Double Bass Settings for Fishman Platinum EQ with various amps

[David Gadoury]

Would anyone like to post a pic of your preferred Fishman EQ settings? (Especially if you are using a Fender Rumble 100, but I know that is not typical, but with anything will probably give me an idea in terms of gain, treble, bass, mids.). Also, with the Fishman, what to you do with the gain, smooth, notch, and phase settings? And what mix would you use for arco vs. pizz?

Finally, how do you determine whether to regulate volume from the EQ vs. the amp itself?

 

[cultrvultr]

I'd recommend reading up on some general advice for "Gain Staging" and EQ first. This is general best-practice stuff for any audio signal or audio gear. It applies to the Fishman as well as anything else you'll use. (source: 25+ years as an audio engineer)

With the EQ flat, set the input trim so that your loudest notes are just below the peaking led. Then set the Output volume as high as it can go without distorting your amp or PA.

From there you can work the EQ section. Ideally you are never using an EQ boost, only a cut. Going into an amp, I will run the HPF around 50 HZ, a bit higher for a boomy room.

The notch filter is really just for rooms where you are getting a weird feedback. I rarely use the compressor or brilliance and try to leave those off as much as possible. Less is more with most of this stuff.

Phase can help in rooms where you are having an issue with feedback. Most of the time it shouldn't make too much of a difference.

If you are plugging straight into an amp it's worth trying to plug the output of the preamp into the amp's effect loop to bypass the combo amps preamp.

 

[John Chambliss]

Use the boost button to switch from pizz to arco (I learned this from @Pat Harris on the RedEye Preamp). Play pizz with the boost engaged and set the boost volume to where it sounds good (maybe 1/2 way up or so); depress the boost button to turn it off when you switch to arco.

 

[cultrvultr]

Use the boost button to switch from pizz to arco (I learned this from @Pat Harris on the RedEye Preamp). Play pizz with the boost engaged and set the boost volume to where it sounds good (maybe 1/2 way up or so); depress the boost button to turn it off when you switch to arco.

oh yeah, that's a good tip too! I don't really play Arco gigs so I use the boost for solos (either a bass solo or when a guitar switches from chords to leads and I want to be louder to fill in the space)