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Double Bass DIY URB Magnetic Pickups

#22
All right. I just had the best time with my afternoon church gig with the Magnetic pickup. I was playing at an outdoor picnic type function in a large pavillon with a couple of guitars and Edrums with four vocalists. This setting has always baffled me because it seems like it should work with upright, but it never has before. Previously I could get a huge growling sound down in first position and then it would die further up the neck. Previously I've had the best luck with the Bassmax (tried Full Circle and Rev Solo as well), but it was far from perfect. This particular group has two acoustic guitars with some effects and when the Edrums get going the bass dissappears - no articulation at all.

Today I just plugged in, cut a little at 200hz, and it went great. Thanks again Jflo, the pickup is a keeper. I was planning to run a atm35 mic into the mains, but it sounded so good I just ran DI out of my Focus- no muss no fuss. Maybe I'm a slab player at heart, but because my upright playing doesn't often get close to straight ahead jazz or bluegrass this may be just what I need.

BTW no ground problems at all. Maybe I was on a noisy circuit before.
 
#23
I used mine on its first gig last night, and it went great. In the past, I have never been happy with my tone when amplifying with a full band, so I always just use my electrics. I have an Underwood and this mag going through a K&K dual channel preamp in order to blend the 2 as the volume allows. I then run the out through a Sadowsky Preamp. I played in a honky tonk with very loud volumes and cut through the mix very well. It had the tone of a huge electric with flatwounds. Thanks again.
 
#25
Chris Rhoades said:
This pickup just didn't work right for me, like the g string was super loud and it went down hill from there, plus it was not adjustable at all, so you cant fix it . I think if you could raide and lower the magnets yourself it might be workable
Click to expand...

Chris, are we talking about JFLO's design? If so, the first one I got was weird like that, but he replaced it with another and it works great. I thing you maybe got a bad one or it was damaged in shipping.
 
#26
My pole pieces are adjustable. Maybe that is a new mod.

I had to play with the location of the pickup itself to get a real balanced sound, but without much effort I found the sweet spot. I do have a fuzz noise when playing the E string, but it was not noticeable at band volumes, and on low volumes I will be using my Piezo.

I had a couple of issues initially but JFLO fixed them up. He is a great guy to deal with.
 
#28
I promised Jason I would add my experience with his pick-up to this thread . . so here it is . .
I'm a long time slab player, only on upright for a couple of years. Rock & rolling on a Romanian plywood with Obligatos. Plugged into an Ampeg B2-RE and Schroeder 1212 cabinet, no pre-amp. Playing with a six piece band at moderate volume . . Bottom line, I love it . . an excellent value.
I get clear feedback free tone on all strings. . .:hyper: :bassist:

video samples . . .
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#30
Hey, I´ve got another pickup from jason
And I really like it. Let me explain. I´ve just started playing db three years ago, mainly a slab player until then. I´ve got a carved romanian 3/4 with spiros weich, and I play jazz and progressive rock stuff, with two guitars and a loud drummer. In that situation the realist pickup i used before its completely useless, i can´t ever rehearse with it. I´ve got an ampeg 410 and an ampeg v4bh, not a proper db rig, you know. Jason pickup its perfect for me, because i can cranck up the volume and get no boominess at all. The sound its more like a fretless bg, but at low volume sound quite woody too. Also it picks the percussive sound of the strings againts the fb so i can try to get some fx from that. Now I can use only my db for playing with my band. The only problem its my poor jazz bass. He is in the case now.
 
#32
quee said:
Has anyone tried using two p bass pickups? angled to get an even response. I would be interested to hear if this got good results.
cheers Quee
Click to expand...

Yes, I installed two P-pickups on my upright about two weeks ago. They work and sound great (bear in mind I love the P-bass).

I removed them though for two reasons. I installed them so they would be removable, and this involved a bracket that extended the width of the fingerboard. I didn't really like how the bracket felt with pizz.

Also, I then had three cables running from my bass: one for the bridge pickup, one for the mag pickup, and one for the figerboard pickup. This went into a small mixer then to my amp, which I felt is just an accident waiting to happen.
 
#34
ToneRanger said:
Anyone tried these? Link Removed
Click to expand...

hi tone ranger, I thought about trying those in my design but they are only 600 OHMs per pickup which is WAY too low to get a good fat output.
Through trial and user feedback I have found that 3 to 3.5 K ohms per pickup is optimal and provides a hefty full signal. my current design has about 12.5 to 13.5 K ohms output per pickup.
 
#36
True but a preamp would raise the cost significantly. also I found that the higher impedance magnetic design is far better for upright bass as it eliminates the HF clackiness you get with the piezos and also gets rid of the zing on the G string with most other magnetics.
For electric bass I totally agree the lower impedance with an active system is the way to go for modern sounds.
But for a darker Jamerson type tone I always prefer the passive design.
I have experimented with both high and low Kohm designs and found a 12-13 KOHM output gives the best of both worlds.
 
#37
jflojazz said:
hi tone ranger, I thought about trying those in my design but they are only 600 OHMs per pickup which is WAY too low to get a good fat output.
Through trial and user feedback I have found that 3 to 3.5 K ohms per pickup is optimal and provides a hefty full signal. my current design has about 12.5 to 13.5 K ohms output per pickup.
Click to expand...
I wonder if wiring 4 of them in series would be the way to go?
 

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