Old vs. new Realist - difference?

[bassbuddy]

I have an older Realist, with the two circular piezo elements. I tried it on my bass (Engle EM-1), but found it too boomy for my tastes. A friend with the same bass, however, pick up one of the newer models with the piezo film, which sounds great. Is there really that much difference in the tone, or do you think it's more likely attributable to the instruments themselves?

[brianrost]

I've never seen or heard of a Realist with "two circular piezo elements". Are you sure it's a Realist?

[Mark Carlsen]

He's talking about the two little piezo dots that leave dents in your bass top under the bridge foot.I think Gage has resolved this by adding more padding in the pickup and from what I have heard[I have 2 older models] the newer one does sound different.How different? I guess you would need one of each model to try on the same bass.I do know that the soundpost will either help or kill the sound of this pickup[How the post is adjusted] and that this pickup usually sounds best on carved basses.

[hunta]

By "sounds best on carved basses" do you mean this is not a good choice for a non-carved bass? I was looking at maybe getting one of these for my shen hybrid but now that you mention it everyone I know that uses a realist has a fully carved bass..

[Tbeers]

Well it might be fine on a hybrid instrument. It's the basses with laminate tops that get crappy sound out of a realist pickup (from what I've heard). All the same... you might look into buying a Full Circle instead.

[fingers]

I play a laminate bass with a Realist and I like the way it sounds. From folks I've talked to laminate vs carved is not a good gauge of how the pickup will sound. As you pointed out, you just have to try it on your bass. I have both the Realist and Underwood installed on my bass. Neither pickup works for every situation. That's a different discussion though.

[Peter Kaae]

Fingers, you may try and listen to your Full Circle without the Realist installed. I had the same setup once, and the way that the realist sort of isolates your E-foot of the bridge from the top, makes the sound of Full circle different..thinner...weaker..it´s the thick foam in the Realist that interferes with the "vibrations" "sound" from the top, so your Full circle will sound better if you took of your Realist. Listen carefully, and you will discover the same thing as I did. Allso, the more perfect the feet sits on the top, the more sound will transfer between the bridge and top. I had a problem one night , after we started playing I noticed that my sound was not as good as allways, and I noticed that my bridge had tilted a bit, so the feet did not have 100% contact by it´s hole surface,, and when i pulled to prober position, my pickup sounded much better. (Full C)
By the way, is the Realist re-designed with piezo - film instead of the two elements it used to have?
Peter

[Peter Kaae]

oh sorry, I just noticed that you have underwood and FC ..sorry