Stereo Setup

[CHAKAKANE08]

Right here goes folks...

Im absolutley shite with the tech side of things until its actually shown to me in person. My question is my curent setup is a rickenbacker 4003 being ran through an Ashdown ABM 500 + 610 cab.

Whats the best way for me to try and get a stereo setup of my bass going for live? I would like to be able to run the effect across only one pickup and keep the other perfectly clean and chunky at all times.

******** I know but im a bit of a plug n play person.

mucho appreciato for any advice in advance

 

[Jimbob Jones]

Ok, first things first, most venues I know of run the mix in mono. Stereo sounds ace from the mix position, but if you're stuck in one corner of of the dance floor, all you get is 'one half of the picture.' because you can only hear one side of the speaker system. (FYI, U2 did their entire 360 tour in mono, which I think is pretty cool).

That said, stereo does have its place in live situations, you just have to be careful with it.

So, making your ric stereo. IIRC the ric has a seperate stereo output, so you'll need a special cable to split the signal into left and right. Then you'll need two seperate amps (or at least two seperate DIs), and you'll use them to send the sound man two signals, one left and one right.

and that's it! You can send the sound guy one clean signal and one with effects (just plug one cable or the other into your pedals, then to an amp/DI and then plug the other one into an amp/DI direct).

Hope that helps!

 

[CHAKAKANE08]

cheers boss,

I already have a stereo cable for splitting the signal, is there a way a single signal can then be sent back to my amp or can something like that only be done by bridging like on a 2 channel bass head?

 

[TimmyP]

I don't think it will be a very satisfying result unless you also biamp, so the lows all come from one cabinet only.

I don't think I've heard a stereo bass that I liked.

 

[MNAirHead]

Unless you own and control the entire pa stereo is not a reality in gigland

 

[IvanMike]

pretty much all you can do for that desired effect (1 pup each to separate DIs and both to the board) would be to use the splitter cable - run each pickup signal to a separate DI, then send the line outs of the two DIs into a small mixer - recombine them (and hope that this wee mixer doesn't involve a huge tone suck) and then send that signal to your amp.

If it were me, I'd send the split signal to two different amps and them mic them and send those signals to the board. even so, even if you are using radically different tones on these amps, more than likely what will end up happening is that you will like the sound better with both mic'ed signals to the PA run with the pans dead center rather than split.

 

[walterw]

I would like to be able to run the effect across only one pickup and keep the other perfectly clean and chunky at all times.

bleh.

splitting pickups like that creates a sound that's "less than the sum of its parts", if you ask me.

you totally lose the sound of the middle switch setting (my favorite ric tone), because the pickups no longer interact with each other. if you do the "clean in one, crunchy/effects in the other" thing, which pickup do you use for which? you get a dull, thumpy clean mixed with a thinner, twangy effected tone (scratch that; you get a thumpy clean playing at the same time as a twangy effected tone) or if you reverse that, you get a mushy effected tone alongside a thin clean tone.

the thing to do is split the signal downstream, so you can mix the sound of the whole bass clean with the sound of the whole bass dirty. a lot of bass effects pedals do this anyway.

 

[CHAKAKANE08]

Cheers for the info lads, mucho appreciato.

 

[IvanMike]

I would also split the signal post mono output - I was just trying to answer in the spirit of the OP.

 

[JACink]

I may be letting myself in for some comments on my stupidity here, but the way I do this with my PA system is as follows:

Bass into amp, line out from amp to stereo effects pedal, pedal to 2 channels on PA desk.

This however does not split the pickups.

How to do this on a larger scale would depend on the PA setup, if they are using a DSP then you could do this without much hassle, but on analog setups it would need to be adapted to each system.

 

[marxbear]

I run my Yamaha Attitude in stereo. The neck pickup is clean through a Markbass F500 head set flat and a DBX160a compressor.

The p-pickup I then run through a second F500 and compressor which I have set with the mids up to get a bit of crunch. Whenever I use effects I run them through this pickup and amp.

This keeps me with a nice tight, clean bottom thump regardless of what I do with the other pickup. The blend is very nice..

