Scratchy Fishman BP100

[jonnyboy559]

I have a BP100 pickup. I can deal with the sound except for the scratchiness when my fingers move along the strings, especially(obviously) when shifting. I know there are better options out there, but at the moment I don't have the money to upgrade my pickup. I want to make the best of what I have. Does anyone have any suggestions to help make the BP100 sound the best it can be?

[Kevin Hsieh]

i'm not a pro at this. but i think cutting the high mids may take out some of that shifting noise. i played on a bass with the BP last year in high school and i had the same problem. EQing that thing's a tough one

[cbjacobs]

The scratch may mave to do with strings you are using. Thomastick Dominants or LaBella 7710 might help, but you could buy a new pick up for the price.

[Jaromir]

Yes, cutting the high mids and highs will help. Depends a lot on the amp. Also, a buffering preamp - adjusting the input impedance (10 MOhm ideally) - would help a lot especially with some amps.
This pickup is not so bad actually - it was Red Mitchell's favorite pickup. Also players like Marc Johnson or Gary Peacock were (or still are) using it...

[humangus]

try to change the position from the brigdge to the F holes.(on the e string side)
the output is a little lower but the sound is more acoustik.
The other way is to put them like the underwood and shim them with wood.

[Ric Vice]

Originally Posted by jonnyboy559

I have a BP100 pickup. I can deal with the sound except for the scratchiness when my fingers move along the strings, especially(obviously) when shifting. I know there are better options out there, but at the moment I don't have the money to upgrade my pickup. I want to make the best of what I have. Does anyone have any suggestions to help make the BP100 sound the best it can be?

Johnny,
It might also help to get a buffer/preamp in the signal path between
the pickup and your amplifier. Fishman makes one there are also other options. The BP 100 has a 10 meg ohm load that really requires a buffer to smoothe it out.

Ric

[anonymous02282011]

Originally Posted by Kevin Hsieh

i'm not a pro at this. but i think cutting the high mids may take out some of that shifting noise. i played on a bass with the BP last year in high school and i had the same problem. EQing that thing's a tough one

IMO, the fishman is awful, but functional. Buy a David Gage Realist when you get the bread together. In the meantimne, yes cutting the mids out will help; try this too:

Turn everything (including volume) on your amp to Zero.
Turn the Lo end EQ (Bass knob) up all the way.
If you've got a master vol and gain/pre, leave the pre down and crank the master.
Now turn the pre vol knob to One or Two --careful it may feed back.
If you need to get louder use only the pre (with the master still cranked),and turn the Lo end EQ down as you carefully edge up on the pre volume.
Let me know how this works out.

[robgrow]

I put a BP-100 that I had laying around on one of my basses and tried it with my new HPF-Pre from fdeck. The sound is actually pretty good in a 70's kinda way. Much smoother and more bottom than I expected. Not scratchy at all. The HPF-Pre makes all the difference. The BP-100 is one pickup that really needs to see a 10 meg ohm input to sound its best.

[AZNBassist]

Well, one thing you could try is taking the pickup off the top of the bridge and actually put them underneath the feet of the bridge (Realist style), I saw a bassist whose rig was set up this way, with the Fishman BP-100 underneath the bridge, the sound he got wasn't too bad, and it eliminated the scratchiness.

[robgrow]

Another thing to consider with the BP-100, and the Underwood as well, is these pickups were designed when bass players almost universally used amps with large, dark-sounding woofers such as the Ampeg B-15. These amps typically had bumps in the low mids and then rolled off pretty fast above there. Two and three-way cabs for bass players were all but unknown in those days. Very warm, bottom and low mid heavy amps were the rule. The Underwood and later the BP-100 actually sounded pretty good for their time through those types of amplifiers, and they were certainly a great improvement over most of the bass pickups that were previously available.

Long story short, using a BP-100 with a full-range speaker such as a two or three-way design, is probably not a good match. Any speaker cab with a bump in the upper mids (fairly common today) is probably going to sound less than great with the BP-100.

Although there are arguably better pickups available today, many veterans continue to use the BP-100.

[Mark Perna]

Originally Posted by robgrow

Another thing to consider with the BP-100, and the Underwood as well, is these pickups were designed when bass players almost universally used amps with large, dark-sounding woofers such as the Ampeg B-15. These amps typically had bumps in the low mids and then rolled off pretty fast above there. Two and three-way cabs for bass players were all but unknown in those days. Very warm, bottom and low mid heavy amps were the rule. The Underwood and later the BP-100 actually sounded pretty good for their time through those types of amplifiers, and they were certainly a great improvement over most of the bass pickups that were previously available.

Long story short, using a BP-100 with a full-range speaker such as a two or three-way design, is probably not a good match. Any speaker cab with a bump in the upper mids (fairly common today) is probably going to sound less than great with the BP-100.

Although there are arguably better pickups available today, many veterans continue to use the BP-100.

It also really depends on the bass and the room you're playing in. I have five basses and have owned 3 others. The BP-100 is my favorite pickup on 2 of my 3 carved basses and on 1 of my 2 Kolstein Travel basses. The sound is fat but it allows much greater articulation than any other pickup I've tried with those basses. The only time they give me problems is when I'm in a really bright room and then they sound a bit brittle but they are still usable. On the other basses, they don't work at all. They sound terrible. Three of those were plywoods and none of those basses worked with the BP-100 at all. I've also tried Underwood, Shadow (Underwood style), Realist and Bassmaxx with and without an additional AMT microphone with varying degrees of acceptability. The Realist seems to be the "go to" mic on the basses that the BP-100 doesn't work on. I wanted to try the First Circle but the bridge adjusters on all of my basses are the fat Kolstein style and the FC doesn't fit. I'd need to cut a new bridge which isn't worth it to try yet another pickup.

My experience is that you can't make any sweeping generalizations about pickups. What works on one bass might not work on another. I have two pretty much identical Kolstein basses and the BP-100 sounds great on one and is completely unusable on the other. I have a Realist on the one that can't use the BP-100 and it sounds fine. I tried the Realist on the other one and it didn't sound very good. (Don't tell Kolstein I'm using a Gage pickup on his bass).

I'm currently using an AI Focus through two AI cabinets. In the past, I've used Polytones (Minibrutes II and III), SWR California Blonde, SWR Workingman 12, GK 200 mb all with similar results. The different amps sounded better or worse overall but the pickup worked or didn't work independent of the amp.

mark

[robgrow]

Originally Posted by calivox

My experience is that you can't make any sweeping generalizations about pickups.

How true.

[BrandonEssex]

Definitely do something about the input impedance. If you want a more natural sound try gluing the PU elements to the bridge instead of using the clips. Hot glue will allow you to try different placements, superglue is effective but more permanent. I like the extreme EQ idea too....

[rodrigo quesof]

i also have a BP100, and i can tell u it makes me so hapy when i used with my Barcus Berry pre amp, is THE great solution. You have to deal with parameters in the pre and in the amp or mixer, but when u find the right combination....