Double Bass Mounting a preamp to the bass...

#21
John Chambliss said:
You may want to ask Olivier Babaz on Facebook as he is known to attach kalimbas and other items to his bass.
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I love Oliver Babaz! That's a great idea! And yeah, seeing his kalimba on his bass is part of what got me thinking about this idea. He puts his kalimba right on the top plate though, and it is obviously much lighter and more resonant than the Headway. I wouldn't do that with the Headway, but I can't imagine that mounting it to the ribs would have a noticable impact to the sound at an amplified gig.
 
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#23
If all you need is impedance buffering and a mute /volume control then try a David Gage Realist Super Docking Station. Mounts securely, discreetly and elegantly to your tailpiece and will enable you to simply use one chord to your amp, direct box or mixer. It works and goods good!
 
#27
Why is it so important that the preamp and other accessories be mounted directly on the bass? On the tailpiece or lower bout area is far enough away that you need to bend over to fuss with the settings, plus you need to read the dials sideways, and it has an obvious clutter and mass issue with the bass.

What is wrong with having it on the floor nearby? I run a short, approx. 6' cable to my pedalboard and then run a lot of different electronics, before it goes to the amplifier and or the front of house setup. Beyond about 8' it gets into signal degradation, but short cables tend to work well. That only really applies to peizo pickups. When I use the magnetic KRIVO, I can use a 30' cable and run all over the stage with almost no issues; it also LOVES the funky spaceship pedals!

I don't think your wireless will care if it is blasting through the ether into your preamp or if it takes a raw signal and then goes first to the preamp. For what it is worth, I spent over $2000 last year trying to use 5 different wireless setups for my upright bass on the job and none of the worked well enough that I would use it on the job. They worked reasonably well at home and rehearsal, but most of the larger venues have a ton of wireless signals blasting around cluttering up the frequency ranges.
 
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#28
I should concede that my success on stage with wireless has been primarily roots/acoustic bands (no pedalboards) and acoustic-trained FOHs which don't have a lot competing with my wireless frequencies.

Oh, and to be fair, I'm not on stage all the time -- probably on average less than 10 times a year. James, you're on stage almost every night during some months.

Most (but not all) of my experiences have been outside venues on an elevated stage, using wired '57 or '58 -type dynamic mics running through a snake or two, into a mixer pretty far off stage. I just hand the FOH people my receiver(s), we test a little and we go. I've never had problems, but it's a pretty simple setup and it isn't very often.

And my wireless dongles, the only ones I've ever used, are typical inexpensive (<<$100) devices.
 
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#30
I often blend a mic and a pickup, hence the two channel preamp. If I wanted to do that wirelessly, then it would require two wireless transmitters mounted to the bass, plus my mic requires phantom power.

I have run the pickup only before with a ~$50 wireless system, and it worked just fine with the Lifeline. I really appreciated not having multiple cables (i.e., trip hazards) connected to the bass. I plan to do this again at tomorrow's gig and see how much I miss the mic. It's a gig that I play every month, so I have a really good bassline perception of the sound of that particularly group in that room playing the same music.
 
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#31
It's ironic how little room there can be to attach electronics on such a goofily large instrument.
... at least when you're trying to make it practical AND reversible.
https://www.fishman.com/product-type-onboard-preamps/
Is it time for us to get up to speed with the late previous century, join the acoustic guitarists & open our minds to having a control panel on the side of an instrument that's going to get amplified 99.5% of the time?
My ABG has one; it's awesome to work with.
ovation-panel.jpg

Would I take the plunge & commit to cutting a rectangle into the side of my '48 Kay? I would be seriously tempted... but probably not.
I suspect most other double bassists would break the same way (if they were to entertain the idea at all).
I guess that's why I still use my fDeck on the floor. (I dislike crouching but it's probably good for me.)
Maybe by the 22nd century... ;)
 
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#32
Jefenator said:
It's ironic how little room there can be to attach electronics on such a goofily large instrument.
... at least when you're trying to make it practical AND reversible.
https://www.fishman.com/product-type-onboard-preamps/
Is it time for us to get up to speed with the late previous century, join the acoustic guitarists & open our minds to having a control panel on the side of an instrument that's going to get amplified 99.5% of the time?
My ABG has one; it's awesome to work with.
View attachment 5386451
Would I take the plunge & commit to cutting a rectangle into the side of my '48 Kay? I would be seriously tempted... but probably not.
I suspect most other double bassists would break the same way (if they were to entertain the idea at all).
I guess that's why I still use my fDeck on the floor. (I dislike crouching but it's probably good for me.)
Maybe by the 22nd century... ;)
Click to expand...

