I brought out my upright for a gig this past weekend. It has a Schaller Magnetic Pickup installed, so the signal is not all that different than a regular passive electric bass.

I set the gain so it would light yellow now and then (as I set my electric basses). Using a couple of different settings in the T1, I could get it to stop clipping the L1 tower. Sounded very farty. The low end was fine with 2 bass modules (as in not farting), but I ended up having to turn the gain way down and the channel up to get rid of the farting L1. THis added noise, but was usable when the band kicked in. I was running the master on the T1 at 12:00 at the time.

I was also singing through the system and there was no clipping from that.

Should I crank the T1 more in the future? Why would the L1 clip even though the signal through the T1 wasn't clipping? Do the harmonics that an upright provides put a bigger strain on the system?

Eric,

If the trim LED was not red, then the T1 (and probably the L1) was not clipping.

How is the pickup? Can you try it though something else? It's passive, right? If it has a battery, change it. Batteries can make that sort of sound.

Very likely something mechanical in nature could have been causing this. Perhaps a loose Bose logo on one of the B1's?

model I or model II?

Mike

Mike, thanks.

It is an L1 Model II. The bass modules were fine, the clipping noise was coming from the L1. One thing I forgot to mention is that I used the zeq to turn the bass down a bit since it was kinda boomy with the upright. The pickup is passive on it. Could it be that with a certain volume the L1 was getting too much? The Master on the T1 was only at 12.

Is it possible to clip the L1 even thought the T1 is not registering that?

Hmm.

Clipping noise coming from the L1 is not right. If the system is functioning properly, it should not distort unless pushed *really* hard.

zEQ adjustments should not affect this.

do you have another system, recording rig, amp etc you could plug the bass into to verify it's definitely not the bass, just to be sure? do you have an issue with your other instruments?

try unplugging the bass modules and listening to just the array. it will sound tinny - but just try to listen for the distortion. If you still hear it, try removing the top half of the array. is it still there after you do that?

Mike

I'll try it this week and get back to you (I store my upright at work).

I worked with this a bit more and have concluded that the pickup on the upright was clipping the input of the T1. The T1 did not specify this with a red light, however.

It may have something to do with the overtones produced with the use of the Schaller magnetic pickup? More research is required though as it does not happen with an amp.

Using my Fishman BP100 pickup sounds great (and that pickup is pretty bad as far as URB tones go IMO).

Eric,

Can you try recording the URB pickup direct into a computer and listening? Your amp may not have the same high end range the L1 system does. The clipping may be happening on the bass amp, you just cant hear it.

If the T1's light is not red it shouldn't be clipping. Did you try all the T1 channels (1,2 and 3)?

-Mike

No I didn't try all 3 channels as I generally use my bass in channel 3. I will do that and report back. I wish I could let you know sooner, but I mainly use the upright for nursing home/assisted living gigs and I keep it at work so I don't always have access to that and my L1 at the same time.