Double Bass Fishman BP100 or Underwood?

[jsc88]

I am very happy with the Full Circle pickup, but there have been a few times where it seems like it was cutting out. I am considering getting one of these two pickups as backups that can be quickly installed in a pinch. Which one is most recommended? Thanks.

 

[TroyK]

Underwood.

 

[Federighi]

The Fishman is great because it's easily mounted & removed, but IMO, even with the Fishman Plat Pro-EQ I find that the tone can still be too "thin or trebly." The Underwood isn't as "cut & dry" in regards to it's installation, as it will most likely require some sanding &/ or shimming of some sort to achieve a proper fit, but IMO I find the tonal reproduction to be of better quality.

 

[Mr.Phil]

I've used both in the past, but use the full circle currently. Underwood by a mile, but it can be boomy. The fishman was too temperamental. A lot of people like to leave one of the wedges out on the Underwood, seems to help.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

Granted, the BP is tempermental and works on beautifully on a small number of what seems to be "better" basses. Generally, I think the closer you are to having a student bass, the less the BP works from what I've read here. I've never read anyone who was happy with a ply using a BP. Underwood gets you far more consistent results, but you shove it into your bridge wings which may mute the sound.

IMO, if you have a good carved bass, try the BP. Otherwise go with the Underwood. Personally, I would go with a Planet Wing pickup over an Underwood.

 

[Eric Hochberg]

but you shove it into your bridge wings which may mute the sound.

I just don't buy that. There will be plenty of sound for your purposes. You are amplifying, right? I a/b'd an Uwood today in and out of my bridge and I noticed very little difference. BP and Uwood pickups are pretty inexpensive, try 'em both if you want. I used an Uwood professionally for many years and it works great. Plenty of pros still use them.

I agree the Planet Wing might be a good choice based on the results of a recent comparison thread.

 

[Mike Carr]

I'm using an Underwood. Eric is right, whatever bridge muting that you may or may not experiance is no big deal. Remember, you are playing thru an amp so the subtilies of your pure acoustic tone are going to be lost anyway. That's with any pickup. The Underwood is a very tried and true industry standard pickup. Once you fit it to the bridge wings it's hassle free. Pre-amps help the sound, but for years I and most others plugged straight into our amps and got a very usable sound, this was before everyone on the internet tried to sell us on the idea that pickups like this sound bad with out pre-amps. I just used to twist my amp's bass and treble knobs until I got a sound I liked! I am using an AI amp and speaker here in Shanghai. I run it flat, no EQ and get a great sound for jazz with my Underwood.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

In some senses, just about any pickup and sound will functionally work - so longas it's usable sound. Play for a few minutes and any sound issues might just disappear due to psychoacoustics or whatnot. However, my subjective experience is that anytime I shove something in the bridge wing - I lose puff and airiness to the sound. Blocking both wings gives me a flatter and even more compressed sound. Adding a Bp to the bridge instead increases mass, sometimes beneficially as it can get a little bit more bassy but doesn't kill the puff

Again - all subjective. Enough to avoid using bridge wing pickups? Sure - it's a particular sound in my head I'm chasing.

 

[Mike Carr]

I dig what you are talking about Hdiddy. My bass does sound a little bit less puffy with the Underwood in the wings. I guess in my case/my bass it doesn't bother me so much, very slight difference at the most. I did a CD for a jazz singer in Hong Kong a while back, no pickup, just a great mic, a Sanken from Japan aimed at my bridge, great studio with a very capable staff who were very into getting a good bass sound. It turned into several sessions, on different days. Most of the time I removed my Underwood, but on one of the days I decided not to bother, just left it in, unplugged. Once I heard the finished product the bass sounds the same on each tune. I can't hear the difference and can't remember what tunes I had my pickup installed and which ones I didn't!
By the way, I recently posted a very favorable report about hearing Eddie Gomez playing a borrowed bass, not a fine carved bass but a Shen, probably plywood, a hybrid a best. He made it sound great with a BP-100. Enough so that I'd like to try one on mine. Not that it would make me sound anywhere near as good as he sounds!