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Double Bass Rockabilly bass amp advice

G

Gavin Ratcliffe

Guest
Mar 21, 2018
35
12
#1
Hi there
Purely for slap bass rockabilly style
I have a 350w fender bassman amp and a 4x10 cab which I like.
My question is I would like to have a separate speaker for my slap pick up from my fingerboard.
I'm also using a preamp which is strapped to my bass and it does give s nice click just sometimes it can be too clicky and I would like more control.
Can I add to my head etc
 
#2
Every rockabilly rig I’ve heard had a single channel through an svt pro and A 4x10.

This may not be of much help , but I’d either keep the rig simple (achieve the click and stop fiddling with the knobs) , or get a 24 band graphic eq, and play with it until you have the right amount of click.
 
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#3
elgranluis said:
Every rockabilly rig I’ve heard had a single channel through an svt pro and A 4x10.

This may not be of much help , but I’d either keep the rig simple (achieve the click and stop fiddling with the knobs) , or get a 24 band graphic eq, and play with it until you have the right amount of click.
Click to expand...
Awesome
Thank you for that.
I recently acquired a used fender bassman amp with its 4x10 which seems to be pretty good.
I also have a shadow pre amp with its dual pick up.
Even tho I like the click I just can't find the exact click I'm looking for without disturbing the settings already found with the bridge setup.
The pre amp has the facility to have separate 1/4" Jack's for separate amps. I just front known enough about it.
The bassman amp I think is 350w
 
#6
Gavin , there is an actual rockabilly section in the site , under “double bass”. I just realized you posted on electric. I guess the mods will move it evebtyally , or you can start a new thread on the rockabilly section and hopefully get more replies !
 
#7
If I may chime in with a few well meaning questions. What bass are you using? What strings? and do you play outside of Rockabilly/Psycobilly genre? I ask out of pure curiosity. From what I have seen and heard and gleaned from your rig. the rig is spot on. The strings will give you the fretboard clap if its too trebley for you I would recomend maybe Roto Trubass Nylon tapewounds when i wans doing Horrorpunk (think early Misfits and 50s esque) I used them on a 24 fret P Bass to mimic the the upright sound with light fret clap that gave punctuation to muddy bottom end. I also Flat lined lows trimmed highs and bumped mids. I later added a fretless jazz and the same setup was even better for that sound. Wow sorry for the wordy response but i hope it helps as this is a type of music I enjoy and love to see more people visit.
 
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#8
Karl_V said:
If I may chime in with a few well meaning questions. What bass are you using? What strings? and do you play outside of Rockabilly/Psycobilly genre? I ask out of pure curiosity. From what I have seen and heard and gleaned from your rig. the rig is spot on. The strings will give you the fretboard clap if its too trebley for you I would recomend maybe Roto Trubass Nylon tapewounds when i wans doing Horrorpunk (think early Misfits and 50s esque) I used them on a 24 fret P Bass to mimic the the upright sound with light fret clap that gave punctuation to muddy bottom end. I also Flat lined lows trimmed highs and bumped mids. I later added a fretless jazz and the same setup was even better for that sound. Wow sorry for the wordy response but i hope it helps as this is a type of music I enjoy and love to see more people visit.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for your advice.
I started with rotosound rs4000 and thought I would give the silver slaps a try. Just a little difference really
Just a 3/4 Chinese double bass
 
#10
What kind of pre-amp is it? What kind of pickups do you have?

Usually the "more control" that you're wanting would be provided by both a pickup under the keyboard and a pickup at the bridge, plus a 2 channel pre-amp that would allow you to blend the two inputs as desired. You shouldn't absolutely need more or different amps to accomplish that.

For example, my bass has that type of a 2-piezo pickup system (Vic's Pickup, Model C) that feeds into a TRS (Stereo) 1/4" output that I plug into a 2-channel pre-amp (K&K Dual Channel PRO Preamp ST) that provides EQ, gain and volume for each channel for blending the mix. I can feed that into a single mono output for an amp or mixer, or I can feed that into twin mono outputs if I want to separate each piezo's output into separate amps or into separate mixer channels.

Once we know what kind of pre-amp and pickups you have, we can specifically answer your questions better.
 
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#11
Don Hergert said:
What kind of pre-amp is it? What kind of pickups do you have?

