I'm not new to bass playing. I learned on a Kalamazoo and a Danelectro in the 60s, but I've played upright for only a couple of years and I'm not a sophisticated sound engineer although I can run a decent board. In rock or rockabilly recordings, or even live sound of an upright bass in any setting I can hear a deep, hollow echo, or resonance (thump?) like a large kettle drum that I can't come up with a word for. My problem is that I don't hear it in my own live playing or recordings of me. I use the same K&K pickup wedged in the bridge as many other players (no slap pickup), and I use a Gallien Krueger 700 410+115 stack or a 500 112 compact (no preamp), with absolutely no effects gear and fairly expensive Helicore, medium tension, orchestral, stranded-steel-core strings and I currently have a fairly inexpensive, no-name bass. It also has a Realist pickup with the copper pad sitting under one side of the bridge leg that I don't much like. It's more anemic than the K&K and I never use it, but it don't seem to affect the sound just because it's there. I don't know what to call this sound, so I have a hard time explaining it. Is it common to use an effects pedal to create such a sound, or is there some mysterious amp setting that I need to try? Or is it just my cheap Chinese bass? Thanks for the help.
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