Should I install the pickup myself?

[TaurusV]

I am a bass guitarist who has just made the jump to upright bass.
(I love it, I should have done this years ago!) Anyway I am to the point where I am starting to take my upright to gigs and I know it's time to get a pickup. I have tried micing it but it is so much trouble and a pickup would be so much easier. I have decided that I am going to go with the Realist pick-up, is this an easy install? The place where my dilema comes in is that I am going to have the bass professionally set up in a month or two so I am wondering if I should just wait until then to have the pickup put in at the same time.

[mrpc]

Yes!

[pierre]

Yes very easy just mark everything with a fat pencil 6B or more not to injuried the bottom.
don't be affraid

[Kam]

If you don't have a gig before your setup, wait for the luthier to do it. Watch him do it so you can do it in the future, but there is a good chance that your soundpost will drop if you don't know what you're doing, and that will warrant a trip to the luthier sooner than expected.

If you need it before your set up, just make sure you lay the bass on a flat, level surface, and tune the strings back up before you move the bass after you've installed the element under the foot.

/$0.02

[pao_bass]

i installed mine myself. just go easy on the strings and the bridge, and you're ok...

[bassist1962]

If you can wait the month or two for the luthier, do so. You may have to deal with miking til then, but that is better than taking a chance of other problems occouring in a do it yourself project.

[TaurusV]

So I just installed the realist pickup myself and everything went really well (the sound post didn't fall, no scratches or explosions, and the sky is still up.) But.... the pickup seems to have a rattle, the rattle only comes through the amp, and when I touch the metal part of the pickup it stops. It really only happens on open strings or when I try to play louder than usual. So I am guessing that it is not snug against the body of the bass. So far you guys have given me great advice so does anyone have any ideas?

[Jaromir]

The "rattle" could be a distortion - too much signal on the input of your amp.
Or - try to move the pickup just a little bit on either side, this will change the sound a little and maybe stop the rattle, whatever it is. The Realist is great by the way - the only pickup which gives you the acoustic-like attack of each note. And accepts whatever the input impedance is and doesn't have the terrible artificial trebles like the other pickups have.