Double Bass so the problem never ends.. G-feedback bridge position..

[Steven Ayres]

Dollars to donuts that stage platform was not built with acoustic deadening. If that's the case it's like you're standing on a drumhead.

The speaker, so close and pointed at the bass, is bound to be a problem. If it's only for you and not the room, try decoupling it from the stage with some material that absorbs vibration, and tilt it so it points at your head rather than the body of the instrument. Yes, move away from the wall, which is reflecting sound back to the bass. The tom side of the kit is also more likely to trigger resonance, so some additional space there could help.

I eliminated occasional feedback issues by putting my monitor speaker on a stand at head height, usually on the other side of the drummer from me.

 

[Wasnex]

The sound sample i posted probably doesn't do the feedback justice.. I'll try to re record it but essentially just tapping the bass body can cause the G string to start feeding back and etc..

I think I may have a Low pass filter and I may have a Fishman grey box looking pre-amp and that may have notch on it.. ill check it out tonight..


On the note of the setup:

Well the sustain and feeling of the A-strings "C and B" notes in half position are definitely not sustaining right, (or atleast to what i think they should) I think there is a setup issue maybe bridge wise as well or the location of the bridge etc..

I would think the "C"note on the A-string would sustain longer than mine does on standard basses

Ill have to record that too and see what you guys think.

Man I just have gotten to the point over 20 years where I am tired of inconsistent instruments. Ha.

I even bought a carbon fiber upright bass haha..

I am thinking of buying the adjustable soundpost, and I'm even thinking to buy these German adjusters that let the feet of the bridge twist and turn anyway they want so the connection they have on the body of the bass is perfect.. I forget their name but I'm pretty sure they were some German invention to make the feet of bridges snuggly fit to the body.. using some ball bearing-like method.

I have some money so money isn't really an issue but of course who wants to just go spend tons and tons and tons of more money like I already have for 20 plus years...

I have 2 upright basses and 2 portable 5-string (low B) basses, I have Walter woods most expensive amp. I have custom wood $1300 12 cab f112 greenhouse or something cab (already forgot the name!!)

I have 10 different pickups and AMT? Mic .. I have tube stuff I have this and that.

I have a job that pays benefits, decent money and good musicians and people.. I play every night on that stage shown above pictures.. etc..

I've been to David Gage many times, I've been to Luthiers around the world including Australia (forget their names but I could look them up, I've ate dinner with Christian Mcbride, played in classes with John Clayton, seen Ray Brown before he died, played with Ray Brown and Ella Fitzgerald son, Ray Brown Jr. Etc on a long 5 year stint..
Etc etc

But here we are with nothing but never being happy with a bass that just plays like butter and sounds awesome..

What have I done wrong in life??

Hahah

I couldn't really hear what I would describe as feedback in the recording you posted. When you plucked the open G string, it sort of warbled like the bass is resonating at two tones that are almost the same frequency. This sounds more like a wolf, except wolfs tend to kill sustain. I believe it's fairly common for basses to have a wolf a half step higher at approximately G#. The fact that the weirdness is a half step lower at G could be related to string tension.

Also I don't get a real clear impression of whether the bass sounds bad or if you are just overly picky.


I love different sounds and I am also pretty picky by nature. Early on I bought an Orban 672A equalizer:

The Orban has 8 bands of parametric EQ and also a variable HPF and LPF that can be configured as a 12dB/octave crossover.

I used to spend hours upon hours adjusting the Orban to make my Ric 4001 sound as close to Top 40 hits as possible. You would probably be surprised how close I could get. But it is totally unrealistic to customize your tone to each song.

What I didn't get is the importance of learning to accept good enough. If you're a tweaker like me, the tendency is to fiddle with the controls continuously to try and make the sound better. Keep in mind the previous paragraph which suggests that ideally the bass's tone should be tailored to each song. So the reality is, even if you get the sound perfect for one song, it will not be perfect for the next. So if you are a tweaker, the tweaking can go on endlessly and you never really get the sound quite right.

The good thing is I learned quite a bit about how to use different EQ strategies, and I came to understand the importance of spending a bit of time dialing in a good basic sound, but then changing priorities and focusing on the actual music making, which to some degree must be independent of the tone qualities you are getting on a particular day. I.E. regardless of how good or bad the bass sounds to you, you have a job to do.

When you focus in too narrowly on the sound, you are probably going to be constantly frustrated. If you can learn to pull back that focus a bit and give more of your attention to the actual music making, you will probably be much happier.

