Re: Amplification

[pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu (Paolo Valladolid)]

[Dave Stagner wrote]
> >I'd say your choice of amps and speakers is highly dependent on the
> >manner in which you intend to present the music.  Is this for a home
> >studio, or live playing?  Since you're playing Stick, you're going to
> >need to hit some REALLY low bass notes.  There are two ways to
> >approach this.  One is to use a heavy-duty biamped system with big
> >subwoofers to capture those low fundamentals (a Stick tuned down to
> >low A produces a 27.5hz fundamental!) where typical speakers (especially
> >guitar speakers) crap out.  Another is to just roll off that
> >fundamental octave and concentrate on a tight sound (this is why the
> >old Ampeg SVT bass amps with the 8 10" speakers sounded so great.
> >They rolled the fundamental right off, and just reproduced the first
> >order harmonic of the low notes.  The amp and speakers weren't
> >overstressed and sounded much tighter).
[Kim Flint] 
> Very interesting post Dave. I agree, the cleaner the amplification of 
>your
> loops, the better. I had a thought about amplifying a Stick, though. 
>Might
> be obvious to stick players, I don't know.
> 
> Charlie Hunter plays an eight string guitar with 3 bass strings and 5
> guitar strings. He does a rather remarkable job of playing both at once,
> often getting bass melodies and chords all at once. That's not too 
>amazing
> with a good guitarist, but he manages to really make it sound like he is
> two musicians. (Bass player and an Organ player oddly enough.) Part of 
>the
> seperation comes from using seperate pickups and amplifiers for the bass
> and guitar strings on the instrument. So the bass side runs through a 
>good
> bass amp, and the guitar through a rotary speaker effect and into a good
> guitar amp. Both are small and portable.

Given the choice between the considerable weight and expense of a subwoofer
setup and a compact 2x10 type cabinet for the bass section of my Stick, I'd
probably go with the 2x10 myself. I noted that Charlie Hunter uses an Eden
2x10 cabinet for his bass sound - it sounded nice and warm enough to me.

However, the fact that the Stick also offers fairly high tuned strings on
the "bass" side - well into the guitar range - presents an interesting 
problem for Stick players who like to play big chords using both sides of 
the
Stick.  Hence an interest among a number of Stick players in using some 
kind
of crossover so that only those high "bass" strings are processed while 
the low bass strings are not.  A number of bass amps and preamps offer 
built
in crossovers that may serve this purpose for Stick players.

> Seems like tubes would be better for the higher strings on the stick, 
>since
> a little bit of tube distortion would probably give a good sustain for
> them.

An idea I've had for some time, but still lack the funds to try, is to get
a little tube amp (a Fender Pro Jr., Mesa Boogie Subway Blues, etc.) and
either mic it or run it through a Red Box into a mixer, in parallel with
a bass preamp and a clean guitar preamp.  That way, one would have the 
sound of power tube overdrive available for patching into any part of a
signal chain.  Just a thought.

Paolo Valladolid
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