New Owner

[Mlazarus]

Well as you now, the DS-5 has mono/out. You know the typical blue box. I don't know if the mono switch is on a new one. There is no switch on mine.

But you are saying:
 
    1.Put ALL the pedals, as well as the compressor and Tech 21 into the Mono out for the MarkBass 15 inch.(The mono out is only for the neck pickup correct?).

    2. connect the treble only into the Peavy 10 inch(The treble out is only for the Bridge pickup correct?).

That's how i understand it. I wil experiment

[JimmyJ]

Sorry my explanation wasn't very clear...  Let me try again.

If you ONLY plug one cable into the Bass / Mono output then both pickups will be blended together - you will be in mono.  If you plug a cable into the Treble output that will make only the bass pickup appear on the Bass output and only the treble pickup appear in the Treble output - you will be in "stereo". 

I use quotes because in this application "stereo" does not really mean left and right, it means each pickup has its own separate output channel.  Running the bass this way makes for a very clean and full sound, as you will discover.  But if you like to use effects in the audio chain, running in stereo gets complicated.  (Yes, at one time I did own a Mu-Tron Bi-Phase fully stereo effect.    )

Jimmy J

[Mlazarus]

I once brought the series 1 to Guitar center. We connected the DS-5 bass/mono into one the Markbass 15 Amp and another cable from the treble jack to a 2 10 Markbass amp.

     1. The front pickup only played in the Bass/mono jack(markbass 15)

     2. The rear pickup only played in the treble jack(smaller Markbass 2 10s) nothing but clean highs.
 
     together, sounded clean and powerful.

     Do you usually only plug into one jack on the DS-5?

[jazzyvee]

I have to say I think i have only used the two outputs to two separate cabs on my series bass on a gig about 2 or 3 times. I don't use effects so i can't say i noticed a huge benefit. For playing reggae which is what most of my gigs are, using separate outs do not give me any benefit over mono. It works better to send the mono signal to both cabs.

What i have noticed is that if I switch my DS-5 to stereo and put both outputs into the two inputs on my alembic F1-x preamp, i get a bigger signal from my bass.
I would suggest experimenting till you find what works for you. One gig where I wanted to use using individual pickups to separate cabs, the venue sound engineer is a personal friend and at soundcheck we experimented with standard mono and stereo options and he said the bi-amped mode sounded much better in the FOH so for that gig I had two DI's from the bass and both cabs mic'd up and that sounded superb. It was a jazz-funk gig so i was able to use more of the frequency  range of the bass.

[JimmyJ]

Like Jazzyvee, I've only used the separate stereo outputs on rare occasions in my 40+ years (!!) of playing Series instruments. As you've discovered Michael, it is a wonderful huge and open sound to have separate amps for each pickup, but it's not always practical.  Jazzyvee mentions a gig where the PA mixer was willing to experiment and used 4 input channels just for bass.  That's a rare situation for sure.  Plus, you are then counting on that engineer to balance your sound for you and they may have a different idea about it...

When I had a stereo amp rig about 100 years ago    it included a stereo chorus whose input came from the bridge pickup only but whose stereo (100% effect only) output was then blended into both amp inputs.  When kicked in the overall tone got brighter and started rotating around while the fundimental from the neck pickup was unaffected.  It was a wonderful sound!  The rig also had a summing network which would corral all of those signals back to mono, through a DI to be sent to the PA. 

I also used stereo mode on a few rare recordings, panning the two channels only slightly left and right.  This was enough to open and enlarge the sound slightly but still appear to be centered mono bass. 

Again, there are no rules about this stuff so keep experimenting.  But to answer your question directly; I now always run my basses in mono.

Jimmy J

[keith_h]

I agree with Jimmy about experimenting to find a setup you like.

Two of my basses are capable of stereo, my Series 1 and my Brown Bass, though I rarely use it. Running in stereo does open up the sound quite a bit and I like it but I've found mono mode in a bi-amp setup to be more practical when playing live or running through a PA system. I also feel in a typical gig situation the only person to hear the difference would be me unless it was a very low volume situation then the other musicians might notice (back to that practical thing). For the little bit of recording I've done I give the desk a mono signal and have never considered offering a stereo one. For the type of stuff I'm asked to play on I get enough weird looks for not walking in with a P Bass or Jazz Bass to know better than to push the envelope.

