Double Bass Stagg EUB megathread

[DoubleMIDI]

The only 9.6v rechargeable batteries I found are the Powerex MHR9VP batteries, which require a separate MH-C490F charger.

They are pricey though. To get 2x batteries and the charger shipped to me in Canada I’m looking at over $100.

I’ll probably be doing some of the mods to reduce the power draw of the preamp (like disconnecting the light, headphone output, etc) sooner than later.

The batteries are available in 8.4 volts and 9.6 volts, so look out to get the right one. You also need this charger to charge the 9.6 volts battery correctly.
I have not tried this battery in a Stagg yet.
And I have only one of the 9.6 volts batteries as they are more expensive than the 8.4 volts types. Also hard to find.
I bought mine a few (maybe four or five) years ago.

 

[Matthew_84]

The batteries are available in 8.4 volts and 9.6 volts, so look out to get the right one. You also need this charger to charge the 9.6 volts battery correctly.
I have not tried this battery in a Stagg yet.
And I have only one of the 9.6 volts batteries as they are more expensive than the 8.4 volts types. Also hard to find.
I bought mine a few (maybe four or five) years ago.

Thanks DoubleMIDI! I’ll look into those as well

 

[mateybass]

Anyone know what the output impedance of the Stagg EUB is?

I’ve been reading up on amps/preamps for EUBs and everyone advises to use one with at least 1 megohms input impedance.

It seems this is general advice with piezo pickups but since the Stagg has an internal preamp, I’m curious (assuming) the minimum input impedance may be different. I couldn’t find anything on the Stagg website.

I’m mostly asking because I’d like to put an Empress ParaEQ and a TC Electronic Polytune in the chain and they both have an input impedance is 1 megohm, and I don’t know if I should look for something else with a higher impedance value

I would assume the output impedance is similar to a bass guitar. I use mine into the same bass amp input socket as my other bass guitars and don't need to adjust gain when doing so.

 

[rumblinbass]

I would assume the output impedance is similar to a bass guitar. I use mine into the same bass amp input socket as my other bass guitars and don't need to adjust gain when doing so.

The output impedance on bass guitars is not standardized or consistent.
I think it is common practice to have a resistor between the amplifier output and the output jack but that value can have quite a range.
Not to mention that there should a capacitor which varies in impedance depending on frequency.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

The impedance is mainly a problem in the first gain stage following the passive piezo (or magnetic) pickup. Since this is built into the internal preamp of active electronics, the output impedance of preamps and the input impedance of amps is typically not a problem at all.

Also piezo pickups can be damped in their self-oscillation by a certain impedance load. It must be high enough so the signal doesn’t break down and low enough to suppress the self-oscillation, so the range of an ideal load (= input impedance) is rather small.

This does not play a role in any later gain stages. So if you have a high input impedance preamp, even built-in, your impedance problem is already solved.

 

[Matthew_84]

Hey all, so I’ve went down a rabbit hole the last few days thinking about doing something possibly stupid…

First of all, I absolutely hate having to put 9v batteries in a bass. This feeling isn’t necessarily logical, I just hate it. The idea of an instrument that goes dead when a battery dies, drives me nuts. I want my instrument to be able to produce a signal by itself. I don’t care if I’m going into preamps, pedals, etc that need to be powered, but I hate it when my bass does. I also dislike the drain of batteries and would always prefer to power a device with a constant 9vdc power feed from an adapter.

To this end, I’ve been thinking of options...

From what I understand about the Stagg EDB’s pickups/electronics is that there are two 10 meg ohm impedance piezos (one under each bridge foot), and each pickup goes into their own FET buffer, and gain potentiometer before being combined and sent to the internal preamp (and please correct me if I’m wrong).

What I am debating doing at some point in the future is to either:

1) Remove the internal electronics (buffers, preamp, etc) and move them into an external housing with a 9vdc power adapter. Then wire the two pickups to a stereo 1/4 jack on the instrument and use a 10 ft stereo cable to plug it into the now-external preamp and then add my effects (tuner, EQ, etc) afterwards.

2) Doing step 1, but instead of re-using the OEM electronics externally, replacing it with a 3rd party external 2-channel piezo system rated for 10 meg ohm impedance (like a Red-Eye Twin or Headway or something).

From my research though, it seems like there are typically phasing issues with two pickups, which makes sense…

My main question for this thread is, does anyone know if the Stagg pickups have phasing issues, and if not, why? Does the OEM electronics have some sort of 180 phase inverter to correct/help this? From all I’ve read about the Stagg EDBs, I’ve never heard anyone mention phase issues with the two pickups, and I am certainly not well versed into how single pickup EUB/ADBs sound to tell if there is actually some phasing issues going on.

Thanks!

