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Double Bass Full Circle - position of wheel

#21
Uncletoad said:
If none of that works then the transducer may have some damage. They distort under heavy spikes when they are trying to fail. The very thing that makes them sound great, high tension, also kills them eventually.
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I use low tension solo gauge or nylon strings most of the time. Will this increase the life of the pickup?

Mine's been sounding funny lately. Sometimes there's a dead spot on the G string around B to Db. Can a faulty pickup cause this? It's hard to say if that's the problem though because it's intermittent.

On my basses the wheel seems to act kind of like a blend knob between a "J" pickup and a "P" pickup. pointing straight up sounds fatter and kind of scooped mids. straight to the inside of the bridge and it sounds more middy. straight towards the corner of the leg and the signal is lower and kind of a blended sound that's in between the two. I think the in between is deader and maybe more feedback resistant while the straight up or to the side more lively/responsive. I tend to move it around depending what strings or amp I'm using.
 
#22
kurt said:
I use low tension solo gauge or nylon strings most of the time. Will this increase the life of the pickup?
Click to expand...
Probably not. Super high tension like Stark Spiros across could cause it to break however.

kurt said:
Mine's been sounding funny lately. Sometimes there's a dead spot on the G string around B to Db. Can a faulty pickup cause this? It's hard to say if that's the problem though because it's intermittent.
Click to expand...
That's an acoustic issue with the bass either the fingerboard or the box.
 
#23
I saw the guts of a full circle once and it had 4 elements in a square pattern. From what I remember that would mean the elements are directly under the leg with the wire "up" and then not directly under with the wire at the corner of the leg. Either way they get pressure, one way is more direct. Last night I set mine on the inside with the wire pointing at the other leg and it sounded really good. Like a microphone but no feedback.
 
#24
I might have posted about this on another thread. This improves things dramatically and the sound is the same anywhere in the rotation. The string pressure has to be dead center. I made 2 maple circles 1/8" smaller than the FC dia. and 3/8" thick. Drill 1/4"holes on center. Glue and clamp to feet. I then took an old adjuster,cut some 180 grit sandpaper, cut a 1/4" hole in the center and used this to sand the surface that will contact the pickup.(I actually mounted it and another adjuster and put it on the bass and brought the strings up and rotated back and forth slightly to insure the best possible contact) I talked to the engineers at Fishman and they thought it was a great idea. It does work.
 
#25
Just read this thread. It somehow, in some oddball way, made me feel good that I'm in such good company when it comes to searching for, as well as dealing with and trying to understand, how to get the best tone out of a Full Circle. Thanks guys, an enjoyable read!
 
#26
WOW!! You have just explained everything that has gone on in my head since i switched to the full circle. I always thought I was crazy!!!! Whenever I had sound issues with the Full circle its always fixed by lowering the adjuster. My hypothesis was that by lowering the adjusters Im actually putting more pressure on it from the bridge thus giving it a more focused, louder sound.... ehhh. Might go back to the realist for awhile to remind me of why i got the full circle in the first place.

Chris Fitzgerald said:
To add to the complicated formula: not only does the position of the wheel make a lot of difference, but I've been noticing that the string height does as well. My FC on the main bass had recently been quacking on several seemingly random pitches when I couldn't hear any acoustic difference on those same pitches unplugged. I took a vacation and then got sick on the way home, so after not having played for almost 2 weeks, I went to the gig just trying to survive. First set, every time I hit a B on the g string and several others, ducksville every time.

Since my hands were out of shape and I wanted to avoid injury, I dropped the adjusters somewhere between half a turn and a turn. In addition to about quadrupling the growl and sustain of the low F (which I had been missing), the pickup also sounded much more natural. I think the pressure from the string height was compressing the crystal, which was in turn compressing the sound. Anyway, after the lowering, the sound in any position of the wheel was warmer, looser, and more acoustic sounding, with none of the "thunk" that I was getting before when I'd pull hard. Makes sense, but I wish I'd thought of it sooner.

The bass is a mysterious beast...
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#27
arseniotall said:
WOW!! You have just explained everything that has gone on in my head since i switched to the full circle. I always thought I was crazy!!!! Whenever I had sound issues with the Full circle its always fixed by lowering the adjuster. My hypothesis was that by lowering the adjusters Im actually putting more pressure on it from the bridge thus giving it a more focused, louder sound.... ehhh. Might go back to the realist for awhile to remind me of why i got the full circle in the first place.
Click to expand...

Don't worry: you're probably still crazy. That said, I really think there's something to this whole height/volume/thunk thing. It may also have to do with how much adjuster thread is showing beneath the wheel. i dunno. At any rate, thanks for reminding me of this again - I got healthy, wanted more "iron fist" in my acoustic sound, and jacked the adjusters back up again. While the acoustic sound is glorious, the amplified sound suffers, to the point where the regular drummer I play with has told me on several occasions that he thinks the other bass (the ply) amplifies better. I may have to drop the strings again and see what happens. It's always something with this ****...
 
#29
[Progris riport]

Lowered the strings a turn, and the sound coming through the amp was right there. No ducks, no quacks, no errors.

Makes me want to put on a fingerboard extension so I can dig deeper if I want. Maybe I'll do that someday. In the meantime, it's hard to argue with that sound.

[Progris riport]
 

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