 

[alec]

Whats the best way for me to try and get a stereo setup of my bass going for live? I would like to be able to run the effect across only one pickup and keep the other perfectly clean and chunky at all times.

Do you want to run in true stereo where you have separate left and right signals, for stereo chorus/delay/etc, or just have a clean and effected signal?

If it's the latter, then all you need is a blender/looper (like a Boss LS-2) or an effects pedal that provides you with a dry output as well as wet (and then a way to combine the two signals back into one).

*scratch that last paragraph - I see that you've got a stereo cable. If you're using that, then to recombine them you need either a mono Y cable that has two jacks on one end and one on the other (for the amp) or an A/B/Y box that accepts two inputs and sends one output. Or a little mixer, which will let you control the mix.

 

[koho]

old post but have a question,,,can you use rick stereo split into a mixer then into headphones for a stereo sound?

 

[Jack]

old post but have a question,,,can you use rick stereo split into a mixer then into headphones for a stereo sound?

Yes. Pan one pickup left and the other right.

The problem with this (and I hope the decade old op got sorted!) is that Rics aren't stereo. Not really, anyway. They're dual mono. Each pickup can be routed somewhere different, but that doesn't mean they're inherently panned left or right within the stereo field. Imagine if the audience on stage left only heard your twang and stage right only heard your boom. Madness.

 

[Wasnex]

old post but have a question,,,can you use rick stereo split into a mixer then into headphones for a stereo sound?

If you want to try Ric-O-Sound in a headphone mix, try light panning...just a few dB left and right for each pickup. In general I prefer the bass and other low frequency instruments to be centered in the middle. So you might also try the neck pickup in the center and the bridge pickup panned slightly to the left or right. The idea here is the neck pickup carries lot's of lows and the bridge pickup tends to be leaner and brighter. So center the lows, and get your localization off the sound of the bridge pickup...but you need to be careful not to take up too much space in the low end or the mix may sound cluttered and jumbled.

For a live Ric-O-Sound rig, I would suggest stacking the cabs vertically. You don't want separation between the cabs because it produces undesirable comb filtering.

With a stereo PA, you generally can't create a stereo image for most of the audience, but I generally use light panning to create a bit of space in the mix. The only channels I use hard panning with are stereo effects.

In an IEM mix, I might hard pan the effects, but I rarely pan anything else more than 15-20dB. Panning more than this tends to sound unatural and IMHO, it also can be hazardous if you need the panned signal to be loud in the mix.

Why is hard panning potentially hazardous in IEMs. When you hear a sound source equally with both ears you take advantage of something called binaural summation, so the sound is perceived as 6dB louder. So if you hard pan that some sound, you will need to turn it up 6dB for it to be at the same perceived volume.

Anyway...by all means experiment and have fun, but realize that what sounds good 2-3 ft in front of your amp does not necessarily translate to what the audience hears. Is it worth the hassle? Does it make a difference? Also, try to avoid doing things that degrade the audience's experience...this relates to the idea of running a true stereo rig with speakers spread out on the stage.

 

[musicman7722]

I had a Ric in the 70's. My first real bass. I made a Y cable and ran each PUP into a different channel in my Earth bass amp. Remember those. Kustom style knockoffs sort of with two channels. That allowed me to EQ each PUP but still kept one sound source. i feel this is what is made for. Though another approach would be to roll off the lows on the treble PUP and run any effects you use through that PUP but again all into one sound source.

 

[rickdog]

old post but have a question,,,can you use rick stereo split into a mixer then into headphones for a stereo sound?

I tried this just recently - it sounded very "three-dimensional" in headphones. Two pickups into two separate preamps, into two mixer channels. Panning the two channels even slightly to either side made the sound open up... it's hard to describe, but I thought it sounded great. If I ever get into a studio with the Rick again, I'm going to try recording that way.

As others have noted, getting this sort of stereo effect in a live performance might not work as well - but you specifically asked about headphones.

Keep in mind that not all mixers play nice with passive pickups. On a lot of mixers, the phone jack input on a channel is meant to be driven at line level by a preamp, and the low input impedance loads the pickup too much and makes it sound dark and muddy.

 

[StereoPlayer]

stereo set up. The bass has a stereo harness in it.