As long as I have been playing upright bass I have always wanted to play rock and contemporary music on that instrument even though I learned to play the bass guitar as well. I have owned 4 EUB's so far (Moses, Eminence, Azola, and NS Design) and they have all been great instruments, but with various limitations.
I tour with a folk rock/country artist whom I have played with for almost 5 years. I have played almost exclusively upright bass and EUB until recently when the band brought on an extra guitarist and keyboard player. I found myself once again getting buried in the mix and got to the point where I could only play a P-bass. My beautiful Azola EUB piezo system was picking up too much ambient noise and couldn't sustain against the crunchy guitars and organ sounds. The sound man complained all the time about it. I even tried installing my double bass Biesele magnetic pickup on it but it didn't fit. I resigned myself to just play the slab and forget it.
Well thank the good Lord I fought back....and won!
On a whim I went to Guitar Center and bought a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder P-bass pickup. I then went to my guitar repairman and simply got some double-sided tape and stuck that thing at the end of the Azola EUB fingerboard and ran a wire straight to the jack and grounded it. Went home and started experimenting with how to blend the magnetic with the piezo. The magnetic tone was like a fretless p bass tone with plenty of punch. I love the preamp of my Genz Benz Streamliner 900 amp for bass guitar so I decided to run the signal into that and get a good tube bass tone. The eq section of that amp is very basic so in the effect loop I run out to an Empress Parametric EQ pedal into an Aguilar compressor pedal into an Aguilar Octave pedal and then into a Lehle Parallel M line mixer. I then plug the output of the Azola piezo system into the return input and mix the two signals back into the amp's effect return. I'm running essentially two effect loops to blend two signals and have independent control over how each sound is processed. The magnetic side is very eq'ed and compressed for a consistent, even and sustained tone. The piezo side is left alone and gets a direct path to the DI or amp section.
The results are amazing. No more problems cutting through now!
The band is pretty amazed how present the bass is while still sounding like an upright. I'm learning to keep the magnetic side just subtle enough that it doesn't get that whinny tone and let the piezo tone be the character that can bark through if I dig in. I can even switch to the bow and get a sweet tone without drastic eq changes.
I hope this inspires fellow upright rockers to keep chasing the sound inside your heart and head. I've been chasing this dragon a long time but it really is beginning to sound great!
I tour with a folk rock/country artist whom I have played with for almost 5 years. I have played almost exclusively upright bass and EUB until recently when the band brought on an extra guitarist and keyboard player. I found myself once again getting buried in the mix and got to the point where I could only play a P-bass. My beautiful Azola EUB piezo system was picking up too much ambient noise and couldn't sustain against the crunchy guitars and organ sounds. The sound man complained all the time about it. I even tried installing my double bass Biesele magnetic pickup on it but it didn't fit. I resigned myself to just play the slab and forget it.
Well thank the good Lord I fought back....and won!
On a whim I went to Guitar Center and bought a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder P-bass pickup. I then went to my guitar repairman and simply got some double-sided tape and stuck that thing at the end of the Azola EUB fingerboard and ran a wire straight to the jack and grounded it. Went home and started experimenting with how to blend the magnetic with the piezo. The magnetic tone was like a fretless p bass tone with plenty of punch. I love the preamp of my Genz Benz Streamliner 900 amp for bass guitar so I decided to run the signal into that and get a good tube bass tone. The eq section of that amp is very basic so in the effect loop I run out to an Empress Parametric EQ pedal into an Aguilar compressor pedal into an Aguilar Octave pedal and then into a Lehle Parallel M line mixer. I then plug the output of the Azola piezo system into the return input and mix the two signals back into the amp's effect return. I'm running essentially two effect loops to blend two signals and have independent control over how each sound is processed. The magnetic side is very eq'ed and compressed for a consistent, even and sustained tone. The piezo side is left alone and gets a direct path to the DI or amp section.
The results are amazing. No more problems cutting through now!
The band is pretty amazed how present the bass is while still sounding like an upright. I'm learning to keep the magnetic side just subtle enough that it doesn't get that whinny tone and let the piezo tone be the character that can bark through if I dig in. I can even switch to the bow and get a sweet tone without drastic eq changes.I hope this inspires fellow upright rockers to keep chasing the sound inside your heart and head. I've been chasing this dragon a long time but it really is beginning to sound great!
