Double Bass Ehrlund vs SoundClip

[GrowlerBox]

Can someone who has had success with the Soundclip and rubber pieces mentioned please post detailed photos of the rubber and also the pickup placements that are ideal? Explanations accompanied by photos?

I'm not in a position to take any photographs just now, but a thread started some time ago (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f4/realist-soundclip-review-tips-766595/) seems to be the most detailed and has some photographs. My own approach has changed a bit since then -- I now generally use the rubber piece (a small rectangle, about the same size as the copper tranducer coating, cut from the inner tube of a road-racer bicycle inner tube) between the copper surface and the bridge, held in place on the pickup with a piece of Micropore surgical dressing tape. The pickup is on the E-string side, above the bridge adjuster, with the volume pot to the outside of the bridge (I guess the "standard" placement). I've tried pretty much everywhere, and this seems to give me the best balance between feedback resistance (more feedback below the adjuster, closer to the body of the bass) and nasal mid-ranginess and string noise (more of this further "up" the bridge). All this will vary somewhat with your bass, amplifier voicing and EQ flexibility, buffering and high-pass filtering, phase reversal, speaker characteristics, position of bass relative to speaker, etc, ad nauseum.

Hope that helps.

 

[TroyK]

Updating my old thread and I'm not going to go back and read it to see what I wrote, so I'll summarize:

I used the Ehrlund for about a year (bought new, traded something for the preamp)
I was really happy with it once I quieted the chord noise down (mostly) and under the right circumstances; trio, good piano, tasteful drummer - perfect. In less optimal circumstances, it could be problematic. My pre-amp shorted out and I stopped using it altogether.

I traded some things that I wasn't using for a SoundClip and used it for about a year. It never sounded as good as the Ehrlund at it best and never as bad at it's worst. It was way more stable. There's no wire, it works as it should, performs much better under sonically challenging circumstances, easy to deal with. Then one day, I didn't like how it sounded. That frustration grew. I had a series of bad nights. I say an almost new Realist in our classifies for cheap bought it, put it on and played a bunch of gigs without thinking about pickups, which has been nice.

It's the first time in over 2 years that I've had a pickup mounted on my bass that didn't come off after the gig. I don't like that fact, but I also plug and play and focus on music. I remember how good the Realist is, I remember what the problem with it is sonically. Heard a gig recording and the sound really bugged me, but it does the job with NO fuss.

Decided to sell the Ehrlund and hang onto the SoundClip a little longer, but first see if I could get the preamp fixed. I did (short version of the story) and then remembered how magical the Ehrlund sounded when all was as it should be. Decided to do nothing for now.

Then a new member posted that he would like to trade a Stat-B for a SoundClip and we did. So, I'm out on the SoundClip. My parting review is that it works, I liked it. Rubber between the bridge and the piezo was critical for me. I put on someone else's bass once and it sounded fine without the rubber, so it's bridge shape dependent. For someone who doesn't want a pickup that they can't take off when not in use, it's a fine choice, though expensive (I'm lucky to have traded for it). It's not likely be audio nirvana for anyone, but it's as good as a lot of things.

I don't know what to think of the Stat-B, I'll put it through it's paces this month. I've always been interested in it, but haven't wanted to pay for it (gotta love TB for this purpose). I'll keep the Realist on for now. And I'm keeping the Ehrlund indefinitely, though I don't have a plan to use it at the moment. I could see coming back to it. Nothing has ever sounded better at its best.

I probably will never part with the Realist, unless something that isn't on the market yet ends up a regular solution for me. The Ehrlund is finicky and I wonder if the Stat-B will too. I will want/need to be able to take the Stat-B off when not in use and that may or may not work. I need something in my bag that I could go to in a bind. These high end-audiophile solutions are not that.

Thus enduth my comparison.

 

[GrowlerBox]

Well, Troy, it was nice having you along for the ride. Rather unusually for me, I'm liking the Soundclip more the more I use it. I got sick of fidding with the rubber, so just went back to clamping it straight on. I spent half a day dialling in a tone by comparing spectrographic representations of my bass miked with a large diaphragm condenser against my speaker cab via the same mic (Soundclip - fdeck - Markbass F1 - BFM Jack 12), and got it such that there was really no important difference between them. Not identical, but near enough not to matter in any real situation. I can see no need now to change my gear at all.

Doesn't mean I won't ...

 

[TroyK]

That's good news. I had some good experiences with it, but I don't know. Fell out of love. I'm not that good with eq, I've tried to learn and I'm better than I used to be, but my skills are a bit lacking.

Quick test with the Stat-B, it was overly mid-y, but I can dial that out.

