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Double Bass Using a mixer to blend pickup and mic into an amp?

ColdEye

ColdEye

Supporting Member
Oct 22, 2015
1,445
2,326
San Diego, CA
#1
So I want to blend my mic and pickup into my amp. My amp only has one input available. I was reading up on preamp/blenders and they are more than I want to spend. Would something like a small yamaha or mackie mixer into an amp work? Battery powered would be a nice bonus. For the phantom power for the mic I could have a separate unit to provide power or directly into the mixer which is very appealing to me. Has anyone used mixers into amps for live performances?
 
#2
Most (close to all) mixers don't have a high impedance input that you need for passive piezo pickups. You could add a simple homemade impedance buffer or an inexpensive HPFpre in front of one mixer channel for a better piezo sound, but with the low impedance inputs of mixers (even lower than most amps made for EBG) you really need such a thing.
 
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#4
Gain staging becomes a little tricky when using a mixer into a bass amp. The A&H Zed10 FX Invalid Link Removed has the best sounding preamps at the price point to my ears, and the sweepable mids are necessary for upright bass, IMO.

You could use something like this mixer plugged into the effects return of your amp in order to bypass the preamp in your bass amp.
 
#5
I use an Acoustic Image Flex preamp, which is essentially a 2-channel mixer with features that are geared toward this very purpose. I've also been looking at the Radial JDV MK5, which doesn't have EQ, but does have HPFs and a variable phase control to blend the 2 channels, plus a mute and tuner output, which I find really useful.

Neither are as cheap as a regular mixer, but both sound fantastic.
 
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