| A review of my Schertler Stat-B
I started another thread about issues I was having with my now month-old Stat-B, and as it turns out the issue was that I had a brain fart. The pickup/preamp are just fine. In the process of getting help, I received a reply request and a pm request to post my thoughts and experiences with this particular pickup, so here's the new thread on it.
First off, here's some information about me and my setup:
When I started playing, I'd been playing EB for about 8 years. I made the transition in college, and studied exclusively classical with minimal pizz. This was about 11 years ago. I've recently started to do the jazz books/charts thing, and I do alright. My theory is very good, albeit based on classical and "20th century) type stuff. Anyway, I've worked pretty hard to emulate the predominate pizz techniques I've seen/heard, especially Reid's approach to creating an even, balanced sound from bottom to top. I still bow quite a bit, about 60/40 bow/pizz.
I'm playing through the following: custom Wilfer 4 with a deeper rib and C extension (wooden, diatonically stopped). Belcanto long E, Evah Pirazzi A, Permanent D/G. I've got a Realist (newer version) under the E foot of the bridge, and the Stat-B tucked into the hole under the G side arm of the bridge. I'm also using the Stat Pre (not the pre AII or AIII). I took a signifigant amount of time shaping the cork of the Stat-B to get the right fit: I cut off some excess and used an emory board to slowly remove the remaining excess cork to fit it just right: nice and snug, won't fall out, but can easily be removed. I'm running directly into an AI Contra 310 BA with no extension cabinet (yet), with the bright knob halfway between a clockface's 12 and 1, the mid knob at about 11...the others are at 12.
First I should say that I'm still not completely satisfied with my sound just yet. That's because I'm looking to get the signals of the Realist and the Schertler signals blended together before going into the AI. That said, I've been practicing pizz (Paul Chambers bass line) and bowing (straight, slow scales and some Rabbath stuff).
Pizz: the sound I'm getting is nice and clean, a nice little thud at the attack of the pitch followed by a good sustain. The Schertler picks up the dynamic sounds well (stronger attacks as well as softer). I'm not getting much string noise at all, which isn't what I'd expected. I tried a Stat-B last year at Bruce Sexauer's shop, and it was pretty darn bright with a lot of string sound. At any rate, it's a bit weak in the low E range unless you give it a bit more pull on the string. That could, of course, be due to the Belcanto's character. Other than this, I think the Stat-B does very well: clean and dynamically sensitive, which is what I expect. I'd like to augment the clear character with the EQ rather than try to correct a pickup's undesirable aspects. Hope that makes sense.
Arco: this was actually a surprise. I forget which website had sound clips of different pickups played both pizz and arco, but the Stat-B arco example was really bad to my ears. After spending some time working through some bowed exercises, I'd have to say that it can work well as a pickup for bowing...you just have to be careful. It picks up and transmits the sound very clearly, and if your technique isn't...well...up to where it should be, you might not want to rely on it as a bowing pickup. If you have a good touch to the bow, without a heavy right arm, and have a good sense for vibrato, it can sound pretty good. It's a bit lacking on the beef, but it's still got a nice bold sound.
A few points of concern...
First, the belt clip is optional. That's pretty lame considering the pre is about the size of the K&K Bass Master dual pre (about 2"x3"). To me, it's silly to think this thing could just sit on the floor. I've already pulled out the cable from the pickup to the pre a number of times accidentally.
Second, the pre shouldn't be overloading the AI, but it seems like it might be. Running it to the low ohm in has a minimal distortion in higher volumes when I really bear down on the string. The high ohm in has a lot of distortion. The effect return (which AI lists as a post-pre in, I believe) has a lot of distortion as well. I've been known to be electrically challenged, so the mistake may be mine, or the AI (bought it used last year) could be needing some servicing. Actually, scratch that...I think it's the amp, as it sounds like the Realist is doing it as well.
So, for what it's worth, those are my first impressions of the Schertler Stat-B after the first month of use. Let me know if you'd like me to try something specific with it...
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