Preamp or effect to switch between electric and upright bass

[jacoby75]

Hey gang,

Question for you (asking for a friend. No, really). I have a friend who plays both bass guitar and upright bass at certain gigs. I'm looking for a preamp for her that would enable her to switch between the two and play out of the same amp. So likely something with two independent EQ channels, at the very least. But it wouldn't necessarily need a DI and a bunch of other bells and whistles. I'm familiar with some of the usual suspects, but I wasn't sure if there was something you might recommend that would be best suited for the upright bass portion. It's not a true acoustic upright. It's an NS design (neck-only) type bass with a Dave Gage transducer pickup under the bridge. I was even thinking something like the Source Audio programmable EQ as kind of an out-there recommendation.

Thanks

 

[Jon Moody]

What EUB specifically does your friend have? That information would help a lot.

I have an NS (a CR-5M and NXTa), and do a lot of doubling as well. With those two, you really don't need something crazy, as the instrument is already pretty well set for tone controls. The biggest thing your friend probably wants to do is make sure there's unity volume between the instruments. Other than that, you can control most of it with the onboard EQ of the basses.

What I would recommend is to get a stand alone A/B switch (you can get them cheap) and then a dedicated URB preamp (LR Baggs, Fishman, K&K Pure, etc..) for the EUB (if it's only got a transducer). That's going to give your friend a lot more tonal control options and also the ability to use the pre & EUB separately, without having to lug around a bigger 2 channel pedal or something.

 

[Jebberz]

When I had an EUB, I used the Radial Engineering PZ-Pre exactly for this purpose

PZ-Pre - Radial Engineering

It was doing the job very well. Extra features as the FX Loop or the XLR out can be helpfull in certain situations.

 

[jacoby75]

Not sure of the specific EUB model, but both of those recommendations are great, thanks. I was thinking something like that PZ-Pre (though I didn't know it existed until now), that she could kick on for the EUB songs, and then bypass and use her amp's EQ for her jazz bass.

 

[marmadaddy]

I use a Tech21 VT Deluxe. Great for getting an SVT sound on electric and B-15 sound on upright.

 

[jacoby75]

I use a Tech21 VT Deluxe. Great for getting an SVT sound on electric and B-15 sound on upright.

I did recommend that one to her as well. Seems like it would be a decent fit to me. Although I think the Tonebone PZ would be better for the EUB because of the notch filter and low cut. But it will be tough to find something that will work great for both, methinks. But then, I know I am way more of a tone snob than she is.

 

[Jebberz]

PZ-Pre is fairly transparent. When I had mine (I was going straight to the mixer), I did put an overdrive in the loop to use with the lectric (Green Rhino, with the gain almost at Zero). I guess you could run a VT-Bass in the loop and have the best of both worlds

 

[Zbysek]

I am using EBS MicroBass II pedal preamp for doubling. I have NSD NXT electric upright. It works well.

The best peadal preamp for doubling is Grace Design Felix, IMHO...but it's not budget friendly...

 

[scottfeldstein]

Just today I took possession of a Morley ABY Mix pedal. I intend to have two different basses plugged into the inputs. Each has its own independent volume (cut and boost), and they will both go out to one amp. It doesn't have an EQ, but it does have separate volumes. And it was cheap used.

 

[Pings Bass]

I do this with an AB/Y switch and a little tweak on the amp eq and gain as needed. You could always run with an inline eq pedal on the DB side of the switch, since that's usually what needs the most help. I don't like pedals and effects, so it's pretty much just BG/DB into the AB/Y, then through a tuner and an HPF to the amp.

I've got a Kay with a David Gage Realist, FWIW. IMO all the DB piezos I've tried sound kind of trashy and need a little eq help.

 

[burgerdj]

EBS Microbass II has your friend's name all over it.

 

[ahbass2500]

LR Baggs Align Equalizer. Switch turns it on and off, 6 band equalizer, high pass filter, notch (anti feedback) filter, phase switch, variable gain/volume sections. I use one with my Emerald Balor acoustic bass for EQ, anti feedback, and gain differences between the Balor and my electrics.

 

[scubaduba]

Trickfish Trilobite would be perfect for this.

 

[jdh3000]

Hey gang,

Question for you (asking for a friend. No, really). I have a friend who plays both bass guitar and upright bass at certain gigs. I'm looking for a preamp for her that would enable her to switch between the two and play out of the same amp. So likely something with two independent EQ channels, at the very least. But it wouldn't necessarily need a DI and a bunch of other bells and whistles. I'm familiar with some of the usual suspects, but I wasn't sure if there was something you might recommend that would be best suited for the upright bass portion. It's not a true acoustic upright. It's an NS design (neck-only) type bass with a Dave Gage transducer pickup under the bridge. I was even thinking something like the Source Audio programmable EQ as kind of an out-there recommendation.

Thanks

This is what I'm doing... I use a zoom a3 for my EUB, an A/B pedal to switch. My other zoom pedal eqs my BG

 

[Kmonk]

I use a Tech 21 VT Bass Deluxe,specifically for the same purpose. I alternate between an upright and my Jazz bass. The VT Bass Deluxe give me 2 inputs that can be programmed with separate tone and output levels.

 

[MIMike]

I second Mr Moody's suggestion for keeping it simple. I actually used a Morley ABC switch when I was gigging both electric and upright. Having the three inputs was handy for 1) upright 2) electric 3) mute (nothing so that everything was off when switching instruments).
If she likes the way the instruments sound w/o much eq, why add more to the signal path.

 

[jacoby75]

If she likes the way the instruments sound w/o much eq, why add more to the signal path.

She definitely does not. I should have been clearer about that in the OP. She can get the amp dialed in to where the jazz bass sounds good, but then the upright sounds awful. Way too sizzly of a high end and the A and E strings sound almost silent. Seperate EQ's would definitely be handy.

 

[smo]

Use a dedicated pre-amp for the upright - I use the Fishman Platinum Stage.
It has a HPF (VERY important for upright to help avoid a degree of feedback issues) and I simply plug it into the power-amp input, bypassing the amps' pre-amp section. By doing this I have both pre-amps set for one instrument, so I can EQ for the room we play without skewing the EQ of the other at the same time.

 

[scottfeldstein]

Use a dedicated pre-amp for the upright - I use the Fishman Platinum Stage.
It has a HPF (VERY important for upright to help avoid a degree of feedback issues) and I simply plug it into the power-amp input, bypassing the amps' pre-amp section. By doing this I have both pre-amps set for one instrument, so I can EQ for the room we play without skewing the EQ of the other at the same time.

That's pretty clever.

 

[devnulljp]

Bassbone V2 is good because it has a high Z input, which works well with piezo pickups.
I also had good luck with the Basswitch IQ.