Double Bass Palatino Megathread part I

[pharaohamps]

I'm going into the studio 2nite- so can anyone give me any tips for recording the Palatino- I have the p/up with rubber & decent strings but no new preamp or p/ups yet!
Rod.

I've gotten good results with a mic on the bridge mixed with the piezo signal. Just a LITTLE bit of mic, for the articulation, and mostly the piezo signal.

Good luck!
Matt Farrow

 

[Nohandles]

Hello, I'm new!

I've recently purchased a palatino and am thinking of doing some basic mods, so this thread has been really helpfull.

I see various people have tried different replacement pickups, but I'm not sure which one to try...has anyone got one which they are happy with for both arco and pizzicato playing? I think I can get hold of new strings and bridge fairly easily, but am struggling to find pickups, so any hints would be appreciated!

Thanks!

I would personaly hold off on a new pick up. I get great results from mine. I do however run through a Teck 21. All I do is turn the volume down on the bass and bring up the volume on the amp. I get great results with this bass as is.
If in need a little more volume durring a gig I simply turn up the bass on the bass volume control.

 

[BigBeatNut]

I've gotten good results with a mic on the bridge mixed with the piezo signal. Just a LITTLE bit of mic, for the articulation, and mostly the piezo signal.

Good luck!
Matt Farrow

Can you tell me more ? Do you mean a studio mic pointing at the bridge ? Or some kind of microphone pickup mounted on the bridge ?

Brand name ?

Pics ?

Thanks, Andy

 

[pharaohamps]

Can you tell me more ? Do you mean a studio mic pointing at the bridge ? Or some kind of microphone pickup mounted on the bridge ?

Brand name ?

Pics ?

Thanks, Andy

I'm using a Marshall MXL2001P condenser mic, or sometimes an MXL V57M, but yes, a studio mic. I mix it in just a little bit to get some finger and string noise. I then use mostly the piezo signal, with the tone control rolled way off. The problem with the piezo is that it does capture the finger noise, etc, but it has that piezo "quack" quality to it. Using the mic gets a much more natural sounding quality to the extra sound. The piezo does a great job with the lows, however, so that's mostly what I use.

Don't have pics but just mic the bass the way you'd mic an upright, with the mic pointing at the bridge on a stand about 18-24" away. Be sure and wear clothes that don't make noise! I had a take ruined because my belt buckle hit the back of the bass and made a big "clunk!" Whoops!

Matt Farrow

 

[pharaohamps]

I would personaly hold off on a new pick up. I get great results from mine. I do however run through a Teck 21. All I do is turn the volume down on the bass and bring up the volume on the amp. I get great results with this bass as is.
If in need a little more volume durring a gig I simply turn up the bass on the bass volume control.

+1 on this - the pickup is a decent piece of piezo film, same as practically every other pickup on the market. It's shielded and sounds fine.

The stock preamp, however, is a complete piece of crap. The easiest solution is to break into the bass and pull the preamp out, just run the wire from the pickup right to the output jack. Then you can get an outboard preamp like a Fishman or K&K, etc. and use that. There are even some bass amps that will take a piezo input signal just fine.

The next easiest solution is to replace the onboard preamp with a better quality one. I've sold a couple of the ones I make to TB'ers but I'd rather not spam up this discussion by talking about it at length. Interested parties can PM me.

Thanks,
Matt Farrow

 

[rodl2005]

Just an update: recording went well-I'll try & put some on net & post a link soon. Didn't use the mic. as was suggested here-saw it too late-we only had one night in which to record & another to mixdown! Just went into a Behringer BDDI21 dass DI/preamp & another line direct( better sound thru the DI tho!) another neg. for the stock pre!
Sounds good on the final mix tho. Sounds like it is- a mix between an uprite & a "stick" type EUB( sounds far more like a dbl bass than one of those stick thingy's do!!! IMHO!!
We are just a Small 4 piece"cocktail" type jazz band-bass, gtr, drums, female lead vocals(my wife) & do songs by Billie Holiday, Bebel Gilberto, Jim Webb, Van Morrison, Ray Charles etc........ We did it ALL live- no overdubs, all played tobether-vox in a different room-separation! We were gonna overdub a rythym gtr, but thought we didn't need it-it has a great live vibe to it & this way it's a TOTALLY accurate reflection of what we do live-altho we were being a bit 'careful & hesitant' as it was our 1st recording in this outfit & we -of course- were mindful of COSTS!!! PITY!! But- it came out WELL!!
Rod.

