I posted the question a while back; has anyone used both the Ehrlund and the Gage SoundClip enough to talk about the differences? It appeared no one had. Both of these $400 pickups hit the market at roughly the same time and (hefty) price point and offered something that we didn't have a lot of, portable, removable hi-fidelity pickups. I was at a place where my setup was very high priority to me and the idea of a pickup that I could remove without leaving any footprint on my bass when it wasn't in use appealed to me. I play acoustic when it's appropriate and generally just don't want anything on my bass that doesn't need to be there at that exact time. After reading a bunch of reviews and gaining some minor exposure to each (documented in those threads), I chose the Ehrlund and it's pre-amp. A few months back, I was able to trade a few things for a SoundClip, so I actually own both now and have used each enough to share my experience.
Let me make all my disclaimers first: My bass is my bass, your bass is your bass. My ear is my ear, yours is yours. The rooms I play in and the people I play with are...you get it. YMMV, mine usually does.
My pickup history includes multi-year stints with each of the original Realist and the Full-Circle and a year and change with the Ehrlund. I had a Stat-B on trial for a little while and I tried the first generation Upton Rev Solo, but it didn't work out for me. I've also played with a few other bridge wing type pickups, but didn't connect with any of them. I liked the Realist when I used it. I liked the Full-Circle better when I switched.
I have 2 combo amps:
Acoustic Image Series 3
Euphonic Audio iAmp 500
The EA is a better amp, but 30lbs heavier, so both get used fairly equally.
Let me also say that I'm not a great eq'er. I'm better than I used to be, but I realize that through eq and pre-amp choices a lot difference can be made. I'm getting better at it, but your skills may be better than mine. Also (and I think this really matters) I'm a mid-tier working guy in Seattle. That means that I'm usually not in venues with planned acoustics and quiet listening audiences. Room to room and band to band my experiences and needs are different. A lesson that I learned the hard way with strings.
So, on with it.
The Ehrlund required quite a bit of experimenting to figure out how to mount it without picking up noise from the lead wire. This issue is well documented. A lot of people resolved this by hard-mounting the jack on their tailpiece, like with the classic Realist. That defeated the purpose for me. I found a solution involving some Velcro and learned to get it on and off without too much trouble. Occasionally that wire will still touch something and cause a honk, but it's not a crippling issue anymore. The first 2 months with it, I thought either the pickup or I would not survive.
Placement is very important. I found a sweet spot and have experimented with others, but most are not nearly as good as the one that I use. I suspect, because the bass is such a big instrument, that there is some spot I haven't found yet, but I'm not really looking at this point. In a perfect environment with either of my amps, it's beautifully transparent. Trio in a setting that I could almost be acoustic in, it just brings my presence up enough without making it sound amplified. Into a PA, it's a good solution. A dream realized, actually.
When the room and/or the drummer are less friendly, it's a less consistent experience. I've had feedback problems that were usually resolved in a set break by rearranging the stage. When it happened, nothing simple would fix it. Again, better tech skills on my part may have made a difference, but it is fair to say, it's a less stable solution. I had similar experiences during my Stat-B trial. They are both great mic/pickups, I would say neither is for people who don't like fooling with gear and/or aren't good at it, unless you're only playing in really controlled environments. Oddly enough, this is where I think being Peter Brady hurts me. Beginners may not have the room issues to contend with that I do and first call players in the good clubs probably don't either. But, that's where I am.
About 6 months in, my pre-amp developed a short on a gig. I need to send it to Ehrlund to be repaired and I'm told that they'll take good care of me and I don't doubt it, but haven't done it either. Through my AI combo, the Ehrlund just doesn't sound good without the pre-amp. Through the EA, it sounds pretty close to the same with or without the pre-amp. A lot has been written about pre-amps with this pickup and I'll leave it there. I will say that I also had a problem with the Stat-B pre-amp and my attitude is really that I don't want to NEED one, because things break, even if they are warrantied, that doesn't help on a gig or quickly if you don't live in Sweden. I need simple stuff that I can count on to work.
I'll also say that (as with my string lessons learned) that in tougher rooms, that warm transparent, woody, wholesome tone leaves some gaps in what I need to hear and project. You know that sweet spot I mentioned? I found that right between the bridge feet is more useful when my environment is loud. Demoing the pickup in a studio, that's not the sound I want, on a gig, sometimes it's the one I need. Kudos I suppose to the pickup for being versatile. I also think it's great that I could put this on guitar or other acoustic instrument, but haven't done so.
