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Double Bass Gage Soundclip

#81
Eric Hochberg said:
The Realist has a very good arco sound no matter what kind of music is being played. She's going to plug in for classical music? BTW, 2 Realists for the price of one Soundclip so you can both plug in and play together. :-)
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We both have really nice orchestral instruments, so nothing is going under "foot." No, :) Not plugging in for classical. I've been arranging stuff for us, and usually play more "guitaristicly" on a 6 string. She also is the house cellist for Woodsongs radio hour in Lexington. If we do stuff with upright, it will always be without an amp (at this point). It will be slick if one pickup can work for both.

Any ideas of another setup that might work within these strange confines better?
 
#82
Bob Gollihur said:
The new cello version of the SoundClip is now available.
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I just called your shop today talking about this pickup and an EA Doubler. I think that amp will be a great choice for both of us to plug into. Thanks for having great prices and the DI cable! As far as the cello version, like I said before, I would like something for both instruments. They said at Gage it should work. Any thoughts?
 
#83
pauliebass said:
I just called your shop today talking about this pickup and an EA Doubler. I think that amp will be a great choice for both of us to plug into. Thanks for having great prices and the DI cable! As far as the cello version, like I said before, I would like something for both instruments. They said at Gage it should work. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Back in April I got an email from one of the guys at Gage, as we had been talking about a possible cello version, he said, "
You know, I just tried the standard SoundClip for bass on a cello and it
sounded killer. You'll need a shim at the clamp for most celli, but the
sound is awesome"

Haven't tried it myself but I'll take that as an endorsement. The guys at Gage do not BS me.
 
#85
pauliebass said:
Any ideas of another setup that might work within these strange confines better?
Click to expand...

I don't know about this pickup, so it might be great for you.

But, in answer to your question, check out the Ehrlund. It's a contact mic, sticks to the top with putty and then comes off when you're through with it. With some work, can sound pretty amazing. I've seen a couple come through the classifieds lately.
 
#86
Bumping this thread in the hopes that more folks have gigged with it. I had the older Realist with my now-gone 52' Kay strung with Lenzer guts, and coupled with a bright/neutral sounding amp (EA iAMP 800 combo) it wasn't dark or muddy as some describe it. I"m hoping that this newer soundclip version will have that much more clarity and string detail than what I was used to before. This time around the pickup would be going on a 5 string Upton Standard Ply strung with Gamut Guts.
 
#87
Gearhead43 said:
What I wanna know is, how in the hell would the soundclip sound anything like the regular Realist? It's a totally different design, not under the bridge foot. Much closer to the strings or can be positioned in different areas to get different sounds. Seems to me it would sound much more like a bridge wing pickup.

I was slightly interested but not if it has the same undefined, feedback prone woofy Realist attributes.

It seems like because you can adjust the pickup tension and weight it would be much less feedback prone and better for louder music - but so many people have said "it's just like the Realist" here that it's got me wondering.
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It was my experience that it wasn't EXACTLY like the Realist but it sure sounded an awful lot like one. Obviously, being both movable and tranformable (weights on and off), there are more options for different sounds but I thought those differences were more subtle than overt. If you only heard it and didn't see it, you'd likely ID it as a Realist. It doesn't sound anything like bridge wing pickup. Also, I didn't think it rejected feedback any better then The Realist.

Neither the SoundClip nor the Realist work very well on my main bass. They both work very well on my back up. I'd lean toward the SoundClip over the Realist primarily because it is removable and when I play unamplified (which I do reasonably often), I could just take the whole thing off. I never liked the underfoot aspect of the Realist because I could always tell sonically there was something under the bridge foot and it drove me crazy.

mark
 
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#88
Got it and tried it on bass which already has an realist standard pickup which sounds great. Its a joke ...All I got from it was a thin ugly sound with feedback all the time . No matter where the pickup was placed or how hard it was attached the sound was terrible. Took it of the bass switched to regular realist and everything was fine .... Sent the pickup back right away .....
I hope it was broken cos that's how it sounds to me .......

I was really hoping this one is as good as the standard realist ................:bawl:
 
#89
That's interesting. I've tried it on a few basses and it worked well on the ones the Realist worked on and didn't work at all on the ones the Realist didn't work on. Every bass is different though and what works on on bass doesn't always work on another.

