I think I've read something somewhere, a long time ago, about piezo pickups deteriorate when they get older. I recently started using my realist again after years of playing without amp, or using a mic. I have one bass with a realist that's about 10 years old, and another that was fitted with...
I remixed an 8 track recording I did of my quartet, from march 2011. It's on my soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/bart-tarenskeen/undisturbia . Hope you like it.
A bit of shameless self promotion: my new cd, entitled "The Outer Rim" is out now. 10 original compositions played by Marcus Strickland (tenor and soprano saxophones), EJ Strickland (on drums) and myself on bass. Snippets can be found here...