No big deal, I'm making it a year between changes and so far, I've been able to trade for things, so it's not costing me much or anything.

I really like that we have pickups hitting the market that you can remove when not in use. That's a trend that I appreciate.

 

[togril]

Certainly worth the read - Thanks Troy for posting. Hope your neurosis gets better. In about a year.
I am just starting out on this track. I have become pretty despondant after reading several mega threads on the Ehrlund, Dpa, ATM350, Fishman et al.

Was sold a K&K setup which was NOT the sound or the (1950's) experience I was after...and that was before the belt clip fell off near immediately.

Being a student, it hit hard to spend my no-money on something that is (for me) sonically bereft in the 21st century.

I live in fairly Remote Australia.
There aren't places to try out, there aren't shops selling double basses...for about 3000km.
Normally, I have to wait 4 weeks for a delivery of anything at a near "fair price" ("Australia Tax", we call it).
Only to find (like strings) that they are not what I was looking for.

I think what gets me the most is the utter lack of sound files from the majority of Manufacturers....(ESPECIALLY arco)...
After my K&K experience have pretty much decided they are all shonky, and truly did and do feel taken advantage of.

I mean, go to Ampeg, go to Zoom, go to any number of instrument manufacturers, recording manufacturers and you get soundfiles.

All these Gages, Ehrlunds and Dpa's of the world need to step up to that one. Many of us DO know that it is individual, but have a go, please. I mean, its 2013.

So, Where is my rant going?

The helpfulness of the forums here.

I REALLY appreciate Troy's post, and all those who reply, hijack threads or just plain ignore that the world is, indeed, round...because I learn so much here.
Although I am still at a loss as to what to get, at least I can find some real world examples, or at least real world stories and relate it to what I know. Really,really helpful. A Godsend.

From the heart.

Good Day from the Tropics.

(Now off to the classified ads section).

Tog.

 

[Mark Gollihur]

I understand your "rant," I truly do. And living where you do makes it very difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to try out things. I get that it's pretty demoralizing.

That said, I can tell you why most companies don't post soundfiles on the web for your comparo-tests. It's because they don't know whether the computer rig you're listening on is like...

THIS:

or THIS:

or might even be a smartphone with a crappy set of $5 earbuds.

Manufacturers usually only get one chance at your ears, and it's a bad idea to leave so much to chance. They have more to lose than to gain by posting "official" soundfiles online. But there are a lot of user-posted videos on YouTube and the like, if you look. Though many of them sound even worse, because the gear they are recorded with is questionable.

Additionally, different basses, different styles of music, different player expectations, different player techniques (or the lack thereof) etc. play a big role. A pickup won't make any bass "sound great" - the player does that. The pickups (with varying levels of success) simply translate the player's efforts to electrical signals that are amplified. Some do it better, yes - but the unintentional coloration that some pickups "add" works for some players (and doesn't for others.)

So if I put a soundclip of me, playing jazz licks on my carved bass with a Bass Max pickup and Evah Pirazzi strings, amplified by my EA Doubler head and Wizzy Mline cabinet, recorded with my Joly-modified Oktava large-diaphragm condenser mic, into my Focusrite preamp, sweetened by a bunch of plugins in my DAW, mastered, cleaned up, and otherwise processed to sound good to MY ears... how does that help you, exactly? You might be playing an old Kay bass in a bluegrass band, with gut strings, through a Walter Woods rig.

The manufacturers would rather have their trusted dealers know their products well, so that they can work together with the customer to determine the best pickup for their needs. Sometimes we get it wrong, but we do our best, based on what the customer tells us they are looking for (and can afford.)

I'm bummed if you are unhappy with the pickup you bought, doubly so if you bought it from us. Either way, if you PM or email me, I'll throw some suggestions at you that might help improve the tone of the pickup you already paid for (especially if you did NOT buy it from us, because you'd have most of those tips already if you did).

 

[drurb]

I think Mark's post is dead on and very thoughtful. Still, togril, even without sound-clips, there is a great deal of useful information to be gained by reading these threads. When you do, you often see clear trends with regard to quality of sound and quality of build. That won't guarantee success because, as with transducers and with strings, the sorts of variables Mark discussed come into play. YMMV holds.

For example, one could hardly fail to be impressed by the success that pro players have had with transducers like the Full-Circle, the Realist, the Ehrlund, the Rev Solo, the DPA 4099, etc. It's a good place to start.

It really comes down to hearing a transducer on your bass, through your rig, and with your ears. If not for the Gollihurs' trial period on the Ehrlund, I might not have jumped. I knew after just a few minutes that that puppy was not going to be returned.