Schertler Dyn-B for live performance ?

[rikodriko]

Hi, Im totally new on this forum - but was using the talkbass instead, but its probably better to have a UK forum, not that im from the UK anyways, but thats another discussion.

I have a lovely double bass, with an epic tone. For the past few years i have been using a David Gage realist, into a Clarus head and then to a custom made sympathetic double speaker system that was made by my bass teacher (an old pro).

Ive never been happy with the amplified tone, very muddy and nasal - loads of mid range, and think this is because of the realist. I then bought a Boss GE9B bass EQ pedal and tried to reduce some of the mid range that i was hating. No real effect to be honest, and I have to put the levels right up just to hear anything through my speaker.

I have never used a preamp with the Realist/Clarus

But I'm still not happy, after a great gig a few weeks back, Im really in the mood to change my sound and spend some money to get that proper DB amplified tone, and then i heard about the Dyn-B, and the PREAIII preamp... Expensive stuff it seems. Sheez...

I phoned around some places, and the people told me that the Dyn-B was more suited to studio use, and, although used for live performance, it was a mainly a studio setup.

So, after all that: here are some questions that someone more knowledgeable than myself can help with:

1. Will using a nice pre amp with my david gage make my sound less muddy and nasal - given that everyone thinks that the realist is the bomb, then why dont i get that feeling? Any recommendations?

2. If i spend all that money on the Schertler stuff will it be better - is it good (*accurate reproduction*) for live amplification? I dont do any studio work, but am just after a nice tone while playing live...

3. lastly - does the signal from the realist degrade over time? It seems that im having to turn my bass head up loads more than i used to, although this may be due to deafness as i play drums as well ...

Any and all advice much appreciated.

[Gareth Hughes]

Hey rikodriko - welcome to the forum.

In my experience the problem with recommending for or against any double bass pickup is that they really do seem to respond completely differently from one bass to the next. They seem to interact with the individual bass a lot more than pickup on an electric bass do. (This isn't a scientific observation, just a gigging one).

I had a Realist that sounded great on my Eminence Portable Upright (all laminate construction) but sounded muddy on a £3.5K fully carved Romanian bass. When the Realist died (and most of them seem to after a while) I replaced it with an Apt-Flex pickup - similar design but far superior tonally, IMO.

One problem you might be experiencing is that a fully carved, gorgeous acoustic toned bass does not always make for a good amplified tone. What I found with my fully carved bass was that all those lovely vibrating pieces of wood were just vibrating too damn much once an amplifier or drum kit was nearby. In the end I sold it and replaced it with a £700 hybrid bass from the Hora company, via Thomann. Whilst it has about 85% of the acoustic tone that the fully carved one had, it is so much more useable live - which is where it counts for me.

Another aspect is amplification - I had both an Acoustic Image Contra combo, and a Focus 2 head, and found that they never had any life to them, or were any good at dealing with midrange EQ problems. (The Hi-Pass Filter is a truly wonderful thing tho). Right now I'm using a Genz Benz Shuttle 3.0T combo and I'm having the most satisfying tone I've ever had. One design feature of these is that there's quite a steep low end roll off built into the preamp, in order for it to maximise the cabinet it's coupled with. It seems to have removed all of the unusable but feedback inducing frequencies that made my gigging life miserable before.

As for a preamp with the Realist - I don't think it will help. For one thing - the Acoustic Image heads are designed to take Piezo pickups, so you're already getting the impedance load you want on that pickup. Sometimes it's about getting the right impedance, as I'm only finding out now. For years I was using a Fishman Dual Parametric DI because it had a 10 Mohm impedance which I thought was best - get it as high as you can, or so I thought. Right now I'm getting the best result plugging my Apt-Flex directly into a Boss TU-2 tuner, which has a 1 Mohm input and it sounds so much better. It could be that the 10 M-ohm input was letting in too many low frequencies, and highs too possibly. I could be completely wrong in all this - but I know it's working a lot better than it did before.

Here's something to check out about the importance of getting the right input impedance: [url="http://contrabassconversations.com/2008/06/28/cbc-85-bass-gear-with-steve-rodby/"]http://contrabassconversations.com/2008/06...th-steve-rodby/[/url]

And here's a link to Jonas Lohse's store for the Apt-Flex: [url="http://www.kontrabass-atelier.de/pickups_e.html"]http://www.kontrabass-atelier.de/pickups_e.html[/url]

Where abouts in the world are you? If you're in the US you might not be able to get the Apt-Flex (assuming you wanted one) as it is similar to The Realist which has a US Patent protection. The Apt-Flex is made in Russia so the patent restriction doesn't apply.

Hope that helps a little. And good luck!!!

[daflewis]

Interesting that you say the realist is middley - i've been using them for about 10 years and like them because on my basses i find exactly the opposite! (which makes them
particularly useful for gigs involving pizz and arco as most pickups sound quite nasal with a bow).

could it have anything to do with placement? has the bridge moved or possibly lifted toward the fingerboard (as happens over time)? - if so there would be less pressure on the pad which will change the response and volume - just as you've described.

Sorry if i'm stating the obvious/teaching granny to suck eggs - just throwing ideas around...