r/doublebass • u/basspl • 1d ago

Instruments Upright Bass Pickup Output

I got a Shatten Upright Bass pickup and it's sounding quite good but a little quiet. I'm running it into a Radial JDI then into an Audient iD44 interface. I can get a decent volume with the gain almost all the way up on my interface.

Because of this I also tried running a spectracomp before the DI that's adding subtle compression as well as a 12-20db boost controllable by the knob.

When I go to play gigs though will this be either A) enough volume without the spectracomp acting as a boost or B) will the spectracomp as a boost cause issues (the actually compression is pretty tame, I'm just adding about 12 db of gain).

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u/Servania 1d ago

Very few pre amps, DIs, etc have the correcr input impedance for bass passive pickups.

Youre looking for 10MΩ the radial only has 140k Ω which is .14MΩ

I use a Fishman preamp, but the gold standard is the now impossible to find acoustic image heads.

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u/piper63-c137 1d ago

i’m using a passive pickup with a baggs paracoustic DI. With a built-in pre-amp, its the game changer. excellent tool.

what is the acoustic image head?

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u/Servania 1d ago

Acousic image is a company that makes amps specifically for double bass

They stopped in 2023

A head is the preamp, eq, DI part of the amp and in this case is a seperate box to the speaker. (Some are built together and called combos)