microphone" at the ISB Convention last summer at Indiana University in Bloomington. Once he was able to dial in the EQ on the Clarius SL-2 head it sounded great.
Problem is the Genz Benz doesn't have the low cut filter, which I think is esential to working with a microphone. The Double Shot can get louder than I ever imagined possible with those two side firing ten's.
My experience with the Xlson was that it had very good isolation, up to a point but you'd really have to try it out to see if that combination worked for you. I do know that by comparison the upshot didn't cover
the room as well as the Double Shot, and the Upshot's tone quality lacked the definiton that the Double Shot provided.
Actually, Ric, the Shuttle DOES have a low-cut filter. However, it is not adjustable. That seems to be something that Jeff Genzler believes in as he also included it on my Genzler Acoustic Array Pro. I think that is why I have had much better success with that amp in a particularly boomy room I work occasionally.
From the owners manual:
INPUT – The SHUTTLE 3.0® is equipped with a standard ¼” unbalanced input. The input sensitivity range is from 80 mV to 1.6 volts. The input impedance is >500K ohms. The input stage contains a precision high order active high pass filter (more effective and less intrusive than the more common 6 dB filters) and an “RFI” filter (radio frequency interference) to eliminate unwanted noise. The input gain stage consists of a feedback type variable gain circuit that provides wide range, continuously variable gain with minimal noise. The preamp contains a FET input amp circuit based on our highly regarded GBE series touring amplifiers.
The OTHER issue is how to connect your XLR mic cable to the 1/4 (line-level) input on an amp such as the Shuttle 3.0. I've never tried one but I expect something like this would be necessary and would work.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...rEvp4ToSlZiawkpMXqEaAo08EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
In my case with the Genzler AA I don't need it as both channels have BOTH an XLR and a 1/4 inch input (as well as 12v phantom power).
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Rick,
Nice videos with the e609! Have you tried it with the DS yet? I’d be curious.
Thanks for you desire to experiment.