The SoundClip So, you know that 2 months of pain trying to isolate the wire on the Ehrlund? I think the equivalent on the SoundClip is the realization that you need something between the element and the bridge. The previous owner and TalkBass great El Mon, worked through that pain and send me some little pieces of rubber that he had cut for this purpose. I tried it once without and it sounded harsh and awful. With the rubber, 100x better. David Gage should consider something in the next version of this pickup. I've collected a few other bits of material that might be worth trying, like pieces of cork, but what he sent me works so well, that I don't know if I'll ever try them.
Comparatively, on the bass, the SoundClip is bigger and heavier, yet somehow I don't notice it when I'm playing. Installing and removing is literally seconds. I haven't searched hard for the spot. The first few I tried, worked well and I stopped looking. I have a favorite spot and a backup that I can go to if I need to. I don't generally feel the need to move it around on the gig, like I did with the Ehrlund.
There is no lead wire, you plug straight into it (which is one reason it's bigger). Therefore, there is nothing left behind when you take it off. Definite advantage SoundClip on this point for me. I'm not using a pre-amp with it, though maybe one would help. I'll likely run that experiment at some point, but it's nice not to need it. It works about as well with either amp, this was one of the selling points of the original Realist to me. It's not twitchy that way. Differences from one to the other are differences in anything else that I would plug into those two amps.
The sound, with all my caveats, is not "my bass only louder", but it sounds very good. At low volumes or with some better eq skills, it might approach transparent, but it definitely sounds more like a pickup than the Ehrlund can (not always does, but CAN). It has hints of the old Realist, hints of Full Circle, very subtle suggestions of maybe an Underwood at times. But it's got it's own sound that for me is somewhere in the middle of those things.
Saturday night, big restaurant, tall ceilings, game on the TV, bartender with a martini shaker, people talking and laughing at their table, glass wall behind us; The drummer looked at me and said "that pickup sounds much better" and it did. When the room was loudest, it sounded pretty woody and wholesome. When things got quieter, I twiddled a little and it mostly kept that feel in that room. I didn't ever experience this ability with the Ehrlund. It was good or it was bad or it was off and I couldn't fix it.
So, overall, for my purposes, the SoundClip is much more useful as a gigging pickup. For those occasions when I need 15% more than I can comfortably generate with just my hands, the Ehrlund would probably be better, by how much is hard to say. But, I'd better have a working preamp or I have to bring my 50 lb amp to address what was a 20 lb amp need. I did a few hours in the studio on Saturday and then had the gig I mentioned. I like mics in the studio, but the engineer wanted a signal to blend and I didn't feel like fighting him, so I put the Ehrlund on. Never considered the SoundClip because I know I wouldn't like hearing it direct into the board, the Ehrlund sounded pretty good (though I hope his uses the mic instead). On the gig, never considered anything but the SoundClip.
I suspect that blending the two would produce a really nice result, but I'm not really inclined to do that sort of thing. More stuff to fiddle with and go wrong. If you're into that sort of thing and have $800 lying around then it's probably worth a try. Which I think has come up in the Ehrlund threads and is what happens with mics (it is a mic after all). Same with the Dyn-B. They're great, more than ½ of the people who end up using them seem to blend in a piezo signal too. I can see why. There is something that you get from a mic like this that is always lacking in a piezo pickup and conversely, you can't always count on mics doing what pickups can do for you, in any environment. If your needs and your ear are that refined, blending is probably the way to go.
I said I couldn't afford both, but since I traded for one, I have both for the moment. They're different enough that I may hang onto both for now, but if I start to let one go, there's no question that it will be the Ehrlund. The SoundClip is a very good, very practical, stable useful pickup and I'm really happy that I have it.
One last comment then let the games begin, I know that I've already expressed what is not the majority opinion, but there it is.
I think the Fishman Full Circle is the best pickup on the market. It's consistent, it's stable, it's clean, it can sound very natural, you've got some ability to dial things in and out of it. It works. I'm currently of the mind that I don't want something that I can't take off. The wheel being there doesn't bother me but the lead wire does. I tried mounting it a few different ways and caused a short in the RCA, which I had to replace and it just bugged me. Great pickup, but not what I want right now.