None of this is to infer that you don't have some sort of weird resonance going on. But the recording you provided has much worse problems IMHO, that may be masking whatever is driving you nuts.

 

[Alexis Duntov]

So through the years, I've played well over 20+ years and I now have a $2700 WalterWoods bluelight amp, and a few different pickups.

After 20+ years, I still can't stand the various factors of the upright bass.. the bridge position, the strings, the tailpiece placement, the scroll buzzing, the string winding isn't perfect etc etc..

I am totally understanding with the instrument but I've come to that crossroads where I can't really stand it anymore.

I am on a Riverboat gig, that has a Shen bass.. and a Workingmans 12 inch speaker.. I brought my own WalterWoods and use that as the amp head for the workingmans 12 cab.

I am still experiencing something I've experienced for 20 years+ :

- FEEDBACK on the open G string.

It's so frustrating I don't even want to play bass anymore sometimes and just play electric bass from now on.


So It's been awhile, but I come back to the TalkBass family and let's see what the latest news on the forefront is for dealing with/eliminating this feedback.

I posted this here in setup forum because I know this is clearly a setup thing, and not the pickups themselves.

I can prove it because I'll most definitely get the same feedback with an ischell mic on the bass and the realist on the bass.. I also have a schertler that i can put on it too and I can sound sample all of them if anybody wants.

But for right now, I need the Talkbass advice on using a realist with a shen bass that gets feedback on the open G-string. (ofcourse I can set it off by playing the low G- on the E-String and that sets off the feedback too..


So all I can say right now, is depending on if i move the bridge slightly the left or right, it will subdue the feedback and even put it on other notes..

I'm experiencing the A-string and E-string be a lot less strong than the G and D strings in the current setup.. so I have a feeling that is something to do with it.

The bass has seen a lutheir who did a little bit of work, but now I have to find the spot to move the bridge so it still works well with the fingerboard but also cuts the feedback!

I can't really E.Q. it out because even my walter woods makes the sound pretty crappy when E.Q-ing out the G-feedback.. so I just want to know what ideas yall might have?

Perhaps I'll try to record some sound samples and you will understand completely what i mean..


so My question essentially is what have you guys experienced/done to solve deal with open G-string feedback and or when you know just by moving the bridge to the left or right can change these things..

BUT ofcourse moving the bridge to the left or right is not aligned now with the fingerboard and makes playing either the 2 top strings, or 2 bottom strings diffiucult/odd to play and ruins the sustain of them.. etc..

what to do..

Off topic but I’m just sort of surprised to hear you have a riverboat gig at the moment. Is it like a open air boat that just goes on evening cruises?

 

[JKos]

You have the amp pointed right at the bass. No wonder you get feedback!

 

[stefaniw80401]

With an EQ tool, the rule of thumb is: cut to sound good; boost to sound different.

My amplification setup process is:

1. Place the amp behind and to the right side of me. This gives easy access to controls with right hand, and minimizes interaction between amp and bass.
2. Turn up the gain and play some listening for the boom and feed back. A/B the phase switch for less boom and feedback and improved clarity.
3. Push up the HPF to further dial out the boom. Turn up the gain and listen for eveness of your amplified sound across the range of the bass you normally play in. I push my HPF well up into the 80Hz zone.
4. Turn up gain and cycle the phase switch one last time for best position.
5. Now use your EQ to cut out freqs that sound bad to you (300Hz-650Hz and 1kHz areas). Don't cut to much 800Hz because that's where your punch is.
6. Turn up the gain to you get feedback. Use your notch filter, or your EQ, to squelch the feedback. 98Hz is my notch for my G wolf note
7. Turn the gain down to your expected stage volume. Use your EQ to gently boost for what's missing. For me, I want a little finger pop around 3.2Khz
8. Send this (post-EQ) result to your DI out FOH soundman. I rarely send a pre-EQ signal to the FOH. They think they want it, but most don't know what they're doing when it comes to DB.

