Double Bass What are Touring Bassists using for Sound?

[phlybass]

Hi to all,

I caught the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra here in Farmington, NM recently. The Bassist, who was excellent, but whose name I cant recall, was using an NS Design CR4 EUB through an EA 800 head and an Aguilar cabinet. His sound was very good for an EUB, although he said he'd rather have been playing an acoustic.

The band, which bought the bass, went to the EUB after too many mishaps travelling with a regular acoustic bass.

Good sound and great big band. Buddy Morrow, who is 75, leads the band now and still plays a lot of trombone!

Regards to all, Alex

 

[Huy Nguyen]

I just saw Buster Williams a few weeks ago, and he had an Underwood and (I think) a Realist on his bass. From the sound of things, he was using the Underwood.

Just came home from a Denny Zeitlin show @ Yoshi's with Matt Wilson & Buster. Looks like he's dropped the underwood. I'm pretty sure he was using a Fishman BP-100 on his Hawkes (if I recognized it right). I didn't see any other pickups on his bass. It went:
Bp-100 -> AI head (like a Clarus or Focus) -> 1 Hartke 4x10 & 1 Harket 15".

My guess is that he's using a Focus now to power all those cabs. It was surprising to see the Hartke cabs on stage. Twas a good show indeed.

 

[Jason Hollar]

If I may...

I had a nice conversation with my former bass teacher, Steve Varner, who currently tours with Pat Martino. He's using a Realist pickup into an Acoustic Image Clarus Head. He loves the portability and power of the Clarus head and also uses a Raezer's Edge 12 for his NYC gigs. He likes the head for travel too...because Pat often plays nice rooms with bass rigs provided -- so Steve is able to bypass the house bass head, use the AI, and drive whatever cabinet might be hanging out.

I imagine this might be a pretty tight sounding rig -- because Steve Also said Mr. Martino likes to dig in and play gigs with lots of intensity and volume! Rock on!

 

[simandlhandle]

I was in San Francisco last week, but damm, didn't make it to Yoshi's. Saw the band at The Top of the Mark though, and thought they sounded great.
My favourite bassplayer in London is Dave Green, and he uses spirocore orchestral strings, an original underwood pickup and a Polytone amp. I think that he has had this setup for as long as I have been alive.
I think if something works OK you get to a point , not of apathy, but of the old maxim, " if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

[bassdogEmer]

Dave Holland underwood/realist(for recording)
Gary Peacock Fishman bp 100
Ron Carter ?
Scott Colley ? (Damn he's good...Check out Old School)

Hey Flatback -
I know that Ron only uses the realist w/the Gk amp on stage and then the live out to the house. Dave Holland is on the underwood.
In my own experience- I use the realist and have had no problems with it but I do travel w/a spare cuz you never know but i will also say i toured with the full circle for two years and while getting a huge electric tone I dunno if i would use it for jazz shows cuz the low end is way bigger then the top end..just not the most even of pick ups. I also had to have it re-wired while out on the road twice which sucks. i gots me a lessson coming up with Scott Colley in a onth so I will fill ya in on the deets with his rig as soon as I know!
What have you been using these days and what can you turn me onto??
also- whats the atm or amt ??? acronyms for gear??

 

[Ric Vice]

Hey,
Last week I was lucky enough to see John Patitucci with Wayne Shorter and Christian Mc Bride with Pat Matheny. In both cases they used two mikes on the bass. I was close enough to check out the situation and from what I could see, neither one of them were using a pickup at all! They both had an AMT on the bass for close miking. Patitucci was using another mike directly out in front of the bass. Christian had what looked like a SM 58 encased in foam shoved between the feet of the bridge. John was using what looked like a Audix CXL 112.


Ric Vice

 

[flatback]

dawg,
The AMT is the most bad ass mic for URB right now. Its gotta go thru a high end cab to sound its best, but it is sure worth it. I am using the Vektor pick up, which is the single best bass pick up I have ever owned (and I've tried almost all of em) It sounds like what it is, a mic.ctheck out the thread on them here in amps.
I'm alo using a Walter Woods into a Low Down Sound 1x8 cabnet. This is a fantastic micro rig. I played with 5 horns and full rhythm the other night and the thing had the perfect blend of natural and clarity.

 

[Wxp4759cb]

I saw Patitucci on saturday and he was playing (upright) through a full SWR stack. It sounded pretty good, but unless I had his roadies I could never lug that much stuff to a gig.

 

[bluegreenturtle]

Charlie Haden has used a Stat-B forever. Not sure if that's still true.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

I was at Yoshi's last week for a Ray Brown Tribute. Christian McBride, John Clayton, Benny Green, Russell Malone, and Greg Hutchinson. We even sang happy birthday to Ray (it was his b-day last thursday)! What an amazing show.

Anyways, I didn't see what Christian McBride was using but I got a looksee at John Clayton's setup: AMT mic with the standard gooseneck on a clamp & a what looked like a Dyn-B. Somehow both of their bass rigs were out of sight so I have no idea what they used.

 

[olivier]

Charlie Haden has used a Stat-B forever. Not sure if that's still true.

Forever ? Give me a break ! Ch Haden has been around for close to 50 years, while Stat-B hardly more than 5.

