Double Bass More volume! Not a lot, but useful

[coyote1]

As I’ve previously posted, my fave amp arrangement for double bass now is:
ADX90 mic under bridge > Behringer mini mixer w/ phantom power for mic > Crate BX100 (TC Hall of Fame reverb in fx loop, subtle).

It sounds great. Just like the instrument, but louder.

A new addition. Only in my studio, but of course potentially relevant out in the world:
The Crate amp has a balanced XLR out. So I’m taking that directly into the balanced input of a 550 watt per channel power amp, which goes into an Ashdown 4x10 that is situated much closer to the drums. This is all gear I already own, but am re-purposing for the upright.

This all does not really make things much louder, as the limiting factor remains ADX90 mic feedback. But it’s just a bit extra for the drummer and pianist, and is not changing the tone much as far as I can tell. The highs are just a little clearer, as the Ashdown also has a horn. Anyway, there are no negatives to this arrangement and I gain a bit of volume where it matters.

EDIT: it turns out that the FX loop return does not go to the XLR balanced out. Unfortunate, but what are ya gonna do… I might try splitting the output from the reverb pedal, put that into a different channel on the mixer, and send that to the power amp.

 

[coyote1]

There was a negative: the FX loop on the Crate does not go to the XLR out. So the subtle reverb was not hitting the power amp.

Upon more experimentation, it turns out the better path is this: the TC Electronic Halls Of Fame 2 pedal has stereo output. I’m running one of those outputs back to the Crate’s Return input, and the other direct to the power amp. Had to change a couple things relative to the gain structure to make that work, but it’s working well.

 

[coyote1]

This episode, plus my rejuvenated interest in keyboards, prompted me to tear apart all the wiring in my studio and rebuild. All the audio cables, speaker cables, power cables. WHAT A GREAT THING. Everything that connects to something else is now on the same power run as that something else. The congas, vox and keys go into the mixing board and the keys are on the same outlet as the mixer, EQ and power amp. The bass amps and effects are all on the same power outlet as each other. Any/all noise has vanished. No ground loops, no hum, imperceptible hiss.

It’s sooooo quiet! Been years since it was this quiet. Even my Princeton Reverb II amp no longer hums at all. The only noise at this point is from the fan of the Hartke HA3500 bass amp. And since I only run that when higher volume stuff is happening, it’s a non-issue (though I will fix it at some near future point). Why did keyboards push me to this? The Alesis Stereo Grand Piano was the final straw. It sounds dull in mono, so some re-cabling was needed to fix that. One thing led to another… it’s not the best piano sound ever (it’s like 20+ years old at this point), but in stereo it sounds good enough.