Double Bass amping plain and wrapped gut strings on same bass

[dfp]

i bet this has been covered before but i can't find the exact info by searching....

so has anyone had trouble amplifying a gut string set up w/ plain G and D and wrapped A and E? trouble as in, the pickup gives you 2 different tones, the plain strings tone and the wrapped tone, even though the un plugged sound of the bass is quite even across all 4 strings? i suspect my problem is the bridge mounted underwood, so i'm wary of another bridge mount (Full Circle, etc) but i just wonder what other gut players have found for amping.

btw, i try the underwood one-element-dangling trick (thanks Bobby K) but whichever way i do it, the dangling side about disappears from the mix... it seems to improve the G D side's tone when i do but the loss of sound from the A and E is not practical then...

to be specific, i like the underwood's tone for my A and E, but on the plain G and D it imparts too much finger noise, sounds less "real", kinda like amped Dominants....

thanks if anyone has tips

 

[Adrian Cho]

I am amping plain gut and steel nowadays but I've done what you ask about in the past and had no problems but I was using either a Dyn-B, Vektor, or Full Circle.

 

[DaveKirkpatrick]

I've use mixed gut sets and never had problems with a K&K bassmax pickup. Maybe experiment with how tight the pickup fits into the g&d side of the bridge? Very small shifts in position and pressure can have huge impacts on the tone with piezo pickups. Hope you can get it without spending any cash.....

 

[seamonkey]

Just having a single pickup on the bass side of the bridge (bass wing) seems to work best for any kind of strings for me.

 

[Mark Perna]

I ran one of my basses full gut (plain G/D and wrapped A/E) last year and had good to great results with both the Underwood and the Realist (in fact, it is the only time I've ever liked the Realist).

It sounds like you have a setup issue either with the bass or the pickup.

Maybe a trip to the luthier is in order?

mark

 

[Silversorcerer]

Uncle Toad has something about amping guts with various combos on the Gamut mega-thread in the strings section. Others posted there as well, but I don't remember the specific mention of an Underwood.

 

[JimmyM]

I used a Rev Solo II when I was using Eudoxas and plains. One of the better sounds my bass has had, actually, but boy, those Eudoxas are delicate. I'm using SF Mediums now, though.