Double Bass Fishman pickup

[Mark Perna]

For what it's worth, I've found the BP-100 to be a finicky pickup. I've had 8 basses over the years and BP-100 worked incredibly well with 3 of them. Fat, warm tone with great definition. It worked ok with one bass and didn't work at all with the other 4 (fingernails on a blackboard bad). No amount of set up seemed to get it to work with the 4 basses it didn't work with. So, in my experience, how well it works depends heavily on your bass.

If you don't have a high Z input, you need a pre-amp. When I was using a Focus series II, I never used a preamp. Now that I have Focus Series III, I have to use one (Fdeck's little preamp works great) as they've engineered out the great high Z input in the name of progress.

mark

 

[Steve Freides]

Carl, for $30, my wife ordered one last night for the kids to give me. I'll post on how it sounds once I get it and a chance to try it out. My guess is that no one reviewed it for the same reason no one reviews 20-watt, $100 combo amps - you get what you pay for. But I'm game to give it a try and will definitely post a review. At the least, I hope it makes a decent spare/backup.

-S-

 

[mje]

Two hints:

1. Glue it to the bridge with a drop of hot melt or superglue.

2. Use a high impedance pickup as close to the pickup as possible. That makes a huge difference.

 

[buddyro57]

Mje is correct, gluing the fishman to the bridge is a vast improvement.

Pros: takes the clamps off of the bridge- HUGE improvement right there, also, if the positioning is good, you get a reliable contact that never changes. The elements are very light, so they do not significantly influence the arco sound.
Cons: obvious, some folks do not like the idea ( and I can't blame them) of doing anything to the bridge, also, when you change the bridge you better plan on changing pickups as well because the fishman will be toast.
Still- if you like the sound ( and it is much imrovement with this approach) its a pretty good solution.

 

[longfinger]

Mje is correct, gluing the fishman to the bridge is a vast improvement.

Pros: takes the clamps off of the bridge- HUGE improvement right there, also, if the positioning is good, you get a reliable contact that never changes. The elements are very light, so they do not significantly influence the arco sound.
Cons: obvious, some folks do not like the idea ( and I can't blame them) of doing anything to the bridge, also, when you change the bridge you better plan on changing pickups as well because the fishman will be toast.
Still- if you like the sound ( and it is much imrovement with this approach) its a pretty good solution.

Is this what you did? Do you like the sound?
So if one is not using the clamps and is instead glueing the BP100 to the bridge, is it not then possible to glue it to another location too, for example on the feet below the adjusters or somewhere else? Did you, or people you know, experiment with glueing the BP100 in locations on the bridge other than the standard ones between the strings?
thanks,