You must learn how to use your phase, HOF and EQ tools

 

[richfirstbass]

Several years ago I changed from Bel Cantos to Spiro Weichs on my fully carved bass. This actually caused the my G-Wolf to rear it's ugly head under the bow. I didn't want to go back to Bel Cantos because the bass is utilized for both classical arco and jazz pizz. Since I only experienced the wolf note under arco, I figured I could live with it in the jazz pizz environment.
In the jazz pizz environment, I was experiencing difficulty in amplifying the bass during jazz gigs. Feedback. Tried equipment placement, some electronic preamp/speaker/eq/filter options that I either already had or bought specifically control the feedback. What a discouraging pain. Monkeying with on-board and external eq's didn't do much for the tone I was hearing on stage, either. I did get the most positive results from using Fdeck's HPF/phase or Acoustic Image preamps with HPF/phase. Not completely, but better. Amplification was becoming an inconsistent pain.
So back to the wolf:
The wolf is more obvious if you use a bow. If you have a bow, take the bass to the dance floor, unamplified, use it to determine if the wolf exists and if it dwells exclusively on the G string or some of the others as well.
Mine lived to varying degrees on all my strings. I eventually used a Kamimoto Wolf Eliminator. I found out about this via the thread "Wolf Note Solution" started by Eric Hochberg. Using a bow while tuning the device is the best way to hear the wolf being reduced/eliminated. There's also a demo video in that thread.
In my case, before using the device, I had trouble with gain-before-feedback even with small combo outdoor events. With the device installed and tuned, the bass behaved like a different instrument. Arco and pizz. Better stable feedback threshold, tonally better as well since it eliminated the need for external eq. As a matter of fact, most times my amp controls are set pretty close to flat. Or maybe my ears were just grateful for the ability to have successful amplification. I do still use setups with an HPF for room issues. Nothing is perfect after all.
The Wolf Eliminator saved me visits to the luthier, $$$, and makes my setup simpler.

 

[bassfacer22]

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ok wow, I'll try to address everyone here and update:

so, I may order the wolf eliminator to try it out. I'm not feeling like that is the best way to handle it but I am curious about it.

I don't stand right next to the amp, I actually do stand about 2 feet or 3 feet forward towards the front of the stage and the Speaker is actually facing directly to the side of the stage as opposed to the audience or front of the stage where I would be standing, So know that The speaker is facing the drums and I stand slightly more towards the front of the stage and not in the direct line of the speaker - hope that makes sense..


We tried hitting the drums loud and hard and they don't trigger the feedback really, so at this point it's just the amp volume too loud and where I am standing..

I sometimes do feel like doing a "man-overboard" with my bass yes. ha.

I do have to play at louder volumes than you guys think as I do not run through the house speakers, which I guess technically I could, but so far I've been "loud" enough and the people seem to like it with solely this WalterWoods and 12inch Workinman's cab.. (atleast it carries really well with my Electric bass fifth low string!)

It sounds like I do need to try the full circle though.. but I just feel like I then have to again deal with a height issue as I remember the full circle only sounds good when you turn it to the correct positions as it still relies on pressure and the location of the sensors in side the wheel, and I half to have the bass at a certain height, which definitely is lower than most probably.. so I'm a little scared to go back to the full circle since it heavily relies on the turning of the wheel and where it is located..

Statsc, do you honestly think the stuff I have hanging off the tailpeice and etc could be an issue? I mean I can take it all off but I don't think that would cause any problems..

I may have to spend more $Thousands of Dollars for an Fdeck, but I mean, my god right?? I mean did Ray Brown and all the other greats who used amplification have Fdecks? I know for sure Ray Brown used the Realist at loud volumes..

Whoever asked about the Riverboat gig, Yes it's just a 7 day cruise and goes up and down the river, over and over and over again.. It's actually really nice.

I don't really want to change my strings as an age old secret is to play solo gauged strings tuned up to 440 pitch and its awesome to play, feels like butter and if you need/want to play burning tempos and solo like EddieGomez/ N.H. Orsted Peterson, etc, or of the like, and do hilarious things with ease, christian mcbride lines, Stanely Clark finger zingers haha.. Then well, Going to stiff strings or back to Starks (yes I have starks already and tried them and I still have them probably on an old bass at home.) but you get the idea, I'm done trying to fight the instrument,

I am tired of fighting upright basses, I just want the instrument to play and not fight with me..

So all in all here is the main update:

The bass itself when NOT using amplification does not have a warble sound or wolf tone when playing purely acoustically, I will record it and show you guys just incase I am not accustomed to the "wolf tone" you mention..

But i essentially get/have had different notes cause feedback solely depending on where i have the bridge/realist pickup.. so this for sure to me is a resonance issue with the pickup/bass and yes where i Stand on stage..

