Preamp or effect to switch between electric and upright bass

[silvertone]

I can infer by the OPs reference to not needing bells and whistles that budget is of issue - but if it isn't, I cannot recommend enough the Felix by Grace Designs.

I bit the bullet on this thing a couple years back and it has become my secret sauce and swiss army knife of bass bass tone. Huge amounts of EQ on 2 discreet channels with a boost, mute and channel foot switches and extremely high quality preamps and signal routing, including low z ins and outs.

I use it for double bass (w a Realist and a Troll Ribbon mic) electric basses. amplified mandolin (w a Schertler pick-up), amplified acoustic guitar and whatever else I plug in It's indispensable, always on in my rig(s) and sounds incredible. Two disctinct channels that can remain separate of be compbined for even more tone...

Grace Design FELiX Instrument Preamplifier / Blender black
(I have no affiliation with Grace Designs or the reverb seller linked to above. I'm just a very happy user of a Felix.)

 

[smo]

.... it has a high Z input, which works well with piezo pickups.

Input impedance is important to note with Piezo's - good point.

 

[Steveshaking]

I also use the Radial V2. Input 2 has the potential very high z and the better eq. Set up input one for the electric bass using amp EQ. It allows simple switching, mute for the chance over, easy volume balancing. Plus allows XLR out to pa as well as amp level. It would be perfect if it had a notch filter on input 2. But the HPF and EQ are good for feedback reduction and that's probably not an issue with the EUD.

 

[jthisdell]

I use a Radial Bassbone OD, the Tonebone v2 was not yet available when I bought mine. I play an NXT4 and a Fender P, the impedance of your pickup is critical. The tone difference on mine between using the high z and not is huge, eq alone will not fix that. (The OD has a ton of bells and whistles, most of which I do not use, the Tonebone has fewer.)

 

[jthisdell]

...But the HPF and EQ are good for feedback reduction and that's probably not an issue with the EUD.

IME an EUB has different feedback issues than a DB, The stand on mine will pick up vibrations from poor stages and then the solid body will transit them to the strings and pickup and produce sympathetic vibrations. And vice versa. I don't have a notch filter but I think one would be very helpful. Last night whenever I played an open A the stage amplified that particular note. This particular stage I have to set my amp on the floor to the side.

 

[jacoby75]

Thank you for the feedback, everybody. One more question. Do any of you who play both electric and upright use compression? If so, which do you use? I am well-versed in compression for an electric, but what would work for an upright? Do they have similar needs for/responses to compression?

 

[Paulabass]

I use an active jazz bass, and an NS NXT (passive).
One cord out of electic bass to input of a Rapco AB box.
Cord out of NS bass to LR Baggs Para-acoustic pre amp (the miracle box for this bass) then to AB box.
Out of AB box to Boss TU-3 tuner>amp.
Sometimes I put effects on the electric bass side, but not often.
There are three songs that I start on upright, with the electric around my neck, hit the AB box, and play electric. Easy.

 

[devnulljp]

Thank you for the feedback, everybody. One more question. Do any of you who play both electric and upright use compression? If so, which do you use? I am well-versed in compression for an electric, but what would work for an upright? Do they have similar needs for/responses to compression?

I settled on the Empress compressor on upright. Just a touch, but it makes a difference.