Double Bass The switch to upright

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

I will however be playing this bass with people sooner rather than later, so while I appreciate the need to focus on developing my sound, I will also need to amplify soon, so even if I don't get my ultimate amplified sound immediately I need to start with something.

What you have will do the job.

 

[GrowlerBox]

What you have will do the job.

Except he has no pickup ...

There are several oft-recommended pickups -- Fishman Full-Circle, Realist, Revolution Solo, Underwood are a few that spring to mind. The first two, while excellent, might be a bit of a pain to install for a new player, especially the Fishman, which may even be a luthier jobbie, even if you have an adjustable bridge. The other two are bridge wing pickups, and simple to install. There are plenty of others, at all sorts of price points and degrees of complexity, but lots of time for that when you know what you're chasing.

Whether you need another preamp depends, really. You have a nice pre in the Alembic, but I have no idea what the input impedance is (and could not find the information on a brief perusal of their website/manual) -- between 1 and 10 MOhms is generally needed to properly load most piezoelectric pickups (i.e. all those listed above); too low a loading emphasizes their mid-range quackiness (among other things). Other useful features are a high pass filter (at the input, not the output crossover as the Alembic has) and a phase reverse. One of the simplest, cleanest and best-regarded preamps with these features included is the fdeck HPF-Pre, designed by Francis Deck, active here on TB, and available built by him (via his website) at a cost of less than half what they're worth (but don't tell him that), and in my view/experience, will make almost any bass amplifier work at least passably well for double bass. If you're handy, you can get his schematic for free and make it yourself.

As for your power amp and cab -- top o' the line stuff, probably crazy overkill, but you can be certain you'll never need more than that ...

Hope that helps.

 

[Thumpie]

I wouldn't recommend looking at equipment for a year or so because you need time to develop your sound and you'll be chasing the unknown. No sense throwing money away.

That's a really good point. Realistically, you're not going to be performing in any kind of of formal setting for quite some time (I didn't take my bass out of the house for the first year). I think waiting a year to even start thinking about plugging in is really good advice.

 

[jamiroquaisub]

One of the simplest, cleanest and best-regarded preamps with these features included is the fdeck HPF-Pre.

As for your power amp and cab -- top o' the line stuff, probably crazy overkill, but you can be certain you'll never need more than that ...

+1

Someone on here has a sig:

20% of the money will buy you 90% of the sound...another 30% of the money will buy you another 5% of the sound...you can't buy the remaining 5% of the sound because nobody can agree about what it is.

Because you already have a cabinet that is pretty flat, grab an fdeck for the princely sum of $108 and the piezo of your choice from the classifieds and you will have 90% of the sound - hell, for what you are going to do you may have 110% of the sound.

 

[damon78]

All right, I'm sold. Looking at 2nd hand realist and I'll pick up the fdeck here shortly too.

Thanks again!

 

[damon78]

I read that the input impedance of the f1x is already appropriate for the output impedance of the piezo. And my power amp has a low pass filter below 50 hz. Will the Fdeck still be helpful for me?

 

[GrowlerBox]

I read that the input impedance of the f1x is already appropriate for the output impedance of the piezo. And my power amp has a low pass filter below 50 hz. Will the Fdeck still be helpful for me?

Where did you read that? Unless your source can provide a number, I wouldn't necessarily believe it. The website blurb suggests it's a pre for bass and keyboard instruments -- keyboard amps particularly tend not to have high input impedances. Doesn't rule it out, but worth checking.

Your power amp's HPF is probably fine, unless it has a particularly shallow slope. It's probably somewhat less important if you're using a fEARful cab, in any case, as their long-excursion speakers tend to be able to handle the low end well.

The phase switch on the fdeck is handy, but if you're free to move around on most of your gigs, you can probably find an out-of phase spot to stand in!

 

[damon78]

I read it here:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I thought that the HPF was for controlling feedback as well as controlling speaker excursion. Does that make the sweepable HPF frequency important?

 

[dukeorock]

I read it here:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I thought that the HPF was for controlling feedback as well as controlling speaker excursion. Does that make the sweepable HPF frequency important?

The Alembic is a little low for impedance, but better than some pres. The fDeck is so affordable and so useful, I'd take the chance...the HPF function works a treat