Remember, before you try to start telling me it's where the amp is and the bass, - I do not stand directly in front of the amp, the amp speaker is facing the drummer and side of the stage, I am not in direct line with the speaker at all as I am standing 3 feet or so further up front of the stage and the speaker cab is near the wall and facing the side of the stage.. Hope the gives you a good picture of the setup ..


so Basically I will try a couple more pickups or a fishman with a notch filter, or possibly buy and waste more money on a Fdeck, or full circle, I think I should rather get the yamahiko as it won't rely so much on one area like the full circle does, because it's very important I set the adjusters Exactly where i need them.. I think the full circle has to be in a certain spot for it to sound well.


More to come, I'll upload one more sound sample too.

I'm not meaning to sound off my ego or anything but I am actually a really good bass player when the dang instrument is properly setup and things just work.. I am one of those kinda players, I play well when the instrument allows music, and not having to fricking be trying to force music into music, I let the music ring, not try to force it out of the dang instrument. When I play a whole note long and loud, the beautiful sound and resonance is what is pretty to me and that I enjoy about music, not the work that it takes to try to play an A whole note and fight to make it.. if that makes sense.. but that is another story..

Well, the other thing about this gig, is I get to try all kinds of things, I may try 2 icshell mics on the bass and see how that does, but imagine the feedback I'll get then, with 2 microphones stuck to the bass top! haha

But wait till you guys here the bass with an Ischell mic.. those things are unreal, they beat the remic, and also the earlund, and a few others I've tried..

Well, in my opinion, as they say.. but let your ears be the judge of that, I'll post up some more sound samples later in a few days..

 

[richfirstbass]

I may have to spend more $Thousands of Dollars for an Fdeck, but I mean, my god right??

fdeck is a commercial user on this forum. He makes a HPF/phase product. Depending on the version, it costs approx $50 to $100, plus shipping.

hpftechllc - HPF-Pre, updated December 15, 2019

EDIT: I also use an Ischell. Thumbs up for that!

 

[richfirstbass]

The bass itself when NOT using amplification does not have a warble sound or wolf tone when playing purely acoustically, I will record it and show you guys just incase I am not accustomed to the "wolf tone" you mention..

In my case, I had to use the bow to hear the wolf tone. It wasn't present/obvious during pizz. That's what made the change in feedback behavior surprising.

 

[bassfacer22]

Look at the recording, clearly you see when I play the G note open string it has quite the resonance!



and here is the sample, sorry for the recording quality and the drummer plays his hi-hats for a second.. but you should be able to hear the clear difference when the open G and the other notes are played.

I couldn't upload a wave file so I put it on a site that you should just be able to play it streaming wise and not have to download it .. you'll clearly hear the first note just ring and ring and that is the open G feedback compared to the next note which I think i played a C on the A-string etc..

Vocaroo | Online voice recorder

just right click on the link and say "open in new window" and it should just let you press play and stream it, its only like 5 seconds of audio.

or here, i converted it to mp3:

 

[DoubleMIDI]

It’s all inside a quarter turn of the Full Circle. If that is too much for you, try the Yamahiko.
But you will always have different instruments in your playing situation on ships. You cannot tune every instrument there to your needs.

You might take some tools with you, just in case of. Like the wolf eliminator, a decoupling plate where you put your bass on, a HPF (the FDeck HPFpre is cheap!), a full parametric EQ (but you have to learn how to use it) and maybe other things like a soundpost setting tool (if you know how to use it and don’t damage the bass).

I’m sure you are more picky than most of us, but I understand that feedback is a big issue that needs to be solved.
I know you need to be able to control the amp during the gig, but what a out placing the cab on the other side of the drums. You might need a longer cable, but I think it is worth trying. More distance and probably better angle to hit the ribs and not top or back. Also turn it more towards the listeners.

I’m rather the Realist is part of the problem. If you don’t want a Ischell because of the sealing problem, get an AKG C411 together with the battery adapter/preamp for it. But switching to a contact mic might even worse your feedback situation.

Use your amp for your stage volume, which means for yourself and the other musicians. Anything beyond that should be delivered FOH. Lower volume, lower amplification factor, less feedback.

If the bass doesn’t have unwanted resonances, something in the electric/transducing part (pickup including placement, preamps, amp, cab, stage) has a resonance. It might even be the bass body that gets more exited by the moved air than by the string. So try to reduce the air pressure (volume) that hits your bass and let the FOH take most of it.

If you need an advice for life:
Avoid situations where you depend on unreliable stuff (like unknown instruments you need to play). Or build a tool set and chops so that you can deal with it without getting upset. And don’t try to get the optimum and be happy with a non-optimal, useable situation.