Usually the "more control" that you're wanting would be provided by both a pickup under the keyboard and a pickup at the bridge, plus a 2 channel pre-amp that would allow you to blend the two inputs as desired. You shouldn't absolutely need more or different amps to accomplish that.

For example, my bass has that type of a 2-piezo pickup system (Vic's Pickup, Model C) that feeds into a TRS (Stereo) 1/4" output that I plug into a 2-channel pre-amp (K&K Dual Channel PRO Preamp ST) that prides EQ, gain and volume for each channel for blending the mix. I can feed that into a single mono output for an amp or mixer, or I can feed that into twin mono outputs if I want to separate each piezo's output into separate amps or into separate mixer channels.

Once we know what kind of pre-amp and pickups you have, we can specifically answer your questions better.
Click to expand...
Thank you for that.
I have the shadow rockabilly pro pre amp with both bridge and fingerboard pickups.
String heights are around 18mm which suits me for slapping
Innovation silver slaps
Fender bassman 400h amp and a 4x10 fender bassman 410h cab
The input has an active/ passive button
I dont know if in is passive or active
Hope this info aids you to help me
Many thanks
 
#14
So this is a nice 2 channel pre-amp which allows separate EQ+ and volume controls and you do have the option to send either your blended output through a single mono cable to a single amp or mixer, or to send your blended output through two cables to two different amps or to two different channels on a mixer.

You should be able to fully control the outputs of both pickups very nicely with this pre-amp.

If you don't have two amp setups, you can use the "Power Mono Out" plug to supply a blended signal to your single amp setup. Once you get a second amp setup, you can also use the "Fingerboard Out" plug to suply the second amp -- it appears that this pre-amp will also allow either configuration automatically.

If you acquired this bass and/or pickup/pre-amp 2nd hand and don't have a manual for the pre-amp, it looks like you can download one from the Shadow Electronics Support menu page, or also from the page provided above with the info for your pre-amp.

P.S. Output from the pre-amp is "active". That term is more or lesss defined by having a pre-amp of some sort.
 
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#15
Awesome stuff
Yes I bought this new from thomann a little while ago.
What would you reccomend I do with the setup I have and would you also recommend the amp and cab I have. What should I expect out of it etc
Also to your knowledge would I be able to add another speaker to the amp and cab. Just through interest?
 
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#16
I'm a single amp guy, personally, and actually prefer having both signals going out blended in a mono cable to a single bass amp. I play a mixture of roots music including bluegrass, old jazz, light swing, Gospel, etc., and really have never felt a need to separate channels. I also have a pretty good sound system with a nice mixer, and there again, would only feed my bass into a single channel. For my tastes there's no benefit in separating channels after the blend has been set.

But, different people will have different tastes. I'd suggest trying it out nicely blended with a mono cable to your existing single amp first. If you're still curious, perhaps borrow someone's amp and a cable and try out the separate feeds, and if you like it better that way, start thinking about getting a 2nd amp of your own.
 
#18
Yes. Like you, my bass came to me hot-rodded and really setup for Rockabilly; I've only very recently upgraded the pickup system and the pre-amp to fully enable the fingerboard pickup... But I really have a light touch for the roots stuff I play. I do slap a lot, but it's pretty discrete. That said, I admire good Rockabilly slappers.

It would be interesting if we might hear from a more Rockabilly-style slapper who could tell us if splitting the blended signal into two amps/DIs is something that is commonly done.
 
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#19
I’ve never run my signal bi-amped. In my opinion it’s too much to worry about. Get a solid sound from your pre-amp and just run that blended mono signal to your main amp. This is also what I’ve seen at every gig I played/been too from all kinds of bass players

Don Hergert said:
It would be interesting if we might hear from a more Rockabilly-style slapper who could tell us if splitting the blended signal into two amps/DIs is something that is commonly done.
Click to expand...

You might be able to add another 4x10 cab to your existing rig. I always ran 2 410 gk sbx cabs with a gk 1001rbii.
Gavin Ratcliffe said:
Also to your knowledge would I be able to add another speaker to the amp and cab. Just through interest?
Click to expand...

Hope this helps!
 
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#20
Don runs a lot more power than I do, but I have never needed a separate amp for the clicky either. I just dial in the sound I want with the pre amp, and do some fine tweaking with the Amp eq. It's funny though, I run guts and it took me quite a while to get that gut click coming through the amp to sound like it does without the amp. I spent more effort eq-ing my click than my bass
 
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