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Double Bass Ergo megathread part II
- Thread starter Barry Clark
- Start date
That's posted in the classifieds here as well. If I didn't just buy an ergo 4 I would be all over that
Has anyone here successfully taken their ergo on a plane? Any details on the best way to go about that?
I've toured a lot with mine. I have the hard fishing pole case that I've checked before and I also use the soft bow case. The soft case without stand fits in the overhead bin behind all the luggage, so I has to go in first. Just explain and it is no trouble. I put the stand in my checked bag.
just bought a used Ergo 4...a birthday present to myself today....awaiting shipment from Oregon to California...woo hoo....I am now (almost officially) "ergocentric"...pix as soon as it arrives....
It's official....I AM "ERGOCENTRIC"...woohoo....delivered today...ran it thru my SWR/Fishman Platinum Pro EQ/DI combo....beefy....funny thing is...the seller included a home made preamp which sounds fantastic as well...just an altoid mint tin and a 9v...simple in and outs....the Ergo sounds good even without eq!!!!! My wife commented on how much she likes the sound of the ergo vs even some of my bass guitars...I think we have a keeper here...the stand is the typical drum stand conversion...works great! Strung with TI 42 Ropecores...silky....will get better acquainted and update in a few....
FellowBass
Bass Player Extraordinaire. OK, just ordinaire.
Fishman platinum is the best thing I've been able to find for it. Great combo. Congrats!
I hate to have to post this - but I need to retract my endorsement of Ergos unless you are heavily into tinkering with electronics (I am not).
The first two Ergos I got were fine - he was using those thin rectangular pick ups. Once the circular pick ups showed up they never worked or lasted for the 6 or 7 years. The pick ups failed on too many important festivals and concerts to keep quiet about it.
I thought it had to do with the 7 strings, so I exchanged my 7 for a 4 and within a month the same issues - the sound drops out, distortion and they failed on one of the two gigs I played with it.
The woodworking - the part Jesse actually does is beautiful - the issue ends being that it is designed around his homemade, unreliable pick up system.
One solution would be to design it around a commercially available pick up or provide that option. As it is it is too unreliable and ultimately unprofessional. Sad to say it.
The first two Ergos I got were fine - he was using those thin rectangular pick ups. Once the circular pick ups showed up they never worked or lasted for the 6 or 7 years. The pick ups failed on too many important festivals and concerts to keep quiet about it.
I thought it had to do with the 7 strings, so I exchanged my 7 for a 4 and within a month the same issues - the sound drops out, distortion and they failed on one of the two gigs I played with it.
The woodworking - the part Jesse actually does is beautiful - the issue ends being that it is designed around his homemade, unreliable pick up system.
One solution would be to design it around a commercially available pick up or provide that option. As it is it is too unreliable and ultimately unprofessional. Sad to say it.
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Bummer to hear that. Glad I didn't have a similar experience on the two that I have been on since 2010. Not that I'd need a third, but I wouldn't hesitate to get one if desired. The price is right and the quality has always held up even though I didn't exactly play them as intended... i don't think. I played them more like an upright electric bass guitar. Slapping and pizz. That sort of thing. No issue with the pickup even though I'd say I pounded on them pretty good. What I liked in particular was the only 'problem', if you want to call it that, was a string broke on shipment. I didn't complain about it, I just asked about what strings he typically did them up with, he asked why, and a new string was out to me by week's end.
Love that sort of service.
It is a huge bummer. It has potential but it just isn't a reliable product. A pick up that doesn't sound the best is one thing, a pick up that fails is a whole other situation.Bummer to hear that. Glad I didn't have a similar experience on the two that I have been on since 2010. Not that I'd need a third, but I wouldn't hesitate to get one if desired. The price is right and the quality has always held up even though I didn't exactly play them as intended... i don't think. I played them more like an upright electric bass guitar. Slapping and pizz. That sort of thing. No issue with the pickup even though I'd say I pounded on them pretty good. What I liked in particular was the only 'problem', if you want to call it that, was a string broke on shipment. I didn't complain about it, I just asked about what strings he typically did them up with, he asked why, and a new string was out to me by week's end.
Have you looked into an alternative pickup? I thought I'd read that some folks had good experiences using pickups designed to go under acoustic guitar bridges.
