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Double Bass Summary of heads/combos with phantom power?

Salty

Salty

Oct 24, 2005
300
92
New York, NY
www.matthewrybicki.com
#1
Hey all - while I’m a regular user of TB, I’m not usually visiting this particular forum. I see I have a lot of reading to do to try and glean info for my question and decisions regarding a change for my amp setup. (Current usual an AI with phantom power for my Nadine mic)

What I’m wondering is if anyone has a (even short) list of amps or combos that have full phantom power for the Nadine for me to consider switching to.

Markbass appears to have one/some. I know the Genzler Gollihur thing is there but it seems it may not support the Nadine (they said a DPA works though)

Any simple summary of heads/companies to look at would be greatly appreciated!
 
#4
Salty said:
I really appreciate your time writing this out! Unfortunately not being familiar with several of the brands listed, I’m not sure how to actually understand several of them. Is “Grace designs” a differnt thing than “Felix Preamp”? For examples
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Same thing the Grace Felix is made by Grace Designs. 😉 Euphonic Audio built the Doubler. :thumbsup: Acoustic Image built the Clarius 4+, GR Bass in Italy builds the AT Cube Acoustic, EBS builds the Stanley Clarke Preamp. AER in Sweden builds the AER Bass Combo v2. Schertler Has the Yellow Preamp as well.
 
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#5
Not to derail, but buying a preamp box of some sort is a way to have a mic preamp with any amp you like. A few of the items Ric Vice listed are preamps. But perhaps you prefer the simplicity of only having one “thing” to fuss with, which is reasonable, but as you see limits your amp options.
 
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#6
Just in case it wasn't clear, several of the items Ric mentioned are preamps only, not heads or combos. Those are the Grace Felix, the Headway EDB 2 H.E. (Headway makes/has made several preamps with phantom power, but doesn't have any combos or head amps yet), and the EBS Stanley Clark.
 
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#7
I have occasionally heard of people using the little Fishman combo amps with bass, but I'm not sure how much low end they are really designed to handle/put out. The do offer two channels and phantom power, though.
 
#8
I know this is not what you're asking, but having been down this road, I use an Xvive P1 Portable Phantom Power Supply with my Nadine. It is rechargeable and the charge lasts a long time. Very low profile, easy to pack, sits on top of the amp, doesn't need to be plugged in. I run it into the mic input on one of the Genzler acoustic array channels, and it works beautifully.
 
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#9
bassically_eli said:
I have occasionally heard of people using the little Fishman combo amps with bass, but I'm not sure how much low end they are really designed to handle/put out. The do offer two channels and phantom power, though.
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IME Even the largest Fishman Loud Box isn’t hearty enough to work with Double Bass. They are acoustic guitar/violin amps. I’ve played through one several times and it just didn’t have any &@((‘s The little Traynor SB-106 doesn’t have phantom but it has big &@((‘s for it’s compact size.
 
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#10
bassically_eli said:
Just in case it wasn't clear, several of the items Ric mentioned are preamps only, not heads or combos. Those are the Grace Felix, the Headway EDB 2 H.E. (Headway makes/has made several preamps with phantom power, but doesn't have any combos or head amps yet), and the EBS Stanley Clark.
Click to expand...
Just to clarify, OP’s original post did say “amps or combos” but since they are so few DB specific combos or heads with phantom power I added the preamps and identified them as such. Sorry for the apparent confusion.
 
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#12
Although I’m definitely a nostalgic fellow, my first DB pickup and amp paring was a great amp, the Ampeg B-15N ( rev C) and a Barcus Berry
“Silver Sliver” piezo that you affixed to the underside of your bridge with putty. It had a little 9v Preamp and it sounded like D%@ $(-) ! + So even in 1975 they had little add ons you had to get “for the optimal sound” . I replaced the Barcus Berry with a Polytone that had to be machined down to fit the inside arch of the smaller bridge. The Barcus Berry would loose a it’s adhesion and fall of the bridge and the Polytone would come loose and fall to the floor. So for the most part things have greatly improved. :woot: :roflmao: ;)
 
#15
Ric Vice said:
IME Even the largest Fishman Loud Box isn’t hearty enough to work with Double Bass. They are acoustic guitar/violin amps. I’ve played through one several times and it just didn’t have any &@((‘s The little Traynor SB-106 doesn’t have phantom but it has big &@((‘s for it’s compact size.
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I managed to find the specs for the Fishman LoudBox Performer, and it says 80hz at -4dB. So yeah, what you says makes total sense, and I'm guessing the other Fishman amps (which are all smaller and less powerful) would have even less "&@((s" as you put it haha.

-4dB might not sound so bad, but in my non-expert experience, small box designs tend to have a hump of a few or more decibels in the 100-200hz range, which means 4db down from the midline on a frequency response graph is likely 6+ decibels down from the low-end peak. That's total speculation on my part though.

Okay, tangent over.
 
#17
Jeremy Allen said:
I know this is not what you're asking, but having been down this road, I use an Xvive P1 Portable Phantom Power Supply with my Nadine. It is rechargeable and the charge lasts a long time. Very low profile, easy to pack, sits on top of the amp, doesn't need to be plugged in. I run it into the mic input on one of the Genzler acoustic array channels, and it works beautifully.
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I really appreciate this info and the direct link thanks
 
#18
Velcro a preamp with a phantom power mic option into a bass combo . I am still rocking my Acoustic Image combo/s and since I do not have a fancy mic (just an ATM-350) it's good enough since the piezo is what I am using. If recording is involved then I'll bring a fully featured preamp like my Headway or a tube pre and I use a Remic
 
#19
logdrum said:
Velcro a preamp with a phantom power mic option into a bass combo . I am still rocking my Acoustic Image combo/s and since I do not have a fancy mic (just an ATM-350) it's good enough since the piezo is what I am using. If recording is involved then I'll bring a fully featured preamp like my Headway or a tube pre and I use a Remic
Click to expand...
Thanks and I know this is an option - I'm trying to explore as minimal a setup as possible first
 
#20
Jeremy Allen said:
I know this is not what you're asking, but having been down this road, I use an Xvive P1 Portable Phantom Power Supply with my Nadine. It is rechargeable and the charge lasts a long time. Very low profile, easy to pack, sits on top of the amp, doesn't need to be plugged in. I run it into the mic input on one of the Genzler acoustic array channels, and it works beautifully.
Click to expand...
Hey again Jeremy - can you tell me...do you have any sense of how this setup handles the bleed from the Nadine. With my Acoustic Image head and Acme bottom, I'm finding it nearly impossible to use the Nadine live because I just can't get the volume high enough without bringing in a ton of drums and piano too. I know there's various ways of externally dealing with this, but I just wonder if you're using only the Nadine, how are you dealing with this issue? Thanks
 

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