Amplification advice

[julietgreen]

I've started gigging with the DB this year. I'm using a j-tone piezo pick up and a trace amp and mark bass two by ten cab. It's been OK ish so far. The last gig I had to deal with a bit of feedback. Set up was cramped and I was practically on top of the cab. Some festy gigs coming up will have bass rig set up but they'll be for eb. I've never tried it through anything else yet. Was thinking of sticking to my combo and Di to the PA. I'd like to pick the brains of experienced dB players who have used amplification. Thoughts? 

[Geek99]

Ignore this comment please 

utter stupidity on my part 

Edited 12 hours ago by Geek99

[Geek99]

Based only on an acoustic bass and amping, I’d go to the PA every time 

[simonlittle]

Like a lot of upright bass players I have a David Gage Realist pickup on my bass and play the majority of my upright gigs through a Markbass head and 210 cab. I’m not familiar with the J-tone pickup but I’ve rarely had feedback issues with the Realist. I also regularly play the same bass through a big Ashdown rig with a 6x10 cab with no problems, plus it’s been through a bunch of festival hire rigs (usually Ampeg SVTs and big 8x10/4x10 cabs), again no problem. 
It always helps to have a bit of distance between the cab and the bass to avoid feedback issues, more so as the volume levels go up. The only times I’ve had an issue have been when I’m right on top of the amp as you mentioned, or when playing a hire bass with a crappy pickup.
 

[Staggering on]

For smaller gigs I go direct to our Bose PA but when I play at bluegrass festivals I use my combo amp and DI to the PA and it always seems to work OK. At bluegrass gigs most of the sound guys know what a bass should sound like for bluegrass and are good at setting things up for bass players.

[Paddy Morris]

I've had a couple of J-tones.  They are extremely good for the money, but there are also many better pickups out there.  I did tend to have more feedback issues with the J-tones, but there were other factors involved too.  The input impedance of the Trace might be wrong for the pickup.  You could try a buffer/HPF like the Raffery or Fdeck, I bet that would make a big difference.

 

As long as you can hear what you're playing on stage using the combo, then why not run through the PA?

[JPJ]

I’ve used J-Tones (Reds and Big Twin) and found them to be excellent pickups providing you spend time to get the fit in the bridge wing ‘just right’. I’ve recently moved to a David Gage copperhead, which is a huge improvement over the J-Tones but I guess you’d expect that given the respective price points. So far I’ve had no feedback issues with the copperhead, but I’m playing a gig in a couple of weeks with a notoriously resonant stage so that will be the acid test.

Do you used F hole blockers on louder stages? 

[Burns-bass]

48 minutes ago, JPJ said:

I’ve used J-Tones (Reds and Big Twin) and found them to be excellent pickups providing you spend time to get the fit in the bridge wing ‘just right’. I’ve recently moved to a David Gage copperhead, which is a huge improvement over the J-Tones but I guess you’d expect that given the respective price points. So far I’ve had no feedback issues with the copperhead, but I’m playing a gig in a couple of weeks with a notoriously resonant stage so that will be the acid test.

Do you used F hole blockers on louder stages? 

When I play louder stages I’ll often try to blend the magnetic pickup with a piezo. Both can run through the EBS preamp and be adjusted to sound excellent.

[simonlittle]

53 minutes ago, JPJ said:

Do you used F hole blockers on louder stages?

I’ve never needed to. On occasions where the bass feels like it might kick off I can usually sort that by dialling out a bit of low mids on the amp. 
Plus I rarely have the bass coming out of my monitor, especially on a big festival stage. I’ve found that can be a recipe for disaster.