 

[rumblinbass]

Hey all, so I’ve went down a rabbit hole the last few days thinking about doing something possibly stupid…

First of all, I absolutely hate having to put 9v batteries in a bass. This feeling isn’t necessarily logical, I just hate it. The idea of an instrument that goes dead when a battery dies, drives me nuts. I want my instrument to be able to produce a signal by itself. I don’t care if I’m going into preamps, pedals, etc that need to be powered, but I hate it when my bass does. I also dislike the drain of batteries and would always prefer to power a device with a constant 9vdc power feed from an adapter.

To this end, I’ve been thinking of options...

From what I understand about the Stagg EDB’s pickups/electronics is that there are two 10 meg ohm impedance piezos (one under each bridge foot), and each pickup goes into their own FET buffer, and gain potentiometer before being combined and sent to the internal preamp (and please correct me if I’m wrong).

What I am debating doing at some point in the future is to either:

1) Remove the internal electronics (buffers, preamp, etc) and move them into an external housing with a 9vdc power adapter. Then wire the two pickups to a stereo 1/4 jack on the instrument and use a 10 ft stereo cable to plug it into the now-external preamp and then add my effects (tuner, EQ, etc) afterwards.

2) Doing step 1, but instead of re-using the OEM electronics externally, replacing it with a 3rd party external 2-channel piezo system rated for 10 meg ohm impedance (like a Red-Eye Twin or Headway or something).

From my research though, it seems like there are typically phasing issues with two pickups, which makes sense…

My main question for this thread is, does anyone know if the Stagg pickups have phasing issues, and if not, why? Does the OEM electronics have some sort of 180 phase inverter to correct/help this? From all I’ve read about the Stagg EDBs, I’ve never heard anyone mention phase issues with the two pickups, and I am certainly not well versed into how single pickup EUB/ADBs sound to tell if there is actually some phasing issues going on.

Thanks!

I am not a fan of on-board active electronics for the same reasons however I do recognize the benefits from a signal integrity perspective...especially with piezo pickups.
Parasitics from any length of cable is going to have an impact and more so as source impedance increase. That said I am happy to leave the preamp where it is.

I'm not aware of any phase issues. There are 2 sensors but they are both picking up the same vibrations in the body at the same time.
But I'm no expert on that.

 

[Matthew_84]

I am not a fan of on-board active electronics for the same reasons however I do recognize the benefits from a signal integrity perspective...especially with piezo pickups.
Parasitics from any length of cable is going to have an impact and more so as source impedance increase. That said I am happy to leave the preamp where it is.

I'm not aware of any phase issues. There are 2 sensors but they are both picking up the same vibrations in the body at the same time.
But I'm no expert on that.

yeah, those are good points about signal integrity. I believe most acoustic DB piezo pickups would have the same issue though, and a lot of them sound ok.

I will likely just do some of the electronics mods to reduce battery consumption, but that will basically just be removing the aux, headphone, and light circuits via snipping the wires (I don’t want to score the PCB or whatever I have seen others do).

I would ultimately still prefer to make it a passive instrument, as long as it didn’t sacrifice tone noticeably.

 

[336v]

To answer a few questions on this thread:
- The line output impedance of the Staggs preamp's line output is ~50 Ohm. The output impedance of the headphones output is no more than a couple of Ohms.
- There are no phase inversion means in the preamp - it directly sums up outputs of both pickups. The input stage is just two source followers loaded through individual gain trim pots onto a common "Volume" pot. There can't be any phase cancellation or adding/subtracting voltages from both pickups if that's what you're worried about. This could be the case if the generated output would be near pure sine waves one could sum up and get peaks and dips for in-phase and out-of-phase inputs, however there are so many harmonics in incoming signals, that summing them all up will always yield pretty consistent output, despite the domination of the fundamental freq. Explaining this further will require Fourier analysis, but if you want to test this, just deliberately reverse the signal from one of the pickups and see if you can detect any difference in the sound.
If you're more into electronics, download traced Stagg's preamp schematic from my webpage dedicated to Stagg's mods. In case you'd question my qualifications - electrical engineering for past 40 years or so.

 

[rumblinbass]

To answer a few questions on this thread:
- The line output impedance of the Staggs preamp's line output is ~50 Ohm. The output impedance of the headphones output is no more than a couple of Ohms.
- There are no phase inversion means in the preamp - it directly sums up outputs of both pickups. The input stage is just two source followers loaded through individual gain trim pots onto a common "Volume" pot. There can't be any phase cancellation or adding/subtracting voltages from both pickups if that's what you're worried about. This could be the case if the generated output would be near pure sine waves one could sum up and get peaks and dips for in-phase and out-of-phase inputs, however there are so many harmonics in incoming signals, that summing them all up will always yield pretty consistent output, despite the domination of the fundamental freq. Explaining this further will require Fourier analysis, but if you want to test this, just deliberately reverse the signal from one of the pickups and see if you can detect any difference in the sound.
If you're more into electronics, download traced Stagg's preamp schematic from my webpage dedicated to Stagg's mods. In case you'd question my qualifications - electrical engineering for past 40 years or so.