That is the obvious solution - but it doesn't change the issue of building a product around an unreliable pick up. I couldn't recommend such a product to a student or anything like that.
Does the ergo use piezo discs under the bridge feet? I don't have an ergo, I have a 34" scale eub built by Krappy Guitars. It had a pickup under the bridge saddle, sounded great for pizz but Arco was very thin and scratchy. I experimented with different solutions and found one I absolutely love.
I bought a pickup on eBay from jjb electronics, you can also other directly from their website. They look like piezo discs but they are covered in something, I used a bone saddle blank then the discs on that, then the bridge feet on top of each disc. I flipped one upside down, I don't know if that actually inverts polarity but it made it sound much better. I bought one with a volume pot and jack attached, it was less than $30. That may be a solution for the ergo as well? Here's some pictures, I don't kno. if they illustrate it well or not but it was hard to get a good angle.
I bought a pickup on eBay from jjb electronics, you can also other directly from their website. They look like piezo discs but they are covered in something, I used a bone saddle blank then the discs on that, then the bridge feet on top of each disc. I flipped one upside down, I don't know if that actually inverts polarity but it made it sound much better. I bought one with a volume pot and jack attached, it was less than $30. That may be a solution for the ergo as well? Here's some pictures, I don't kno. if they illustrate it well or not but it was hard to get a good angle.
If the pressure is on the whole area of the piezo disc on both sides, the disc works is pressure mode. In this case switching it upside down doesn't change the phase. If the pressure is on a smaller area on one side of the piezo disc it might work in bending mode, which is the more sensitive mode of a piezo disc. In this case flipping one upside down does invert the phase.
Connecting two piezo discs in parallel without being buffered by a high impedance preamp degrades the sound.
Connecting a volume pot to a passive piezo will degrade the sound even more, since the impedance/resistance of the volume pot is too low, so the sound is even further degraded.
Solution: build two impedance buffers like Francis Deck Quick'n'Dirty or the mint-box buffer, connect one piezo to each buffer, connect the outputs (after the output resistor) in parallel and the volume pot to the joined outputs. You can even take two phase inverted outputs from one buffer to select between in-phase or inverted phase by using such a buffer (Francis gives schematics for that, if the mint-box doesn't).
Connecting two piezo discs in parallel without being buffered by a high impedance preamp degrades the sound.
Connecting a volume pot to a passive piezo will degrade the sound even more, since the impedance/resistance of the volume pot is too low, so the sound is even further degraded.
Solution: build two impedance buffers like Francis Deck Quick'n'Dirty or the mint-box buffer, connect one piezo to each buffer, connect the outputs (after the output resistor) in parallel and the volume pot to the joined outputs. You can even take two phase inverted outputs from one buffer to select between in-phase or inverted phase by using such a buffer (Francis gives schematics for that, if the mint-box doesn't).
It's a bummer to hear that the newer Ergo's have unreliable pickups. I have an older one and I talk it up all the time to the other bassists who are shocked my stick actually sounds pretty good. Have you sent this same message to Jesse? He may be interested in fixing this pickup issue for future basses.
I sent some angry messages to him after it failing on high paid and high profile gigs. I could have been nicer, but I got a lot of people to buy these things and was angry about it's failure and worried about others who bought it on my rec. I took down my videos and told him if this new one worked for 6 weeks I'd make a new video. It failed before that. I hate to say these things but I can't have people buying a non-working product on my rec. The woodworking is beautiful - if you like tinkering with electronics it is great instrument.
High pay & high profile... did you bring a backup?
What was Jesse's response? Saying you sent some angry messages means nothing... we know you're mad, clearly, but knowing what Jesse said is probably more important than you being upset. I haven't read of anyone else having pickup problems except for the pickup elements needing to be adjusted a bit for the best tone.
The Ergo was my back up - the neck had just broken on my double bass the festival ended up renting me a bass. He sent lots of pick ups an even did the exchange of my 7 for a 4. He left it with him saying the woodworking is his strength - and it is. Which would be great customer service if the end product was reliable. Anyway, his customer service is legendary and not in question here.
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Exactly. If it was designed around a commercially available and reliable pick up it would be the best EUB out there.
