Connecting your electric bass...

[Chuck-at-JamHub]

A few recommendations for connecting your bass guitar to your JamHub:

Direct
If you're happy with the onboard tone shaping capabilities of your instrument and want to plug directly into your section's 1/4" instrument input, please keep these two key points in mind:

• Some passive basses may not have enough output level to sufficiently drive the JamHub instrument input, which is expecting a stronger, line-level signal. Active (battery onboard) basses usually will have enough level.
• When using a standard instrument cable (shielded, TS on both ends, aka guitar cord), you'll want to use a ‘mono-to-stereo’ adapter on the JamHub end of the cable. There’s one of these adapters included in the box with every new BedRoom model and two included with GreenRoom & TourBus. The reason for the adapter is that without it, the instrument will only be heard in the left side of your headphones. With the adapter, it’ll be in both sides and can be positioned from left-to-right in the mix using the JamHub’s ‘Stage’ control.

Preamp
Your favorite preamp could be just the tool for bumping up the level of your passive bass and giving you more options for tone and dynamics control, etc.. If your favorite preamp happens to be the front-end of your favorite bass amp (head or combo), just be sure that the amp can be run safely without a speaker connected to it. Some amps offer the ability to disengage the power amp/speaker section. Some require the use of a high-power 'dummy' load to achieve this kind of 'silent' operation. Either way, your amp will need to have a line-level output. Never, I repeat, NEVER CONNECT THE SPEAKER OUTPUT FROM YOUR AMP DIRECTLY TO THE JAMHUB!! Doing so will fry the input on the JamHub and will probably damage your amp, too...

Modeler
It seems like these are getting better and more affordable every day. I have my favs, but I'll wait to share them until some of you have had a chance to chime in with yours. They are exactly the type of device that Steve had in mind when he invented the JamHub. Their inputs, outputs and their massive tone-shaping capabilities make them a perfect fit for inspired headphone jamming. Plug your bass into your modeler and plug the modeler's headphone output to you JamHub section's instrument input. Done!

'Sure hope this helps. I'm looking forward to hearing how you real bass players prefer to connect! (Like many guitarists I know, hand me a four-string and I tend to play 'lead bass' )

[NewAquarius]

From this entry, I was expecting it to be a weak input, but my Precision Bass was quite audible when connected directly. I'll use my tube preamp for just a little help on the tone, but that has nothing to do with the JamHub.

[Chuck-at-JamHub]

Welcome NewAquarius!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad that you're getting sufficient level from your P-Bass. I should probably have put more emphasis on the "Some passive basses..." part. There are so many variables at play here; pickups, playing style, even string guage can affect the overall output level....

Let us know how it goes with the tube pre, ok? Just out of curiosity, which preamp is it?

[NewAquarius]

It's just one of those ART Tube MP preamps. I record with it sometimes. It added just a little color and enabled me to back off the JH trim. In fact, the JH didn't seem to be doing much in the way of boosting the signal. It didn't have to at that point.

[ftroopy]

Hi Guys,

We already purchased the Greenroom model recently but we haven't used it yet. I currently use a Sansamp to shape my tone live and recorded. I was wondering if I can plug in my Sansamp to the Jamhub directly?
Or do I need to get go through a mini bass amp then output to the Jamhub?

Thanks

Frank

[Steve-at-JamHub]

You can use the SansAmp directly into the JamHub. It works great, we do it here quite a bit. The only catch is that the output of the SansAmp is mono so you'll want to use the JamHub mono-to-stereo adapter to keep the bass in both ears.

Steve

[20YearsTooLate]

Our bass player has a Roland 100 bass cube that he uses along with a 300Watt cab. The Roland acts as the head when plugged into the cab that way he can use the effects on the Roland. When we practice on the Greenroom Jamhub we bought he plugs directly from the Rolands headphone output to the Jamhub. This gives him the use of all the effects as well as he can reproduce the live sound accurately through the headphones.

Works floorlessly and practising is like being in a recording studio.

[singingdrummer]

I'm a drummer so I dont really have much of an idea how to connect bass stuff. But, I was wondering, if my bassist cant get enough of a signal from directly plugging his bass into the jamhub, could we use a cheap passive DI box.

Thanks for any info about a cheap way to hook up to the jamhub.

[MikeZ-at-JamHub]

I'm a drummer so I dont really have much of an idea how to connect bass stuff. But, I was wondering, if my bassist cant get enough of a signal from directly plugging his bass into the jamhub, could we use a cheap passive DI box.

Thanks for any info about a cheap way to hook up to the jamhub.

Hi singingdrummer,

Unfortunately, the passive DI will not add any gain to your signal. So if you cant get enough signal plugging straight in, the passive DI won't help. The ideal solution is an active DI like a Tech 21 Sans Amp, or a modeler like a Line6 Bass POD.

But it sounds like you don;t have an active DI at your disposal. Does your bass player have a regular bass amp? Lots of bass amps have headphone or line outputs that could go directly into the JamHub and give you plenty of level.

**Caution** Don't ever put a 'Speaker' output from an amp into a JamHub!

What type of bass does your bass player have?

We'll almost certainly find a way to get you hooked up with something you already own...

Sincerely,
-Mike

[Chuck-at-JamHub]

Welcome, singingdrummer!

The simplest thing to try would be to have the bassist plug directly into one of the JamHub's 1/4" instrument inputs using one of the mono-to-stereo adapters that come with every JamHub. I've found this method to work well with the vast majority of passive basses that I've tried. Only basses with really low output need help, but there's a LOT of gain to be had by cranking up the Trim on the JamHub. If you have to crank the trim all the way up, things might start to get noisy (hissy), but I think it's worth trying before adding gear to the chain...

Not to contradict Mike's advice, but a passive DI might actually be a good solution here. It won't add gain, as Mike stated, but if the bassist plugs into it and then feeds its XLR out to an open XLR 'mic' input on the JamHub, he'll probably get more than enough level, as the preamps on the JamHub mic inputs are expecting a lower level signal than the Instrument inputs. I tried this method with a passive Jazz bass during a recent rehearsal/recording session (forgot to bring the adapter ) and it worked very well...

I hope this helps. Let us know how it all goes, ok?