A lot of bassists are hampered by the fact that they have to travel light, and have to rely on the kindness of strangers. I've loaned either basses and/or amps to Buster, Michael Moore, Dennis Erwin (sp?), Percy Heath, and Jim Cammack while they were in town, and they all just made the best of it. Most of them are grateful to get the best you have to offer, then go out and play the **** out of whatever it is they end up with.

Exactly. Saw Mingus Dynasty last night (Ku-Umba-Frank-Lacy on T-bone and vocals is great, flamboyant). Boris Koslow was pulling his usual good job on bass. When asked about his gear, he said "It's a laminate" pointing at the Musima with spiro medium, a realist into a GK microbass and some 4X10 provided by the organizer. Very far from the optimum gear, but Boris dug hard and delivered the music.

 

[flatback]

Forever ? Give me a break ! Ch Haden has been around for close to 50 years, while Stat-B hardly more than 5.

well Charlie has been using the stat b at least since 1990 when I began studying with him. It had two pick ups then, and there weren't too many of them about. that was 15 years ago.

 

[bassdogEmer]

Hey Flatback - wassupp dowg here. how ya been?? we were sutdyin w/haden at the same time I and thought he used the schertler pick up? is that the startb?? are they the same - just curious I am still sold on the realist for convience sake. by the way - I borrowed a flatback Czeck bass for my gig last night and it was killin - it had an Eb neck on it.. it took me a sec to get used to intonation wise but I really liked it - have you ever palyed one of those?? what do you think??

p.s. I think i will be touring out your way in dec. if you are around
l8ter
A

 

[bluegreenturtle]

yeah, what he said. so there! don't be so fast to correct when you don't know.

I used to work for a friend of Charlie's who introduced me to him in 2001 - CH said the pickup had been around in various forms for a long time. It was reviewed in bass player magazine in it's current (single) form in 1996, and was around long before that.

Forever ? Give me a break ! Ch Haden has been around for close to 50 years, while Stat-B hardly more than 5.

well Charlie has been using the stat b at least since 1990 when I began studying with him. It had two pick ups then, and there weren't too many of them about. that was 15 years ago.

 

[flatback]

....oh and I think charlie is out of his 40's too....

hey dawg sup? I have not played an Eflat bass is la while...just a little adjustment as I remember. U still looking for a GK?

 

[Ric Vice]

Charlie has one of the original Dual Element Schertler Stat B's. Now obviously he wasn't using one when he played with Ornette Coleman, but he used my rig for a concert here in St. Louis in the 1991 just after the Second Quartet West Album was released.
He was using it then.

It had a Pre Amp that allowed him to send the signal diectly to the board and out to the amp. That pickup was around a few years before that as I recall.

 

[bolo]

Charlie has one of the original Dual Element Schertler Stat B's.

This is the same pickup that Rick Jones (of Acoustic Image) refers to as his favorite pickup. At least that was the case about 6 years ago when he was kind enough to answer a whole bunch of my questions face to face. I know Rick doesn't tour, so I'm slightly off topic here (sorry...), but I'd say he knows a fair amount about amplifying the double bass!

He pipes the Schertler into ... you guessed it ... an AI Contra of course. Venues are small clubs and restaurants.

Rick also told me that at some point Schertler changed from the "dual" Stat B to the "single" based on concerns about phase cancellation, although it had never presented him with a problem.
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Thank you to everyone who has posted in this thread. Very interesting stuff indeed!

 

[flatback]

I am using the Vektor which is like a stat b only the pick up (contact mic) is embedded in the bridge so that it picks up the face of the bass (under the E foot) as opposed to the bridge. It is a great pick up (a lot cleaner and more like the sound of the instrument then the stat B)
combined with the gig pro preamp it is the best a contact mic can get and thats pretty good.

 

[bluegreenturtle]

This is the same pickup that Rick Jones (of Acoustic Image) refers to as his favorite pickup. At least that was the case about 6 years ago when he was kind enough to answer a whole bunch of my questions face to face. I know Rick doesn't tour, so I'm slightly off topic here (sorry...), but I'd say he knows a fair amount about amplifying the double bass!

He pipes the Schertler into ... you guessed it ... an AI Contra of course.

Rick also told me that at some point Schertler changed from the "dual" Stat B to the "single" based on concerns about phase cancellation, although it had never presented him with a problem.
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My understanding was that they moved to the single because of cost issues - I looked into buying one in the 90's when they were dual but they were almost $500. This was a price area that people who use a pickup of the stat's performance wouldn't be interested in, so they lowered it and went with the single. I paid almost $300 for my stat in 2000. I often wish they had the dual - I have flipped the pickup from wing to wing many times.

 

[bolo]

bluegreenturtle, thanks for the additional info and clarification about the Stat B. What you said sure makes sense to me.

Here's another data point, borrowing / repeating one of my old posts:

I thought it was interesting to learn that Ron Carter uses (or used) a pickup somehow integrated with the soundpost on his bass.

The Sept. 2003 edition of Bass Player magazine which featured Ron on the cover says at that time he was combining a Realist with "a Kurmann system, which is built into the soundpost inside the bass."

jonas then added:

The Kurmann Soundpost is out of production. But they still offer the violin version.
You'll find their link at my website: Link Removed