BTW, the argument that you stay more to the front of the stage is not helpful, since the amp sound gets reflected from the back wall and hit your basses back. Therefor my appointment to move the cab to the other side and direct it (more) to the listeners. Even if you go FOH with the bass and reduce the bass volume on stage.

Good luck experimenting!

 

[richfirstbass]

The first and last note in your sample are the open g string, yes? Both do it, but the last note in particular. "warbles" compared to the other notes. That's evidence of the wolf tone, which will become more evident with a bow.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

The warbling note comes from two closely tuned resonators that take energy from each other, acting against and then in phase. one resonator is the string and the other either another string or the bass body.
It’s the same thing as if you tune with equal note flageolets. The tone warbles if not in tune and faster the more they are out of tune.
As others indicated it gets more obvious with the bow.
It happens if the resonance has a high Q-factor which means a high and narrow peak in the spectrum. By damping the resonator the peak gets lower and wider which means it gets distributed with less effect to a wider frequency range (maybe read as notes).
I still think the best would be moving the soundpost (but you might get into other things you don’t like, so it might be done several times to find a better position), the tennis ball or towel is a quick temporary solution that you can get almost anywhere.

Maybe a bit of everything recommended here gets you to a workable solution.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

BTW, the argument that you stay more to the front of the stage is not helpful, since the amp sound gets reflected from the back wall and hit your basses back. Therefor my appointment to move the cab to the other side and direct it (more) to the listeners. Even if you go FOH with the bass and reduce the bass volume on stage.

Good luck experimenting!

Agree. When the sound is behind the bass, it’s a recipe for unwanted resonance. This is the first thing I would try: when the stage is not in use, put the amp on the floor in front of the bass and see if the issue persists. If not, then you have a new piece of information.

I get the low action perspective. I chose not to go that way because it became a “facility vs tone” issue. I chose tone years ago, and as a result I will never be mistaken for a virtuoso player because of the string height. But the trade off is I’m usually happy with my sound. It’s a choice most of us not named McBride have to make at some point.

 

[statsc]

ok wow, I'll try to address everyone here and update:

so, I may order the wolf eliminator to try it out. I'm not feeling like that is the best way to handle it but I am curious about it.

I don't stand right next to the amp, I actually do stand about 2 feet or 3 feet forward towards the front of the stage and the Speaker is actually facing directly to the side of the stage as opposed to the audience or front of the stage where I would be standing, So know that The speaker is facing the drums and I stand slightly more towards the front of the stage and not in the direct line of the speaker - hope that makes sense..


We tried hitting the drums loud and hard and they don't trigger the feedback really, so at this point it's just the amp volume too loud and where I am standing..

I sometimes do feel like doing a "man-overboard" with my bass yes. ha.

I do have to play at louder volumes than you guys think as I do not run through the house speakers, which I guess technically I could, but so far I've been "loud" enough and the people seem to like it with solely this WalterWoods and 12inch Workinman's cab.. (atleast it carries really well with my Electric bass fifth low string!)

It sounds like I do need to try the full circle though.. but I just feel like I then have to again deal with a height issue as I remember the full circle only sounds good when you turn it to the correct positions as it still relies on pressure and the location of the sensors in side the wheel, and I half to have the bass at a certain height, which definitely is lower than most probably.. so I'm a little scared to go back to the full circle since it heavily relies on the turning of the wheel and where it is located..

Statsc, do you honestly think the stuff I have hanging off the tailpeice and etc could be an issue? I mean I can take it all off but I don't think that would cause any problems..

I may have to spend more $Thousands of Dollars for an Fdeck, but I mean, my god right?? I mean did Ray Brown and all the other greats who used amplification have Fdecks? I know for sure Ray Brown used the Realist at loud volumes..

Whoever asked about the Riverboat gig, Yes it's just a 7 day cruise and goes up and down the river, over and over and over again.. It's actually really nice.

I don't really want to change my strings as an age old secret is to play solo gauged strings tuned up to 440 pitch and its awesome to play, feels like butter and if you need/want to play burning tempos and solo like EddieGomez/ N.H. Orsted Peterson, etc, or of the like, and do hilarious things with ease, christian mcbride lines, Stanely Clark finger zingers haha.. Then well, Going to stiff strings or back to Starks (yes I have starks already and tried them and I still have them probably on an old bass at home.) but you get the idea, I'm done trying to fight the instrument,

I am tired of fighting upright basses, I just want the instrument to play and not fight with me..

So all in all here is the main update:

The bass itself when NOT using amplification does not have a warble sound or wolf tone when playing purely acoustically, I will record it and show you guys just incase I am not accustomed to the "wolf tone" you mention..

