putting an amp and speaker inside an acoustic bass

[Rich784]

I'm trying to get enough power to bring an acoustic bass guitar to be heard with acoustic guitars. I'm thinking of the Smokey amp plugged into a 10" speaker mounted to the inside back of the guitar and maybe opening up a port hole or even an f hole on the front. Just enough to raise the db level from unamped at around 60db to 100db. Any thoughts?

[Struth]

Hi Guys

You are asking for a lot of trouble with feedback.

Most acoustic instruments fitted with pickups use a peizo type mounted under the bridge. The compression of the crystal pickup generates a current output with the string and body vibrations, which must then be buffered using a high-impedance input stage like a jfet or jfet-input opamp. Buffering this way captures the full signal and gain here is not a requirement, so most acoustic preamps that are simple are just a single jfet.

Unless you fit your bass with metal strings, a peizo pickup or conventional microphone are the only options. Because both respond to vibrations of the entire instrument body, placing a speaker inside the body will just cause feedback. Better to have an outboard amp and speaker.

There is no acoustic guitar that produces 100db of sound - maybe 70-80db.

For your reference, 100db of sound requires that you stand shoulder-to-shoulder and shout to your buddy to be heard.

There is an acoustic preamp project in 'Tonnes of Tone'. See my site for details. We also published a similar project in 'Guitar' magazine a few years ago.

Have fun
Kevin O'Connor
londonpower.com

[counter culture]

Acoustic bass guitars are heard in mariachi bands. See guitarrón.

I've heard a fretless bass played with an acoustic (piezo) pickup through a bass amp, it sounded like a plucked double bass.

Your big problem is getting enough bass extension but also range with a smaller speaker and not having it feed back. I think it's so problematic I wouldn't try. I'd go for an electric bass and a customised amp/speaker with a shoulder strap. It's not a one-piece solution, but you could make it work.

[phase_accurate]

If you still want the acoustic bass amplified but less stuff to drag around then build yourself an instrument case with built-in amp and speaker.

Regards

Charles

[sreten]

Hi,

A small decent bass amplifier used for practicing electric bass is
enough for an small acoustic bass fitted with a piezo pick up.

i.e. for this sort of acoustic bass :




Just use your electric bass practice amp.

rgds, sreten.

[Rich784]

I like the idea of an amp in the case...like the sears sivertone in the 60's... I'm simply attempting to be portable and unplugged to sit around the proverbial camp fire with the guitar players and be heard. Any thoughts of where the speaker would go, size type? I've tried using the Vox headphone bass plug and the little peaker that you can attach to it, it's a joke, it pushes no air...thoughts?

[sreten]

Hi,

Another option is to plug a bass similar to the above into a portable
rock/boom box, ideally you need to go through a bass effects pedal
for compression, a bit of reverb, etc, but its not strictly necessary,
as a lot of them have biult in bass management / compression.

Just make up the right lead. You can't build it into the guitar.

rgds, sreten.

[Rich784]

So...I bought the smokey amp for $20 and put it inside the bass with velcro, took the 1/4" plug out of the back strap lock and connected the pre amp to it via a double male 1/4". i then connected the external speaker jack to a boston accoustics 6" subwoofer just to see how it sounded..well it was good, just enough extra to be heard over my very hard strumming friends Martin...the battery however only lasted about 15 min. I suspect a better battery may get me more time. Tonight I'll crack the sub woofer plastic cab open and experiment with mounting it in the bass. I've got three crappy dean basses to play with. I think if i surround the speaker with foam I may controll the feed back issue...

[Keriwena]

I was wondering what on earth you were on about....

Martin guitar, Dean bass....

I get it now.