As it is, I'm pretty happy with the SoundClip. I doubt that I'll use anything but or think much about it for the next several years. The Ehrlund is a really cool device too, just not as practical in my hands or in my world. There are other good choices, they all seem to have their issues. The biggest issues I plan on addressing this year are in my hands. I have good equipment that serves my needs and now I can resume regularly scheduled programing.
Thanks to Talkbass for making this even possible. I hope this is useful to someone now or later in a search.
Let me make all my disclaimers first: My bass is my bass, your bass is your bass. My ear is my ear, yours is yours. The rooms I play in and the people I play with are...you get it. YMMV, mine usually does.
My pickup history includes multi-year stints with each of the original Realist and the Full-Circle and a year and change with the Ehrlund. I had a Stat-B on trial for a little while and I tried the first generation Upton Rev Solo, but it didn't work out for me. I've also played with a few other bridge wing type pickups, but didn't connect with any of them. I liked the Realist when I used it. I liked the Full-Circle better when I switched.
I have 2 combo amps:
Acoustic Image Series 3
Euphonic Audio iAmp 500
The EA is a better amp, but 30lbs heavier, so both get used fairly equally.
Let me also say that I'm not a great eq'er. I'm better than I used to be, but I realize that through eq and pre-amp choices a lot difference can be made. I'm getting better at it, but your skills may be better than mine. Also (and I think this really matters) I'm a mid-tier working guy in Seattle. That means that I'm usually not in venues with planned acoustics and quiet listening audiences. Room to room and band to band my experiences and needs are different. A lesson that I learned the hard way with strings.
So, on with it.
The Ehrlund required quite a bit of experimenting to figure out how to mount it without picking up noise from the lead wire. This issue is well documented. A lot of people resolved this by hard-mounting the jack on their tailpiece, like with the classic Realist. That defeated the purpose for me. I found a solution involving some Velcro and learned to get it on and off without too much trouble. Occasionally that wire will still touch something and cause a honk, but it's not a crippling issue anymore. The first 2 months with it, I thought either the pickup or I would not survive.
Placement is very important. I found a sweet spot and have experimented with others, but most are not nearly as good as the one that I use. I suspect, because the bass is such a big instrument, that there is some spot I haven't found yet, but I'm not really looking at this point. In a perfect environment with either of my amps, it's beautifully transparent. Trio in a setting that I could almost be acoustic in, it just brings my presence up enough without making it sound amplified. Into a PA, it's a good solution. A dream realized, actually.
When the room and/or the drummer are less friendly, it's a less consistent experience. I've had feedback problems that were usually resolved in a set break by rearranging the stage. When it happened, nothing simple would fix it. Again, better tech skills on my part may have made a difference, but it is fair to say, it's a less stable solution. I had similar experiences during my Stat-B trial. They are both great mic/pickups, I would say neither is for people who don't like fooling with gear and/or aren't good at it, unless you're only playing in really controlled environments. Oddly enough, this is where I think being Peter Brady hurts me. Beginners may not have the room issues to contend with that I do and first call players in the good clubs probably don't either. But, that's where I am.
About 6 months in, my pre-amp developed a short on a gig. I need to send it to Ehrlund to be repaired and I'm told that they'll take good care of me and I don't doubt it, but haven't done it either. Through my AI combo, the Ehrlund just doesn't sound good without the pre-amp. Through the EA, it sounds pretty close to the same with or without the pre-amp. A lot has been written about pre-amps with this pickup and I'll leave it there. I will say that I also had a problem with the Stat-B pre-amp and my attitude is really that I don't want to NEED one, because things break, even if they are warrantied, that doesn't help on a gig or quickly if you don't live in Sweden. I need simple stuff that I can count on to work.
I'll also say that (as with my string lessons learned) that in tougher rooms, that warm transparent, woody, wholesome tone leaves some gaps in what I need to hear and project. You know that sweet spot I mentioned? I found that right between the bridge feet is more useful when my environment is loud. Demoing the pickup in a studio, that's not the sound I want, on a gig, sometimes it's the one I need. Kudos I suppose to the pickup for being versatile. I also think it's great that I could put this on guitar or other acoustic instrument, but haven't done so.
The SoundClip So, you know that 2 months of pain trying to isolate the wire on the Ehrlund? I think the equivalent on the SoundClip is the realization that you need something between the element and the bridge. The previous owner and TalkBass great El Mon, worked through that pain and send me some little pieces of rubber that he had cut for this purpose. I tried it once without and it sounded harsh and awful. With the rubber, 100x better. David Gage should consider something in the next version of this pickup. I've collected a few other bits of material that might be worth trying, like pieces of cork, but what he sent me works so well, that I don't know if I'll ever try them.
