Pick up for Arco

[bdengler]

What's a good pick up to use to amplify arco on an upright? I have an Azola Lightening Bug upright with the Azola "Tru-Accoustic Piezo" pickup. The music director at church noted that I couldn't keep the notes sustained when I switched notes or bowing moving (in other words, the sound dropped off dramatically when I changed notes or bowing direction). As it is, I need considerable pressure to make the strings speak and for the pickup up to reproduce the note. Are there other pick-ups that I can put on a regular upright that may be more suitable for arco?

Thanks, Brian

[Wil Davis]

Originally Posted by DenglerABD

What's a good pick up to use to amplify arco on an upright? I have an Azola Lightening Bug upright with the Azola "Tru-Accoustic Piezo" pickup. The music director at church noted that I couldn't keep the notes sustained when I switched notes or bowing moving (in other words, the sound dropped off dramatically when I changed notes or bowing direction). As it is, I need considerable pressure to make the strings speak and for the pickup up to reproduce the note. Are there other pick-ups that I can put on a regular upright that may be more suitable for arco?

Thanks, Brian

I've found that the best sound may be achieved by using a real microphone on a real double-bass, but failing that, you can get very good results using the Fishman "Full Circle" pickup (it's built into one of the bridge-adjusting wheels) - I've found it to be great for playing both pizzicato & arco.

Hope this helps -
- Wil

[Bob Branstetter]

Realist!

[anonymous0726]

For me, the Realist does do well with The Stick, but you will likely run into problems at higher volumes with clarity and low-end feedback. On a real bass I'm speaking of, of course.

[Johnny L]

In my rehearsals for a local musical production, I'm doing a few arco bits and an arco solo on the upright. I use a K&K Bass Max, located on the treble wing side (rather than the bass side advised by the installation instructions), and go straight to the PA.

The K&K sounds great on my Strunal ply using the bow. Since I switched to Spiro Orchestras, the volume difference between arco and pizz isn't anywhere near as big and volume adjustments were unnecessary. I work on my arco constantly though no matter what I'm practicing, so I have enough control with it to play at different dynamics, and haven't heard what the other pickups sound like.

Tried to find my post on this, but found this first and got lazy.

[Mike Goodbar]

I've not tried the Realist, but I'll second the Full Circle. A much more open and robust arco tone than the Underwood I was using previously. I did a show that was mostly arco, and the sound man ran it direct to the board with very good results.

[BassZen]

I'll third that full circle, I've used it a bunch and it sounds great arco sound for latin, haven't tried it much in jazz or anthing else but I've had no trouble "making it speak"