I'm surprised at the number of voltage summing stages in the preamp.

 

[PhatBasstard]

Understood. Would like to get another neck, preferably with the rosewood fingerboard.

Looking for sources. Any help would be appreciated.

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!

My first EUB was a NS. One of their nicer Uro 4 string models.
The first time I adjusted the true rod I thought it was frozen and I would have to send if back.
But gave way and was just sticky after that.

 

[DaBassman]

This may have been covered elsewhere but…. I have a buzz on my D string at the G position. Trying to avoid a fingerboard job. Any suggestions on what might be going on? Thanks in advance!

FYI Update
It was a bad string. Easy fix!

 

[336v]

@Matthew_84
If you don't like having a battery in your Stagg, there's quite simple fix for that - use stereo output cable and one extra conductor in it to feed 9V power into your Stagg preamp from an external 9V wall adapter which is located near your main amp. So both power in and signal out are going through the same single cable. I'd make a tiny passive adapter box with just 3 jacks in it - one 1/4" stereo to plug the Stagg's stereo cable into, one 1/4" mono to plug mono cable to the amp, and one barrel type matching your 9V wall adapter. No batteries anywhere, you never run out of juice on stage. Problem solved.

 

[Matthew_84]

@Matthew_84
If you don't like having a battery in your Stagg, there's quite simple fix for that - use stereo output cable and one extra conductor in it to feed 9V power into your Stagg preamp from an external 9V wall adapter which is located near your main amp. So both power in and signal out are going through the same single cable. I'd make a tiny passive adapter box with just 3 jacks in it - one 1/4" stereo to plug the Stagg's stereo cable into, one 1/4" mono to plug mono cable to the amp, and one barrel type matching your 9V wall adapter. No batteries anywhere, you never run out of juice on stage. Problem solved.

That’s quite a nice solution! I’ll look into that. Thanks!

 

[rumblinbass]

I looked at the frequency response of the preamp. Unless my preamp is faulty, there is significant frequency shaping. I'm a little surprised...maybe I shouldn't be. This is my first EUB. Maybe this is typical.

Frequency response is far from flat even with the Sub Bass turned all the way down.
It peaks at 200Hz and from there is down 7dB at 20Hz and 1.2kHz

Sub Bass boosts 100Hz about 12dB.

Again, maybe this much frequency shaping is needed for EUB...maybe even Upright Bass.

 

[Matthew_84]

I looked at the frequency response of the preamp. Unless my preamp is faulty, there is significant frequency shaping. I'm a little surprised...maybe I shouldn't be. This is my first EUB. Maybe this is typical.

Frequency response is far from flat even with the Sub Bass turned all the way down.
It peaks at 200Hz and from there is down 7dB at 20Hz and 1.2kHz

Sub Bass boosts 100Hz about 12dB.

Again, maybe this much frequency shaping is needed for EUB...maybe even Upright Bass.

Interesting. I could hear the low-mid peak, as well as a tiny bit of scoop in the mids (I feel like this bass could use more tbh). I figured the treble was pretty decent though

 

[madbanjoman]

mine's Rosewood

 

[birdtrane]

mine's Rosewood

Oh, sorry, I deleted my post before noticing someone had already responded. I called MF and they said it was painted hardwood.

 

[PhatBasstard]

I finally had a chance to put this thing thru some paces.
I'm dealing with some severe life and health issues so it took a while.

My initial review:
I had to drop the bridge almost all the way and the A string seems a little high.
I may have to file it some.
I don't know what strings these are, but they're not bad.
(Dark red wraps on both ends)
Some have said their side dots are "way off".
I may have got lucky because mine are right on.
I haven't put it through any kind of amplification yet,
but the headphone amp sounds quite good.
Especially through my $300 cans.

I've owned NS and Clevinger among others and, for the price, the Stagg rocks so far.

Possibly more to come.

 

[MuseChaser]

Admission - I have not read this entire thread.
Question - Does Stagg still make an EUB with a rosewood fingerboard, and, if so, what is that model name/number?

Background - I played a new Stagg yesterday in a local shop, and except for the lack of precise onboard tone control (just the single "Sub Bass" pot), found the instrument to play surprisingly well; I was expecting to hate it, but I didn't. I love the rosewood fingerboard on my Alembic, and prefer real quality ebony and rosewood fingerboards on string basses. I've also seen recommendations in this thread and others that, if one is going to pick up a Stagg, try and get one with a rosewood fingerboard. After searching various listings and Stagg's site, I can't find mention of that option.

Anyone?