 

[rgferrell]

Hi, everyone. I'm new to the forum. I've been a percussionist for 36 years, but only started playing bass as a primary instrument 5 years ago.

Just spent 4 hours trying to get a sound--any sound at all--out of my new VE-500. No luck. The pickup wasn't even installed when I opened the box: just hanging out through the hole. I took out the battery compartment and pots and finally threaded the lead through and plugged it in. Battery is new, and there appears to be plenty of gain coming from the preamp, as evidenced by the increase in noise as the volume knob is turned up, but even at full volume and through a variety of different amps the piezo puts out no signal whatsoever. Either the pickup wiring is bad, or there's some sort of issue along the internal signal path between pickup and the input stage of the amp.

Anyone else run into this? I did a cursory search of the site and didn't find this particular problem mentioned, although admittedly I didn't spend a lot of time looking.

I bought this thing over the Internet, so shipping it back is my least attractive option.

TIA,

Robert G. Ferrell

 

[Nohandles]

Try calling Palatino USA http://www.palatinousa.com/
and see if they will help you with your problem. Then please let us all know what thay did or didn't do for you.

 

[pharaohamps]

Hi, everyone. I'm new to the forum. I've been a percussionist for 36 years, but only started playing bass as a primary instrument 5 years ago.

Just spent 4 hours trying to get a sound--any sound at all--out of my new VE-500. No luck. The pickup wasn't even installed when I opened the box: just hanging out through the hole. I took out the battery compartment and pots and finally threaded the lead through and plugged it in. Battery is new, and there appears to be plenty of gain coming from the preamp, as evidenced by the increase in noise as the volume knob is turned up, but even at full volume and through a variety of different amps the piezo puts out no signal whatsoever. Either the pickup wiring is bad, or there's some sort of issue along the internal signal path between pickup and the input stage of the amp.

Anyone else run into this? I did a cursory search of the site and didn't find this particular problem mentioned, although admittedly I didn't spend a lot of time looking.

I bought this thing over the Internet, so shipping it back is my least attractive option.

TIA,

Robert G. Ferrell

Probably the pickup is faulty. The pickup itself could be cracked, or the lead wire from the pickup could be bad, or the 3/32" plug that connects to the preamp could be bad. You could hook the pickup to a DMM / voltmeter and see if you get voltage out of the pickup when you press gently on it. If you get voltage out of the pickup like that, then the input to the preamp might be bad, the little 3/32" jack wrapped in heatshrink. Could a number of things - call Palatino and find out about a warranty replacement. Replacing the whole pickup / preamp assembly would be best.

Matt Farrow

 

[robert bossart]

I have changed strings to D'Addario Helicore light and put some bicycle tube rubber between the bridge and the pickup. The sound has got much better. Passing through a preamp it can be handled quite nicely. The only problem is that between c, b and bflat there is some restricted resonance altering the tone and making it undefined.

Does anybody have an idea what to do?

Thank you very much.

Roberto

 

[MrWalker]

I have changed strings to D'Addario Helicore light and put some bicycle tube rubber between the bridge and the pickup. The sound has got much better. Passing through a preamp it can be handled quite nicely. The only problem is that between c, b and bflat there is some restricted resonance altering the tone and making it undefined.

Does anybody have an idea what to do?

Thank you very much.

Roberto

This is referred to as the Wolf on an acoustic instrument. There are mutes that you can put on the string to alleviate the problem. I put a Wolf Mute on my cello, and it went from totally unplayable on the C on the D-string to tolerable.
More about the Wolf Tone here:
http://www.cello.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=tips&tip=tip50

 

[tanislas]

Found it!!! Fits great!
FYI, it takes an 8mm threaded cymbal stand!!! (I'm told they come in 6mm and 8mm)
Hope this helps anyone else that's looking
cheers

Invalid Link Removed

 

[rodl2005]

Hi Y'alll I've got the opportunity to get an Aguilar bass pre amp-DB924 anyone know if this 'd be any good for use w/ the palatino- I'm getting a bit sick of the stock pre amp & was thinkin of ripping it out & just going direct to the jack- from that to the Aguilar DB924 or some other pre????

Anyone have any views that can help me here?????

 

[MrWalker]

I have changed strings to D'Addario Helicore light and put some bicycle tube rubber between the bridge and the pickup. The sound has got much better. Passing through a preamp it can be handled quite nicely. The only problem is that between c, b and bflat there is some restricted resonance altering the tone and making it undefined.