For example, the basses that I have that don't work with the Realist or Soundclip get a great amplified sound with the almost universally reviled BP-100 which gets a nice fat round tone. The Realist and Soundclip are woofy with very little mid range power on those basses. The BP-100 sounds like fingernails on a blackboard on my other bass on which the Realist and Soundclip sound great. None of them sound good with any bridge wing pickup I've tried. Bear in mind, all of the basses have the same player, strings, amp and speaker.

You just have to try things and see what works on each bass. If it doesn't work, you just gotta move on and try something else until you find what works.

mark
 
#92
I had high hopes for the Soundclip. I have two basses (one carved, one lam for outdoor gigs) and I dislike permanent mountings - the Soundclip sounded perfect. Unfortunately, my tests produced results falling on the "thin, harsh, and feedback-prone" side of the curve. Adding the rubber buffer between bridge and pickup improved the sound - but only by reducing the output to nothing. Return trip to drawing board, please.
 
#93
I've been incredibly happy with the original Realist for many years now. But after getting a new bridge installed, I wanted to take the opportunity to try something else that would allow the bridge feet to make full contact with the top of the bass, as intended, & could be used between multiple basses. The Realist SoundClip seemed ideal. One of the selling points is that the pickup can be "fine-tuned", depending on its placement on the bridge & by using the adjustable weight system. And John Patitucci gives a favorable demonstration on YouTube (). Yes, it is a lot of $$$, but less than a mic system & less gear to worry about.

I've still got a lot of experimenting to do before I can trust it on any given gig. I'm finding it much harder to EQ than the original Realist, needing more Lows, less Low-Mid & a lot less Highs. Whereas the original sounds great with relatively flat EQ. That being said, I've managed to achieve my ideal tone with the SoundClip on a few of my quieter gigs, but I'm skeptical of using it for louder gigs because it's more prone to feeding back. So I must say that, for the money, I’m a little frustrated that I’m not head-over-heels excited about the superb sound quality right out of the box. I’m gonna hang on to it, but it will definitely be a while before I’m comfortable enough to uninstall the original Realist.
 
#94
I too had years of success with the original Realist, but I found it didn't suit my new bass. I decided to give the SoundClip a try but I was disappointed in both the sound and the mechanics of this pickup. I could occasionally obtain a good sound when experimenting with different locations, but the pickup would often rattle and re-installing it in the same place would yield entirely different results each time. I was also dismayed at how quickly the top part of the clamp chewed up my new bridge :mad:. I tried a rubber insert on the piezo side like many have suggested, but I never achieved results that I was consistently happy with.

I eventually returned the SoundClip to Sam Ash for a full refund and decided to try the Full Circle. So far I've gigged with it twice and I am really happy with it, although the amplified arco sound was much nicer with the darker sounding Realist.

- Steve
 
#95
Mark Perna said:
Anybody try the new Gage pickup? It's called the SoundClip.

From the Gage website:

Link Removed

It looks interesting as it looks like it might be the easiest pickup to install ever made. BUT it's over $400 which is a lot of bread to take a chance on.

mark
Click to expand...
I'm a classical bassist that plays jazz and folk music on the side. I used to use a underwood pick-up but hated it because it didn't fit my bridge wings and sounded bad (in my opinion). I eventually talked myself into buying a soundclip and have been super happy with it. The soundclip sounds tons better than the underwood. And, it gets a consistent tone and volume between pizz and arco. I think it compares well to the original realist pick up. It works great for me because I don't like the idea of altering/damaging my bridge or bass for pick-up installation. And I can take it off for playing acoustic.
Putting the soundclip on the bridge does act like a mute, but this isn't really noticeable when amplified. I put it on behind my bridge adjuster on the E-string side with both weights on. I also found that a piece of rubber between the screw platform and the bridge warms the tone. Of course this can vary from bass to bass. I recommend it for anyone who doesn't want to have a pickup stuck permanently on their bass.
 
#96
contrarex said:
It works great for me because I don't like the idea of altering/damaging my bridge or bass for pick-up installation.

Putting the soundclip on the bridge does act like a mute, but this isn't really noticeable when amplified.
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Hanging a pretty heavy weight on the bridge is a pretty significant alteration, IMO. Fitting an Underwood takes a few swipes of a flat file or a shim. Really not a big deal at all. It can also be removed at will and is very light. I'm back to using mine on my new second bass, and it sounds very good!
 
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#97
The Underwood is really great, for all those reasons, and the option of using only one element is very useful. I've found that the balance between pizz and arco is much better using only one element. The Soundclip, I haven't tried yet, but it sounds promising.
 

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