Double Bass Stagg EUB megathread

[Funkee1]

I ended up getting in some financial trouble, and hocked mine! But it's still there! I keep threatening to go buy it back...

 

[Mike Borelli]

Do you guys think it's able to bow?

no, you'll need an agent, like a person who can play using a bow.

 

[Linus27]

Just wondering if anyone runs their Stagg through any kind of pedals to enhance the double bass sound? I know in the Kala Megathread, some of the users do this to some success to get a deeper, thumper, more organic double bass sound.just wondering if anyone is doing the same with their Stagg EUB?

 

[GrapeBass]

Just wondering if anyone runs their Stagg through any kind of pedals to enhance the double bass sound? I know in the Kala Megathread, some of the users do this to some success to get a deeper, thumper, more organic double bass sound.just wondering if anyone is doing the same with their Stagg EUB?

I've been using the Ampeg Classic Pre since it's pretty benign and a Broughton LPF/HPF. I'm sure there's better options, but this is what I have right now. I was also thinking of adding a reverb pedal but haven't found one that would work, most seem just to get lost in the melee of sound an ensemble makes.

 

[AG42]

Just wondering if anyone runs their Stagg through any kind of pedals to enhance the double bass sound? I know in the Kala Megathread, some of the users do this to some success to get a deeper, thumper, more organic double bass sound.just wondering if anyone is doing the same with their Stagg EUB?

I use a Fishman Full Circle pickup, into a Fishman BII preamp and an MXR M88 reverb...and lots of tweaking...

 

[AlienNed]

I've read this thread but haven't seen if anyone has attempted to replace the electronics in this bass. I like the feel of the upright but after playing it for a few months, I don't like the sound of the internals and think it can be improved for not much more cash.

 

[GrapeBass]

I've read this thread but haven't seen if anyone has attempted to replace the electronics in this bass. I like the feel of the upright but after playing it for a few months, I don't like the sound of the internals and think it can be improved for not much more cash.

There are a few mods that eliminate some circuity to help with battery life but nothing specific to tone. I'd love something that would just provide a simple control, just a volume and a tone, the current setup is useless to me and way too hot.

Found this...

Stagg EUB stock preamp mod

 

[AlienNed]

There are a few mods that eliminate some circuity to help with battery life but nothing specific to tone. I'd love something that would just provide a simple control, just a volume and a tone, the current setup is useless to me and way too hot.

Found this...

Stagg EUB stock preamp mod

Thank you. This is very helpful. I think I'll attempt this mod.

 

[GrapeBass]

Thank you. This is very helpful. I think I'll attempt this mod.

Please let us know what happens, more people with experience the better.

 

[Ludwig]

I have one side of pickup still connected to the original electronics for playing with headphones. The other pickup cable goes directly through a hole drilled to the external connector, no more connection to original electronics there. Instead I use a Zoom AC-2 preamp with reverb, EQ and tuner to go into an active speaker.
Some modification was needed to avoid activation of internal electronics when plugging a cable into the external connector, now internal electronics only get power if a headphone is plugged in.

 

[zevv]

Sorry if this question has been answered in this thread already, but hey, 50 pages is a *lot* to go through.

I got my Stagg yesterday and I'm pretty pleased. I have some basic experience setting up regular guitars and basses, so before residing to a luthier I want to give this a try myself. Filed the nud to widen the E string gap a bit, for the rest the nut side looks ok to me. I lowered the bridge as far down as it can go, but still I'd like to go a bit lower then this. The truss rod would be the next thing to try, but unfortunately I get no response: I turned it further clockwise and counterclockwise then I'm actually comfortable with, but still no difference in string height - I have this little foldable tool of metal strips of various thickness I usually use for this, so I'm pretty sure I'm testign and measuring the right way.

Is it a known issue with the Stagg that the trussrod is stubborn? Should I try apply a bit more force to get the thick neck to work, or is this some kind of defect?

Thanks!

 

[gretschbass]

Ludwig, Can you expand a little on what you did to bypass the internal electronics? Also, would it be possible to entirely eliminate the internals and have both sides of the bridge pickup go to the external connector? Any major modifications involved? Thanks, Bill

 

[DoubleMIDI]

Ludwig, Can you expand a little on what you did to bypass the internal electronics? Also, would it be possible to entirely eliminate the internals and have both sides of the bridge pickup go to the external connector? Any major modifications involved? Thanks, Bill

I do not recommend to connect two piezos together without buffering each of them first.
Somebody here on Talkbass has modified the electronics to grab the mixed signal as early as possible. Do a search for that.

The trussrod is unusable. But you can put down the strings in mount the neck from the body and put a shim at the lower end of the neck pocket and mount the neck back again. I did this for mine. A rather thin shim will do. The shim needs to sit under the neck on the area where the screw holes are located.

The bad thing is that the fingerboard often needs to be dressed to get the curvature that the trussrod doesn’t give you. Bad if you have a black neck. The lacquer (epoxy?) is thin and in almost every case gets removed.
The rosewood fingerboards are easier to dress. The lacquer needs to go too, but that is almost invisible and a lot thinner.
Anyway, it is easy to ruin a fingerboard by dressing without prior experience. For most this is a luthier job.

 

[zevv]

Thanks for the confirmation DoubleMidi. I noticed the board is indeed totally flat, so I don't think I can go much lower from what it is now without going more drastic approaches. This will do for now!

 

[sixway]

Thanks for the confirmation DoubleMidi. I noticed the board is indeed totally flat, so I don't think I can go much lower from what it is now without going more drastic approaches. This will do for now!

