Double Bass Will this work?

[Wasnex]

Big Band is such a difficult situation for a DB player, unless everything is either totally un amplified, or everyone is individually mic'd with proper isolation and individual monitor channels.

I played without any amplification in High School and I still remember the blisters on my index and first finger. I've played professionally and the band was great, but the room was terrible,

so I don't play that particular space anymore. It's just easier for me to leave that gig for someone else to figure out. Just my take. Duo's, Trio's and Quartets are my thing.

I played unamplified in high school big band as well (freshman year only). No one could hear me including myself. It did not matter because we also had a bass guitarist who played through an old Peavey TNT.

I learned a lot and being seen playing upright actually opened doors for me...I was asked to play in one of the local university's big bands before I graduated from high school. Which was great because I had dropped out of all of my high school's music classes which made me ineligible for the the local youth symphony.

My primary instrument in the university big band was my Ric 4001 . I did play a few gigs on upright, but the university's upright was not setup very well and it did not have a pickup. My brother had given me a Barcus Berry piezo that I tried to clamp onto the bridge. It sounded awful and tended to feedback at really low volume. I tried using putty, but could not get the pickup to stay in place. Eventually the wires came out of the pickup, so the idea of playing the upright in the university big band became a dead issue.

I believe the pickup was this model (1355). My brother said it sucked for guitar as well...and was not cheap.

 

[Eric Hochberg]

Big Band? Here's my "one for the books" gig. Bill Russo's (of Kenton fame) Chicago Jazz Ensemble in a large, boomy club. The whole band was mic'ed and I was playing out of a 10" combo, unmic'ed. Bill kept asking me to turn down until my volume was zeroed out. I couldn't hear myself at all. I guess it sounded ok in the room, though.