Does anybody have an idea what to do?

Thank you very much.

Roberto

Found the Wolf Eliminator on eBay. Not very expenssive, either! Worth a try!
http://cgi.ebay.com/WOLF-TONE-ELIMI...4651554QQihZ009QQcategoryZ16222QQcmdZViewItem

 

[rodl2005]

Wolf tone thingy def. worth a try- similar things I've seen work 4 elec bass gtr.

 

[Hackster]

My 13-year-old daughter plays double bass in the school orchestra, and electric at home. She has to ride the school bus home, and hasn't been able to bring the school's instrument home since she started playing a couple years ago. She's shown enough dedication and talent that I'm leaning toward buying her an upright for practice at home.

Is anyone playing the electric Palatino with a bow? I'm wondering if it might be a good alternative to a student-grade acoustic bass in the same price range, considering the versatility factor. (A more spendy instrument isn't an option right now.) What I'm reading here tends to suggest that it can be a pretty serviceable instrument with some tweaking (I love tweaking!); but I don't want it if it won't serve the purpose of home practice for orchestra. She already has a Godin fretted and higher-end Ibanez fretless (both 4's), so if it's basically another fretless electric bass, there's no real point. TIA for any insight.

(Sorry if this has been covered; after searching through a few pages of this thread and not finding anything, I decided to go ahead and post.)

 

[Nohandles]

My 13-year-old daughter plays double bass in the school orchestra, and electric at home. She has to ride the school bus home, and hasn't been able to bring the school's instrument home since she started playing a couple years ago. She's shown enough dedication and talent that I'm leaning toward buying her an upright for practice at home.

Is anyone playing the electric Palatino with a bow? I'm wondering if it might be a good alternative to a student-grade acoustic bass in the same price range, considering the versatility factor. (A more spendy instrument isn't an option right now.) What I'm reading here tends to suggest that it can be a pretty serviceable instrument with some tweaking (I love tweaking!); but I don't want it if it won't serve the purpose of home practice for orchestra. She already has a Godin fretted and higher-end Ibanez fretless (both 4's), so if it's basically another fretless electric bass, there's no real point. TIA for any insight.

(Sorry if this has been covered; after searching through a few pages of this thread and not finding anything, I decided to go ahead and post.)

Yes it bows very nicely It does' need better strings D'Addario Hybrids are a nice choice. I have no trouble bowing this bass.

 

[junglebike]

I can't vouch for the Palatino, but I'd be a bit wary of using it for this purpose. To me, the advantage of an EUB is its portability, resistance to feedback, small footprint for tight stages, and durability for dangerous bar gigs. I don't want to make assumptions here, but some of these may not apply to your situation Even really good electric uprights (IMHO) struggle to produce great arco tone. They certainly don't replicate the difficulty of physically getting around a big URB, which is something your daughter is probably working hard on.

Just some thoughts... if you look around, you can probably find a decent used student-grade instrument for under $1000. I bought my bass, a carved German Anton Schuster for $1k. I put $600 of work into it later when I had a bit more cash, and sold it for $3500 after 3 yrs of use.

My 13-year-old daughter plays double bass in the school orchestra, and electric at home. She has to ride the school bus home, and hasn't been able to bring the school's instrument home since she started playing a couple years ago. She's shown enough dedication and talent that I'm leaning toward buying her an upright for practice at home.

Is anyone playing the electric Palatino with a bow? I'm wondering if it might be a good alternative to a student-grade acoustic bass in the same price range, considering the versatility factor. (A more spendy instrument isn't an option right now.) What I'm reading here tends to suggest that it can be a pretty serviceable instrument with some tweaking (I love tweaking!); but I don't want it if it won't serve the purpose of home practice for orchestra. She already has a Godin fretted and higher-end Ibanez fretless (both 4's), so if it's basically another fretless electric bass, there's no real point. TIA for any insight.

(Sorry if this has been covered; after searching through a few pages of this thread and not finding anything, I decided to go ahead and post.)

 

[rodl2005]

Any thought s on the Aguilar DB924 I mentioned??? I've the option 2 get one at a good price -for Aus- & I think it should work better than the stock pre amp! Do I just take the stock one out reconnect the jack output socket direct? Then go into the DB924????

 

[BassyBill]

I just ordered one of these on ebay and it's winging it's way across the Atlantic to me as I write. Thanks for all the info, guys, interesting reading. I'll be sure to get back to you with my impressions on this bass once it arrives.