+1, my man, @fdeck is already toying with the idea of tackling this project for the benefit of mankind. I suspect the more of us that speak up like this, the more motivated he will be.
 
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#33
Jefenator said:
It's ironic how little room there can be to attach electronics on such a goofily large instrument.
... at least when you're trying to make it practical AND reversible.
https://www.fishman.com/product-type-onboard-preamps/
Is it time for us to get up to speed with the late previous century, join the acoustic guitarists & open our minds to having a control panel on the side of an instrument that's going to get amplified 99.5% of the time?
My ABG has one; it's awesome to work with.
View attachment 5386451
Would I take the plunge & commit to cutting a rectangle into the side of my '48 Kay? I would be seriously tempted... but probably not.
I suspect most other double bassists would break the same way (if they were to entertain the idea at all).
I guess that's why I still use my fDeck on the floor. (I dislike crouching but it's probably good for me.)
Maybe by the 22nd century... ;)
Click to expand...

I get the impression the tide is moving away from those systems in the acoustic guitar world - a lot of newer systems just have a couple of thumb wheel pots at the soundhole. Obsolescence may be part of it, the fear of ending up with an otherwise nice instrument with a big hole in the side for a long-superceded pickup system.
 
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#34
Jefenator said:
It's ironic how little room there can be to attach electronics on such a goofily large instrument.
... at least when you're trying to make it practical AND reversible.
https://www.fishman.com/product-type-onboard-preamps/
Is it time for us to get up to speed with the late previous century, join the acoustic guitarists & open our minds to having a control panel on the side of an instrument that's going to get amplified 99.5% of the time?
My ABG has one; it's awesome to work with.
... (image)...
Would I take the plunge & commit to cutting a rectangle into the side of my '48 Kay? I would be seriously tempted... but probably not.
I suspect most other double bassists would break the same way (if they were to entertain the idea at all).
I guess that's why I still use my fDeck on the floor. (I dislike crouching but it's probably good for me.)
Maybe by the 22nd century... ;)
Click to expand...

Interesting thought.

I think if I were going that route, I'd have an access panel built into my driver-side C, and mount the mixer/preamp controls on the access panel door... Then route a conventional bridge piezo wire through one of the F-holes to the mixer/pre-amp, and a cable plug socket through the other F-hole. So it would all be easy to maintain (ie: change the battery, or tweak), plus I could totally remove it by simply replacing the access panel's door. And, I'd have easy access to the sound post.

Have to do something to prevent cable rattles though.
 
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#36
Ironically, my DB has an access panel, but I chose to mount my pre-amp on the back side of my bow quiver instead. On my DB, the access panel door is not completely removable; I do use its inside surface to store spare batteries using Velcro. But I found the bow quiver much more easily accessible for the two external controls on my pre-amp (K&K Dual Channel Pro ST).
 
#38
It’s likely to be found in a device that no longer exists or hasn’t been built yet. There was a tailpiece preamp built by a bassist that had volume treble and bass controls. It didn’t sell perhaps because while hanging a preamp off the tailpiece may be convenient it effectively mutes the vibrations and resonance of the tailpiece and when players installed it they noticed it’s negative effect, hard to say. Regardless, the EDB-2 H.E. Is the smallest full featured preamp I’m currently aware of. Grace Felix can sit on the floor and has foot switches to boost, switch channels ,and mute the inputs. Of the preamps I’m familiar with their the best ones out there.
 
#40
bassically_eli said:
To be clear, I never intended to mount the Headway to my tailpiece. It is far too heavy for that. I was thinking of some way to mount it to the rib.

I've recently gone another direction, though, and just received a Tone Dexter II.
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Sounds like an excellent plan. I’ve never had any luck mounting anything to my Mirecourt Bass. On a flat back bass, with sloping shoulders, and a beveled back. It’s really not possible to mount anything, because it simply slides off. The Explore Audio H Clamp simply won’t hold. It’s even tricky to affix a jack retainer to my Mike Pecanic compensated tailpiece. The Tone Dexter II is an interesting piece of gear.
 
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