Underwood v. (old) Fishman, wood v. hybrid

anonymous0726 · #1 01-13-2003, 11:00 PM

Da Mook was over tonight and we got to play with pickups a bit.

The players:
Fully carved bass, Isabella in this case,
Strunal hybrid, name not known.
Newer Underwood pickup
Newer Fishman, defribulator (classic) model.
Newer Walter Woods amp
Hevos 10" cabinet with adjustable tweeter.

The results.
The Underwood
works great on the Strunal.
Sucks on Isabella.
The Fishman
sucks on the Strunal and Isabella both, although there are some qualities that I like.

As far as the cabinet's participation in this experiment, the inherent midrangy-ness of the cabinet exacerbates the nasal qualities of both pickups.

Underwoods are still a good choice for ply and hybrid basses I believe. Not so good for wood fiddles...

Bijoux · #2 01-14-2003, 01:01 PM

I think that maybe the underwood doesn't sound so good with good carved basses because it makes everybass sound pretty much the same, so we end up loosing some of the qualities that we like about our carved basses, sometimes I wish I had my underwood back because if you are dealing with loud clubs, loud musicians, anything loud the underwood seems to deal with those situations, but you do have to settle for that electric kind of sound, but if the fight is over I'd just deal with that!

arnoldschnitzer · #3 01-14-2003, 07:04 PM

To my ear the old "de-fibrillator" Fishman is the worst-sounding pickup ever foisted on basskind.

Marty Forrer · #4 01-14-2003, 09:30 PM

Agreed.

Michael Case · #5 01-14-2003, 11:38 PM

Hey Ray, those exersises have been great thanks!

Yeah, I have to admit that last night was the first time I heard the Fishman without the preamp in a while, made me remember why I don't like it.
As for the Uderwood, I felt it worked really nice on the Strunal, it delivered more low end and less finger noise than the Fishman. I really wish I new about this site before buying a pick up 2 years ago.
p.s. Ray is not only a great player, but a great guy. If anybody gets a chance to see him play or hang with him, do it!

anonymous0726 · #6 01-17-2003, 02:11 PM

Thank you, and the same goes for the Mook.

Those fingerings have been working for me -- let me know if you ahve any questions on them...

mje · #7 01-26-2003, 10:15 PM

I finally found my hot-melt glue gun and tried mounting the old Fishman directly to the bridge with a small dab of glue. I positioned the elements about 1/2" away from the edge of the bridge, based on some advice I'd read hereabouts.

Result? Significantly better than mounting the Fishman with the clips, plus they can't pop off unexpectedly. Not great, but better. So far I've just tried running it directly into the Clarus' hi-z input. I rolled off the Brite control to eliminate some of the noise of the fingers sliding on the strings, but otherwise left everything flat.

From my own experience and that of those I read here I see a pattern emerging independant of the specific pickup manufacturer. The edge of the bridge is the worst place to get the full sound of the instrument, and the table (as with the Dyn-B), the best. The foot of the bridge is a good compromise position, and the adjuster less so. I recall someone posting that they placed the fishman elemenst under the feet of the bridge with good results; I wonder if there's a safe way to attach them to the table itself?

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #8 01-26-2003, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mje

From my own experience and that of those I read here I see a pattern emerging independant of the specific pickup manufacturer. The edge of the bridge is the worst place to get the full sound of the instrument, and the table (as with the Dyn-B), the best. The foot of the bridge is a good compromise position, and the adjuster less so. I recall someone posting that they placed the fishman elemenst under the feet of the bridge with good results; I wonder if there's a safe way to attach them to the table itself?

I ran into a guy a couple of years ago who swore that fishman pickups sounded great if you used the clip to mount them to the inside of the f holes. I don't know if this really works or not since I don't own a Fishman, but it's an interesting idea.

oystein · #9 01-27-2003, 01:22 AM

Hello,
I mounted mine with the clips on the top at the f-hole(bass side) after seeing the great bluegrass bassist Mark Schatz doing this on his instruction video. There was a significant improvement of the sound quality, a much woodier tone. The downside was that the pickup got less resistance to feedback.

Oystein

Mike Goodbar · #10 01-27-2003, 07:54 AM

Quote:

I think that maybe the underwood doesn't sound so good with good carved basses because it makes everyass sound pretty much the same,

Everyass?

I don't know if that's a typo or not, but its one hell of a useful pronoun!

Bijoux · #11 01-27-2003, 02:00 PM

very sorry, I already fixed that.

Michael Case · #12 01-28-2003, 12:37 AM

I have tried using my Fishman attached to the top of the bass behind the bridge feet. I attached the elements to the top with regualr 3M two face tape as far as sound goes I would say it did alot for that pick up, it almost sounded useable without a preamp. bottom line though, it's still a Fishman, taking it off didn't do any harm, but then again I have a Strunal with what seems like the finsh they used on old Chevys.
Mike