Comparatively, on the bass, the SoundClip is bigger and heavier, yet somehow I don't notice it when I'm playing. Installing and removing is literally seconds. I haven't searched hard for the spot. The first few I tried, worked well and I stopped looking. I have a favorite spot and a backup that I can go to if I need to. I don't generally feel the need to move it around on the gig, like I did with the Ehrlund.
There is no lead wire, you plug straight into it (which is one reason it's bigger). Therefore, there is nothing left behind when you take it off. Definite advantage SoundClip on this point for me. I'm not using a pre-amp with it, though maybe one would help. I'll likely run that experiment at some point, but it's nice not to need it. It works about as well with either amp, this was one of the selling points of the original Realist to me. It's not twitchy that way. Differences from one to the other are differences in anything else that I would plug into those two amps.
The sound, with all my caveats, is not "my bass only louder", but it sounds very good. At low volumes or with some better eq skills, it might approach transparent, but it definitely sounds more like a pickup than the Ehrlund can (not always does, but CAN). It has hints of the old Realist, hints of Full Circle, very subtle suggestions of maybe an Underwood at times. But it's got it's own sound that for me is somewhere in the middle of those things.
Saturday night, big restaurant, tall ceilings, game on the TV, bartender with a martini shaker, people talking and laughing at their table, glass wall behind us; The drummer looked at me and said "that pickup sounds much better" and it did. When the room was loudest, it sounded pretty woody and wholesome. When things got quieter, I twiddled a little and it mostly kept that feel in that room. I didn't ever experience this ability with the Ehrlund. It was good or it was bad or it was off and I couldn't fix it.
So, overall, for my purposes, the SoundClip is much more useful as a gigging pickup. For those occasions when I need 15% more than I can comfortably generate with just my hands, the Ehrlund would probably be better, by how much is hard to say. But, I'd better have a working preamp or I have to bring my 50 lb amp to address what was a 20 lb amp need. I did a few hours in the studio on Saturday and then had the gig I mentioned. I like mics in the studio, but the engineer wanted a signal to blend and I didn't feel like fighting him, so I put the Ehrlund on. Never considered the SoundClip because I know I wouldn't like hearing it direct into the board, the Ehrlund sounded pretty good (though I hope his uses the mic instead). On the gig, never considered anything but the SoundClip.
I suspect that blending the two would produce a really nice result, but I'm not really inclined to do that sort of thing. More stuff to fiddle with and go wrong. If you're into that sort of thing and have $800 lying around then it's probably worth a try. Which I think has come up in the Ehrlund threads and is what happens with mics (it is a mic after all). Same with the Dyn-B. They're great, more than ½ of the people who end up using them seem to blend in a piezo signal too. I can see why. There is something that you get from a mic like this that is always lacking in a piezo pickup and conversely, you can't always count on mics doing what pickups can do for you, in any environment. If your needs and your ear are that refined, blending is probably the way to go.
I said I couldn't afford both, but since I traded for one, I have both for the moment. They're different enough that I may hang onto both for now, but if I start to let one go, there's no question that it will be the Ehrlund. The SoundClip is a very good, very practical, stable useful pickup and I'm really happy that I have it.
One last comment then let the games begin, I know that I've already expressed what is not the majority opinion, but there it is.
I think the Fishman Full Circle is the best pickup on the market. It's consistent, it's stable, it's clean, it can sound very natural, you've got some ability to dial things in and out of it. It works. I'm currently of the mind that I don't want something that I can't take off. The wheel being there doesn't bother me but the lead wire does. I tried mounting it a few different ways and caused a short in the RCA, which I had to replace and it just bugged me. Great pickup, but not what I want right now.
As it is, I'm pretty happy with the SoundClip. I doubt that I'll use anything but or think much about it for the next several years. The Ehrlund is a really cool device too, just not as practical in my hands or in my world. There are other good choices, they all seem to have their issues. The biggest issues I plan on addressing this year are in my hands. I have good equipment that serves my needs and now I can resume regularly scheduled programing.
Thanks to Talkbass for making this even possible. I hope this is useful to someone now or later in a search.
. Perhaps I was starting to wonder whether my senses were failing me, given that I seem to be more enthusiastic about it than most.
