piezo pickup for electric bass?

[SoundWeavers]

I recently scored a fretless Fender Precision electric bass with black nylon strings. This bass has a very nice round sound and harmonics that can growl, too - can go from Jaco to Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel) tone.

I am interested in exploring a piezo pickup for this fretless bass - my intent is to be able to blend in acoustic (UPRIGHT BASS) tones.

I have seen piezo pickups mentioned in a lot of BassPlayer articles but I haven't really experienced one. Are there piezo pickups for electric basses? Which ones are the most appropriate for this electric bass guitar with a solid body?

appreciate suggestions. Salamat (thanks).

- Gerry

 

[PilbaraBass]

yep, you sure can get piezo pickups for solid-body electric basses...

go to www. guitarelectronics.com and check out the graphtech stuff...

bassically the way it works, is that each bridge saddle has a piezo pickup mounted in it...

there's a bit more, in terms of a preamp, and additional wiring to consider...

but the "blending" you're talking about is done all the time...

check out john east preamps for onboard preamp
specifically designed to accomplish what you're after.

 

[Poop-Loops]

I have an extra question, then.

You know the Line 6 Variax guitars/basses with piezo pickups? Any way I can get something like that, but where I can tune each string however I want while keeping the tension the same?

i.e. I tune EADG and with the press of a button go to DGCF?

Or better yet, get an extra E and D string, tune my bass EEADD and then with the press of a button get BEADG while keeping tension the same?

 

[PilbaraBass]

I have an extra question, then.

You know the Line 6 Variax guitars/basses with piezo pickups? Any way I can get something like that, but where I can tune each string however I want while keeping the tension the same?

i.e. I tune EADG and with the press of a button go to DGCF?

Or better yet, get an extra E and D string, tune my bass EEADD and then with the press of a button get BEADG while keeping tension the same?

line 6 doesn't do this...

the only way you could possibly do this is for each string (piezo) pickup to go through a midi processor and be a separate midi channel that can be pitch transposed individually...

playing a midi bass is no simple task, and for fretless, even more daunting.

question: why would you want to do something like this, in the first place?

 

[spade2you]

I have an extra question, then.

You know the Line 6 Variax guitars/basses with piezo pickups? Any way I can get something like that, but where I can tune each string however I want while keeping the tension the same?

i.e. I tune EADG and with the press of a button go to DGCF?

Or better yet, get an extra E and D string, tune my bass EEADD and then with the press of a button get BEADG while keeping tension the same?

That would require a midi system and a processor "brain". I wouldn't think you'd want to change the tunings that are different from the actual pitch. Tracking can be an issue when you deal with changing the pitch with electronics.

 

[SoundWeavers]

yep, you sure can get piezo pickups for solid-body electric basses...

go to www. guitarelectronics.com and check out the graphtech stuff...

bassically the way it works, is that each bridge saddle has a piezo pickup mounted in it...

there's a bit more, in terms of a preamp, and additional wiring to consider...

but the "blending" you're talking about is done all the time...

check out john east preamps for onboard preamp
specifically designed to accomplish what you're after.

thanks Pilbarabass. Good to have all of these info in one post. I'm glad to know I am not alone in what I wanted to achieve.