Double Bass APTflex

[dfp]

I bought an Aptflex over the inter webs last year, have not been that thrilled. Much darker than I hoped for, maybe it's my bass, amp, or just me.. I don't get much mids or highs from mine, but it may be useful for blending with another more detailed sound. Really, I hardly use mine and would probably sell it if anyone is interested. Pardon me if I shouldn't say that outside of the classifieds.

Ok, so I changed my strings, now I have a Kaplan G and D and Spiro weich A and E. The looseness of the lower strings seems to have really opened my bass's sound, and also I may have adjusted the bridge foot position over the APTflex, but now I'm getting a quite different response from my APTflex, more in line w/ what others have found. Probably my previous strings were too dark, or maybe something really changed when I twisted the bridge foot back and forth. Either way, much happier with my bass and APTflex at the moment.

 

[drurb]

...If I can find someone to repair the APTflex I'll use it as a back up for sure. It definitely needs a quality EQ/preamp but, IMHO, it's a more usable signal than most piezo elements.
-J

When I originally saw this, I offered to try and repair Jeff's Aptflex. He sent it to me and said he was happy to donate it for autopsy to add to the knowledge-base here. Well, I'm happy to report that the patient has been revived. I'll be sending Jeff's Aptflex back to him. I documented the repair in pictures at this link. Maybe it'll help someone else.

 

[flatback]

Nice. I have had to have mine repaired 2x. Same deal. Thanks for the pix. Any idea what is in there?

 

[drurb]

Nice. I have had to have mine repaired 2x. Same deal. Thanks for the pix. Any idea what is in there?

I tried to mess with it as little as possible. Looks like there's a paper-like material under a metal layer that's right under the outer copper foil. That could have been the element.

 

[riimodar]

The ONLY thing I like about the Realist is the initial thump which to me, emulates that portion of the note most important to me. Unfortunately, everything else about it makes it unusable to me.

Absolutely agree.

How is the initial thump on the Aptflex as opposed to the Realist?

Unfortunately, my experience is that the thump is a little less prominent with APTflex. I used to use the classical foil Realist, then tried the wooden Realist shortly and ended up with AptFlex, which I have been using since then. The foil Realist had the best thump, the wooden Realist and the AptFlex seemed a little less thumpy, but please take this only as a subjective observation of mine (my bass, my strings, my ears etc.)

The reasons I left Realist:
1) The pickup thickness. I had to adjust my fixed bridge to the pickup, then I had to put a shim under the feet when I removed the pickup). Aptflex is roughly half of the thickness of the foil Realist (and the wooden Realist is probably ever thicker than the foil one).
2) The foil Realist makes dents to the table. This is unacceptable to me and I do not understand how it could ever gain such popularity given this flaw. Probably a psychological thing as the damage is not normally seen, being under the bridge foot.

Overall, the Realist and the Aptflex sounded similar to me, Aptflex having better color (EQ-wise) and worse dynamic response (thump reproduction/emphasis). The differences were quite subtle.

Nowadays, I mix Ehrlund with Aptflex. Usually I end up with most of Ehrlund, adding a little of Aptflex.

BTW, when I record both signals, i can see some time delay (~2ms) between them. This is probably an inherent feature of such a solution - not a design flaw of any the pickups - probably a delay between the different parts of the instrument. this still surprises me as the Ehrlund is just some 10cm/4inches far from the bridge foot. The mixed signal is richer than any of the individual signals, on the other hand it has worse definition than any of the individual signals (probably the result of the time delay).

BTW2 - my AptFlex broke some time ago and I ordered another one. I was experimenting with pickups quite a lot so I thought I broke it when manipulating with it, but was not aware of any particular abuse to it. We may conclude (given another problem report in this thread) that the cable attachment is not the most resistant one. Handle Aptflex very carefully.