NS Bass Cello vs other EUBs

[Dragonlord]

Well, first I should state that I normally play electric bass. I own a bass cello for a few months now, and although I haven't given it much time, I like it a lot for bowed playing. However, financial problems are forcing me to sell it, and I have a question because I'm thinking of buying something similar (but cheaper) sometime later.
The NS has a knob that takes you from a pizzicato setting to a bowed setting. The first one has sustain, the second one is more percussive. The second one works great with a bow, the first one not really. So, I was wondering... do other EUBs (not NS) have this feature as well? I haven't played any other EUBs... If not, which is the usual direction of EUBs? On the percussive side that sounds great with a bow or on the more sustain side?

[Bob Gollihur]

You'll find that strings vibrate in different directions when bowed vs. plucked. As a result, the pickup results differ.

I've been carrying various devices (volume pedals, EQ pedals, Tonebone Bassbone, etc.) for many moons to cope with the different volumes of amplified pizz and arco on my string basses. Variations between the two techniques differ from pickup to pickup, but there's almost always a pretty significant difference in volume and tone.

NSD uses two different transducers optimized for the two different vibration patterns of arco and pizz. I'd be very surprised if another EUB maker doesn't have something similar to cope with pizz/arco response, but I can't think of one off the top of my head, but then it is Monday.