When you say straight, do you mean flat? The board is curved, which allows for bowing...

 

[zevv]

Ha, fair enough, it's _straight_

 

[sixway]

I know it was a redundant question, but; had to be asked...

 

[rmrz]

Hi!
I was browsing the Thomann web page the other day and noticed that they don't carry the Harley Benton branded Palatino EUBs anymore, and they have instead two new Harley Benton upright basses that look suspiciously close to the Stagg EUB, but with a different headstock and some details in the body:

https://www.thomann.de/intl/search_GK_trstkevs_BF_harley_benton.html

I found the new design of both models (specially the one with a scroll on the head) quite cool. I haven't seen them here in TB (sorry if they were posted before). Any experience with these ones?

Cheers!

 

[bassically_eli]

Hi!
I was browsing the Thomann web page the other day and noticed that they don't carry the Harley Benton branded Palatino EUBs anymore, and they have instead two new Harley Benton upright basses that look suspiciously close to the Stagg EUB, but with a different headstock and some details in the body:

https://www.thomann.de/intl/search_GK_trstkevs_BF_harley_benton.html

I found the new design of both models (specially the one with a scroll on the head) quite cool. I haven't seen them here in TB (sorry if they were posted before). Any experience with these ones?

Cheers!

Those Harley-Bentons list the fingerboard wood as birch. I'd like to hear thoughts regarding its hardness and durability, as well as its tone. I've never seen a birch fingerboard or fretboard before. Hopefully it comes with a good epoxy coating or similar, or else it'll probably need it.

 

[Barry Peacock]

I recently came across a Stagg with the hum problems, on closer inspection with a multi-meter, I discovered that the metal plate the electronics are fastened to has no connection with the earth side of the signal. Coupled with the lack of screening in the cavity beneath the control plate means the electronics are not screened at all.

Fortunately, it's a very easy fix, only requiring some self-adhesive aluminium (aluminum) foil which can be bought on a roll like gaffa tape from a hardware store, a cross-head screwdriver, a scraping implement, pencil and a 10mm spanner. It took me about 20 mins to fix the hum problem. The self-adhesive backing of the foil tape I used seems to be conductive so taping foil on top of other foil doesn't seem to be a problem.

Disclaimer: the following instructions will no doubt invalidate your warranty, if in any doubt of your own competence, seek professional help.

First, remove the battery to prevent the electrics from letting the smoke out. Remove the electronics control plate and the long plastic back cover from the rear of the instrument. You will probably find a feable attempt at foil sheilding insdie the cavity underneath the long cover. I removed it all to do the job properly.

There are two channels in the cavity for the wires to run down. Clear the wires away from the cavity the best you can to gain access to the channels. The two peizo leads can be unplugged (they are terminated in mini jack plugs) from the control plate to make this easier, just remember which way round they go back. Take the foil tape and line the whole cavity to include the rebate where the plastic and electronic plates sit. Ensure you follow the profile of the wire channels to make sure the wires will be recessed enough to clear the end pin when retracted into the body. If you don't want to leave anything to chance,. also line the cavity underneath the jack plate, being careful to allow clearance for the jack socket terminals.

Now that the cavity is fully foiled, lay the peizo wires and the grey signal wire leading to the jack socket into the channels and tape them down with foil tape. The battery wire (red-black lead) can then be taped down afterwards. I did it like this so the audio wires were fully sheilded from the battery wire. Check that the wires are clear from snagging by the endpin by sliding it in and out a few times.

Once you have the whole of the caviity foiled you can then proceed to the electronics plate itself. This is covered by the same black plastic coating that everything else seems to be but unfortunately, it also insulates the electronics earth side from the metal plate.

Carefully pull off the sub-bass control knob from the control shaft to expose the nut and washer holding it in place. Take the pencil and draw a line around the washer. With a 10mm spanner, remove the nut and washer. You should be able to see the circular pencil line. With an implement to scrape away the plastic coating, scrape inside the circle till you get back to bare metal. When satisfied that you have removed enough of the black plastic coating, replace the washer and tighten the nut. Don't over tighten or you might strip the threads.

On the underside of the metal plate, there are three screw holes along one edge for fastening this plate to the body. The middle screw hole is the one I used for the next step. With the scraping implement, remove the black plastic covering around this hole on the underside (inside surface) to expose the bare metal and extend for about a centimetre or half inch either side of it. The idea here is that when you mount the plate on your body again, the bare metal will make contact with the foil you extended into the plate recess.

You should now have a bond between the earth of the electronics and the metal plate. This can be checked with a multimeter set as a continuity checker or on the lowest ohm range. Check for continuity or zero ohms between one of the minijack socket securing nuts and the bare metal near the screw hole you just made.

If it checks ok, plug the peizos back in, refasten the control plate and the plastic cavity covers and refit the battery. Incidentally, the black plastic cavity cover should already have a foil backing on the underside. If it doesn't, foil the underside yourself. Now plug your noiseless Stagg into an amp and enjoy.


Oh BTW, there is a level trim control for each peizo on the electronics, if you lack level on your G-string side (I did), turn the pot nearest the corresponding peizo plug on the board to balance it up.

Hope some of this is useful to other Stagg players.

Thanks so much for taking the trouble to write this up. I can't believe they put metal screens around the pre-amp stages but didn't bother to ground them. Did the mod and the bass is now perfect, no unwanted noise whatsoever........until I start playing it.