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Double Bass Gage Soundclip

Mark Perna

Mark Perna

Mar 3, 2007
1,439
50
Pittsburgh, PA
#1
Anybody try the new Gage pickup? It's called the SoundClip.

From the Gage website:

Link Removed

It looks interesting as it looks like it might be the easiest pickup to install ever made. BUT it's over $400 which is a lot of bread to take a chance on.

mark
 
#3
calivox said:
Anybody try the new Gage pickup? It's called the SoundClip.

From the Gage website:

Link Removed

It looks interesting as it looks like it might be the easiest pickup to install ever made. BUT it's over $400 which is a lot of bread to take a chance on.

mark
Click to expand...

Calivox,
It is a lot of bread, I agree with you. I'm not an early adopter especially at this price. David Gage should post some sound clips on the site that would help us get an idea of what it sounds like. The Realist works very well on my bass, but it's placement is not exactly ideal since it impacts the transmission of sound between the bridge and the top and bass bar. It's very minimal but not ideal.

Ric

Ric
 
#4
Ric Vice said:
Calivox,
It is a lot of bread, I agree with you. I'm not an early adopter especially at this price. David Gage should post some sound clips on the site that would help us get an idea of what it sounds like. The Realist works very well on my bass, but it's placement is not exactly ideal since it impacts the transmission of sound between the bridge and the top and bass bar. It's very minimal but not ideal.

Ric

Ric
Click to expand...

I have one bass where the Realist works fine. On the other bass, it interrupts the transmission so much it is unusable. Sound clips from the SoundClip would be nice even knowing that it'll sound different on my own basses.

mark
 
#8
Gearhead43 said:
$400?? ......................................
Seems to me the extra money is for the name attached to it.
Click to expand...

Then my copper Realist was a bargain at $180.:hyper:

Sure, it's very expensive and I won't be rushing out to try one anytime soon. Machining, drilling, tapping and a volume control on the pickup all cost money. Compared to most piezos it is a feat of engineering.
If it sounds good, they will sell more than enough.
 
#9
i think the main idea is that working bassists that travel a lot (without their bass) can buy this, bring it with them and put it on any bass they get. I've heard plenty of stories of terrible basses people have to play on the road, equipped with terrible pick-ups. If you like the sound, this will maybe give some sort of continuity from night to night. So for your average guy like me that stays around town and plays locally for the most part, the price is probably not as justifiable (nor the application) as someone on the road playing different basses every night.
 
#10
clink said:
Then my copper Realist was a bargain at $180.:hyper:

Sure, it's very expensive and I won't be rushing out to try one anytime soon. Machining, drilling, tapping and a volume control on the pickup all cost money. Compared to most piezos it is a feat of engineering.
If it sounds good, they will sell more than enough.
Click to expand...

True,
The Realist is a pretty simple pickup by comparison. The complicated
design of the Sound Clip put's it in the same category as the Schertler Dyn-B and Schertler Stat B Vintage. I'm not sure whether I buy into this particular design or not. You have to wonder how heavy the unit is? No info on that just yet. There is one thing it's important to mention though. All pickups interrupt the transmission of sound to the instrument to some degree, so it just kind of depends on what you are willing to put up with.



Ric
 
#11
Ric Vice said:
True,
All pickups interrupt the transmission of sound to the instrument to some degree, so it just kind of depends on what you are willing to put up with.
Ric
Click to expand...

The Full Circle shouldn't affect the tone of the bass anymore than aluminum adjusters. All others that I can think of theoretically will.
However, the only thing that really matters is the sound coming out of an amplifier. If the SoundClip negatively affects the acoustic tone it can easilly be taken off.
 
#12
For me, it depends on how well it works. I've had luck with, of all things, a BP-100 on my main bass (doesn't work at all on the backup), the Realist works on the back up but not the main bass, Stat-B worked reasonably well on both basses when strung with gut but not with steel, I've had no luck at all with any wing mounted pickup.

If this thing works and I get a good sound out of it, $400 isn't an outrageous price particularly since I don't have to modify the bass in any way nor do I have to take anything apart including removing and reinstalling any strings to put it on. In the overall scheme of things, when I think about how much money I've dropped over the years trying different pickups and strings, $400 isn't much. Plus, if it works on both basses, I only need one pickup and I can swap it as needed which means I get two pickups for the price of one. Three if I can also use it on my Kolsten travel bass. The thing is positively cheap looked at from that perspective. Plus I can take it off for recording without having to modify the bass in any way.

On the other hand, if it sounds like donkey poop, $400 is big hole in my pocket. I may as well have taken 4 $100 bills out on the street and burned them.

I'd like to hear some sound clips of one or testimonials of someone who has tried it before dropping $400.

mark
 
#16
clink said:
The Full Circle shouldn't affect the tone of the bass anymore than aluminum adjusters. All others that I can think of theoretically will.
Click to expand...

The full circle isnt a direct path through aluminium though.

The bottom component of the FC (non threaded) is like a diaphragm. Its in contact with the piezos. Im fairly sure it makes the E and A strings less transparent and a little duller.

Either that or the mass of the whole adjuster assembly, which is about 16-17 grams.
 
#17
JtheJazzMan said:
The full circle isnt a direct path through aluminium though.

The bottom component of the FC (non threaded) is like a diaphragm. Its in contact with the piezos. Im fairly sure it makes the E and A strings less transparent and a little duller.

Either that or the mass of the whole adjuster assembly, which is about 16-17 grams.
Click to expand...

Since,
I don't use a Full Circle I didn't know that it was hollow inside. That's interesting.

Ric
 
#18
clink said:
The Full Circle shouldn't affect the tone of the bass anymore than aluminum adjusters. All others that I can think of theoretically will.
However, the only thing that really matters is the sound coming out of an amplifier. If the SoundClip negatively affects the acoustic tone it can easilly be taken off.
Click to expand...

Since, I'm not a purist, I agree with you and I'm not going to go back
to a non adjustable bridge because had several bridges warp on me before adjusters were available. David Gage did some test comparing instruments with and without adjusters and they couldn't hear that much difference. But I've read on Talkbass that when the Full Circle was installed on some basses it changed the tone.

Ric
 
#19
clink said:
The Full Circle shouldn't affect the tone of the bass anymore than aluminum adjusters. All others that I can think of theoretically will.
Click to expand...

The only thing that bugs me a little is the way the jack mounts. Muting the afterlengths is most certainly going to change the acoustic sound. If I get a Full Circle one of these days I'm going to see if they can mount the jack like my Realist.
 

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