Wilson K1 Sound Clips (use headphones)
 

There are some clips below of a recent gig where I was using a Wilson K1 pickup without a preamp into a Carvin BX500 through a Bergantino EX112. When I play in a big band setting, I usually just run into an MXR micro amp as a preamp to boost the signal into either my Carvin or Epifani UL502 to get a little more juice and it sounds just as articulate and full without being boomy.

My first pup was an Underwood, which was nice. Then I used a Realist for a while and liked it, but found with the bass at the time that I had, the top was not responsive enough to really get a good sound out of it. The Realist really (IMO) needs a bass with a great top to shine. Then I went to a Wilson K4 and used it for years and really loved it's flexibility, especially in Tokyo, where I use back line rigs a lot and having the ability to adjust each string was helpful in addition to the strong signal it produced (no preamp needed with it). However, I bought the K1 after sampling one at the Bass Center in Shin-Okubo a few months ago and I have been uber pleased. It doesn't have quite the same output of the K4, but it does have a much more natural sound, but still with a lot of clarity and depth that was produced by the K4.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oHkfcA1Vk4&safe=active ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA0KgEK9IGU&safe=active ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5py7OOV177M&safe=active


Anyway, if you are interested in a K1 here are some clips to check out before you pay for one. I am using Velvet Blues BTW on a Lemur Music Laguna bass.

what is like to bow with this? do you have a "front shot" of how it is mounted by chance?

thanks!

The K1 is a very good pickup for going back and forth between arco and pizz. I'll try to get sound clips of that up too at some point. As far as the mounting goes, I have it mounted in the same place as shown here: http://doublebassguide.com/?page_id=21 and it gets a real even response across all strings.

As for the jack, I have it mounted on the tail piece parallel to the ground on the G & D side via 2 screws that come with it. I tried to upload a pic, but it failed. I'll try later.

BTW, on the amp the bass and low mid controls were set flat, and the hi mid and treble controls all the way down.

One of the best amplified bass sounds I ever heard was Dutch bassist Arjen Gorter using one of these with the willelm breuker kollectief in a church in Amsterdam with 100' ceilings. It was stunningly beautiful.