Double Bass Chooising between 2 cheap pickups

[JBasstorius]

ok i have very small budget and am choosing between

"The original six rounds"
http://cgi.ebay.com/ORIGINAL-SIX-RO...ryZ16222QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

and "the true tone"
http://cgi.ebay.com/TRU-Tone-Uprigh...ryZ16222QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

let me know what you think.

 

[mje]

I'm not a gambling man. If I wasn't going to make my own, I'd just buy a basic K&K pickup that I know would work.

 

[ToneRanger]

I'm not a gambling man. If I wasn't going to make my own, I'd just buy a basic K&K pickup that I know would work.

Good advice. They both look very 'home-made'.
The 'six-rounds' appears to use unshielded cable so probably has noise issues. The TrueTone is probably a piezo buzzer - at least it's properly shilded in copper foil.
If you can only afford a home made pickup, you may as well do it yourself and have a bit of fun experimenting. Here's my solution that costs less than $5.00: Link Removed (awesome sound on EUB's; mixed results on URB's; works well on fiddle & cello)

 

[seamonkey]

These work, and they're cheaper.
Link Removed

 

[JBasstorius]

Thanks guys

 

[bassbuddy]

These work, and they're cheaper.
Link Removed

Huh? What? Do you just use it as a wing pickup, like a Bass Max?

 

[Bass]

Huh? What? Do you just use it as a wing pickup, like a Bass Max?

Yes.

 

[dchan]

These work, and they're cheaper.
Link Removed

I'm sure they work, but do they sound any good? Then again, we can't expect much for a $10 pickup designed for drums.

 

[seamonkey]

I'm sure they work, but do they sound any good? Then again, we can't expect much for a $10 pickup designed for drums.

They don't sound bad at all. On par with the realist I had - IMHO. More output than you'd think. Well shielded (better than the realist). I use one for a neck pickup also. I wedge it in the bass wing with wood shims but I've heard other's use chunks of felt. The amount of pressure applied to it, just like any piezo changes the tone a bit. So experiment. Take apart some expensive pickups and you'll probably find the same or very similar piezo element. These elements were designed for other purposed but somebody figured out they could be used for acoustic instrument pickups and drum triggers. But feel free to spend as much as you want on a pickup. It's your money.

 

[dchan]

They don't sound bad at all. On par with the realist I had - IMHO. More output than you'd think. Well shielded (better than the realist). I use one for a neck pickup also. I wedge it in the bass wing with wood shims but I've heard other's use chunks of felt. The amount of pressure applied to it, just like any piezo changes the tone a bit. So experiment. Take apart some expensive pickups and you'll probably find the same or very similar piezo element. These elements were designed for other purposed but somebody figured out they could be used for acoustic instrument pickups and drum triggers. But feel free to spend as much as you want on a pickup. It's your money.

Interesting. I guess anyone can modify the pickup of his/her choice to the desired sound if the pickup has enough flexibility to allow for it.

I almost never come to the pickup/amp/mics section. I have a pickup, a Clef Revolution I, and it carries me on the gigs that I get. I'm primarily a orchestral bassist, so all the talk about getting the right sound through all this equipment is fascinating but not terribly interesting to me. Maybe it will in the future.