It appears to me that you are looking to have a wet/dry signal chain with the pickups and their volume controls acting as the mixer. I've never tried that as the only effect I occasionally use is a stereo chorus. I do sometimes use compression but it is built into my preamps. I do see a potential problem with using the volume controls to blend a wet and dry signal and that is the tone will change as one or the other's pickup volume is changed. If it is wet/dry signal mixing you are looking to accomplish I think and external mixer with mono signal would be more effective. This is because the pickup balance won't change when you change the wet/dry mix volumes. However don't let my biases stop you from trying to find a setup that works for you.

[StephenR]

The only time I used the stereo mode in my Series basses was to run effects only on the treble pickup. As has been already noted this allow a good strong fundamental to remain and you can mix in the effected pickup to taste. It was a fun experiment  but since I don't like to use pedals or any effects  I run my Series basses in mono. Keep us posted as you experiment.

[Mlazarus]

OK, I setup two versions of DS-5 configurations(I haven't tested yet).  Versions 1 and 2. Take a look. It's just a matter of swapping the DS-5 cables.

[BeenDown139]

FWIW here's how we do stereo at the house 'o BeenDown:

this particular bass is stereo only (which i happen to like about it.  amongst its other interesting quirks.  but i digress).  bridge pickup to the PJB, tone voiced for the pickup, neck pickup to the ampeg wedge tone voiced accordingly.  so the overall sound is basically mono at this point but each pickup has its own amp, which i can control fully from the bass.  Having a master volume lets me set total blastage from the rig without changing the pickup balance.

my other 3 basses are mono, so i built a footswitch driven patch panel that drives both amp inputs in parallel in mono mode.  that way i use the same rig for both types of instruments, i just leave everything plugged and so i don't have to fiddle with cords and jacks when i change basses between songs or whatever. Because of the way ive configured it (sort of a separately driven bi-amp thing?  something homer simpson would think up after getting baked?) the mono basses benefit from it as well.  i'd love to try this rig at a gig but at my advanced age it's really too big. if i was serious about it, i think i'd go with a small rack amp, DS-5R and some cabinets by marcus miller, but the i think price would be a killer.
i used to run a larger setup similar to this side-by-side on stage but i think over the years i've found i like the stacked sound better.

Jsut my $0.02USD.  YMMV and all that rot.

[StephenR]

Having a master volume lets me set total blastage from the rig without changing the pickup balance.

This is why I had a master volume added to my Series I five-string. Unless you use a volume pedal it is difficult to change gain mid-song on a Series I bass without messing up pickup balance. I don't like having clutter at my feet or having to run more cords so no volume pedals for me.

[Mlazarus]

The sans Amp has an XLR out for a sound board. That way the sound person and control MASTER volum.

[Mlazarus]

BeenDown139, That is a beautiful Series 1 Omega! What year is it?

[BeenDown139]

BeenDown139, That is a beautiful Series 1 Omega! What year is it?

well i don't mean to hijack your post by talking about my bass, after all this is about your new bass.  congratulations and i hope it plays well for you.  this instrument looks familiar, it wouldn't happen to be a medium scale would it?  i had a series I MSB pass through my hands about 20 years ago that looks very similar to yours.  between the medium scale and lack of a master volume, i was never able to really bond with it and so it became trade fodder for an 8-string spyder. ahh...those were the days!  i don't have any records or pictures of it, that all dissapeared from my possession years ago.

and to answer your question about mine, it's got a long history that's detailed on this board, here is a link to a thread about it that also contains a link to the thread detailing its build history.

https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=26973.0

cheers!

[keith_h]

The sans Amp has an XLR out for a sound board. That way the sound person and control MASTER volum.

With that setup the PA console will not have the same sound you will have on stage since you are only sending one pickup to it via the Sans Amp. As long as you are going to run each pickup into separate amplifiers you should send both to the board so the engineer can have access to the full sound to mix. Setup 1, since most Markbass amps I've seen have their own DI I would send that one to the console too. For setup 2 if the Peavy has a DI I would send it to the console. If it doesn't then I would get a high quality DI and put it between the DS-5 and Peavy input. I would also recommend a high quality DI if the Markbass does not have its own DI or the DI is post eq only. By sending both signals the result is the dry pickup and the effects pickup are going to the board for the engineer to mix out front.

[Mlazarus]

My Mark bass amp and the peavy BOTH have Di/xlr out for a board.