But i essentially get/have had different notes cause feedback solely depending on where i have the bridge/realist pickup.. so this for sure to me is a resonance issue with the pickup/bass and yes where i Stand on stage..

Remember, before you try to start telling me it's where the amp is and the bass, - I do not stand directly in front of the amp, the amp speaker is facing the drummer and side of the stage, I am not in direct line with the speaker at all as I am standing 3 feet or so further up front of the stage and the speaker cab is near the wall and facing the side of the stage.. Hope the gives you a good picture of the setup ..


so Basically I will try a couple more pickups or a fishman with a notch filter, or possibly buy and waste more money on a Fdeck, or full circle, I think I should rather get the yamahiko as it won't rely so much on one area like the full circle does, because it's very important I set the adjusters Exactly where i need them.. I think the full circle has to be in a certain spot for it to sound well.


More to come, I'll upload one more sound sample too.

I'm not meaning to sound off my ego or anything but I am actually a really good bass player when the dang instrument is properly setup and things just work.. I am one of those kinda players, I play well when the instrument allows music, and not having to fricking be trying to force music into music, I let the music ring, not try to force it out of the dang instrument. When I play a whole note long and loud, the beautiful sound and resonance is what is pretty to me and that I enjoy about music, not the work that it takes to try to play an A whole note and fight to make it.. if that makes sense.. but that is another story..

Well, the other thing about this gig, is I get to try all kinds of things, I may try 2 icshell mics on the bass and see how that does, but imagine the feedback I'll get then, with 2 microphones stuck to the bass top! haha

But wait till you guys here the bass with an Ischell mic.. those things are unreal, they beat the remic, and also the earlund, and a few others I've tried..

Well, in my opinion, as they say.. but let your ears be the judge of that, I'll post up some more sound samples later in a few days..

Statsc, do you honestly think the stuff I have hanging off the tailpeice and etc could be an issue? I mean I can take it all off but I don't think that would cause any problems..

it’s certainly affecting the resonance of the bass. I would try removing it to see if that has any effect.

 

[Povl Carstensen]

Here are a couple of long shot, educated guess suggestions. Turn the amp 45 degrees, so it points more towards you/the audience, and turn down volume a bit. Perhaps use a bit of PA/FOH support. Close the back curtain some or all the way. It will dampen resonance/reflection from the back wall.

 

[bassfacer22]

I have to find the video of Christian Mcbride where he is playing outside and had the worst sound from a piezo pickup haha its gotta be the realist or who knows but it's awful haha..

Anyway I forgot I had these with me..

3 ischell mics and a shertler stat-B the one with both sides of pickups..

And yes that is a full circle but the problem is that it distorts and the cable or connection is shot..




Yeah i will obviously have to move the amp direction and facing etc.. but yeah finding a bass with the best soundpost and setup is ridiculous.. I am very sensitive to the instrument and I guess upright bass has it's annoyances that really make a player like me frustrated..

I'm to the point where I bought a carbon fiber bass.. just to not have to deal with the changes in the wood as well as consistent same sound and playability.

I've had her for about 15 years now.. thats Betty Blue..

 

[turf3]

I don't have the experience a lot of these other folks have, but it occurs to me that this is exactly the situation for which the Precision Bass was invented.

 

[TomB]

I don't have the experience a lot of these other folks have, but it occurs to me that this is exactly the situation for which the Precision Bass was invented.

True! But before you give up and go all the way to there, you might try a mag URB pickup. Sure, they may make your lovely instrument sound like an oversized P-bass, but on a loud gig with a house system it might anyway, and you won’t have any feedback issues.

 

[bassfacer22]

Well I've had the sound be a little better by moving things, mainly myself up further away, but the instrument itself just needs more time spent on getting the bridge in the best spot and etc.. so other than that, its workable and I'm just pushing through.. but I'm the type of player that needs the instrument to help me make music..

I should Not have to Fight with my instrument to make music..

That's why I'm so discouraged and probably sound negative because it's only been a very rare few times I've played on an instrument that just felt and played like butter etc... and I guess I was not in the position to buy or have that instrument at the time etc..

Anyway it is what it is, I'll continue to try the more pickups and I may even buy or get a 5-string (low-B) upright bass like they have in Europe mostly..

Now I can't even play 4-atring upright basses because they are boring for me and I miss the 5-strings even in the upright bass!

Side-note: I already own two Eminence 5-string portable removable neck basses!