• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Double Bass Getting a fingerboard pick up

chikin79

Guest
Aug 21, 2013
23
0
I bought myself a Stagg EUB to practice on in the evenings while the little ones sleep and find it so much easier to take around in the car than my acoustic DB. Ive started taking it around for little mini projects too. My question is "is there anywhere to get that click sound that you get from "rockabilly" & "rock n roll" db bass playing? I was thinking is there and decent fingerboard pickup for it? would they work on an EUB? and if so what suggestions would people have.

The EUB i have is
Invalid Link Removed


Cheers all :)
Craig
 
The fingerboard click from a Stagg EUB sounds a bit hard acoustically.
I think you will get a bit of the click via the strings on the normal pickup, but not very loud. If you want to control the click vs. string sound, you need a fingerboard pickup which is basically a piezo disk glued to the fingerboard and a piezo buffer and blender.
You might be able to disconnect the G string pickup and connect a piezo disk to the built-in electronics instead. I think the is a trim pot inside for blending. Might work and is cheap to try out.
 
Thanks very much for the reply doublemidi. I like the idea of the piezo on the fingerboard. I guess the blender is a dual channel box and the buffer like a preamp?. Also where on the fingerboard would you glue this bad boy? I've never done this before but excited! :)
Cheers in advance!
 
Put the piezo disk under the fingerboard. The Stagg 's fingerboard is flat on the downside (on an acoustic DB it is only flat at the upper half of of the hanging fingerboard, so you might want to put it a bit higher), so easy to glue there.
For testing get thin double sided sticky tape, like used to put paper photos in albums. Piezo disks are a bit tricky to solder, you might be able to get some with short soldered wires which are OK for testing. Be careful with the disks. Bending them might crack the thin piezo crystal and you need a new one. There are also piezo disks in plastic cases with short wires attached. They sound a bit darker but are better if you are afraid to break the disk.
The built-in electronics have the buffer, so nothing else necessary than a 1/8 T(R)S plug and a shielded cable. To access the electronics, you need to need to unscrew the electronics the the pots on. Try to identify the pickup sides by unplugging one of them and knocking at the bridge feet. You might need to loosen the strings and remove the bridge to knock at the piezo wire on both sides directly if you are not sure by knocking at the bridge feet. The T(R)S tip should be connected with the inner wire/red wire or the silver coating of the piezo disk, the shield of the T(R)S with the shielding of the wire/black or white wire or brass part of the piezo disk.
If you don't what that means, don't do it yourself unless you got the knowledge. It might work if someone a bit experienced in electronics can assist you.

Good luck and I would be interested in your experiences if you try doing that, so keep us informed here.
 
That sound isn't really in a fingerboard pickup it's in the strings. If you're using the stock steel strings that came on the bass they just don't do what you're going for very easily. Synthetics "guts" designed for slap like [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] and some creative EQing will give you the clatter you're looking for. They come up for sale regularly in here in the DB classifieds. I just got a set of Innovation Silver Slaps for a good price. They aren't really my cup of tea but you won't ever know if you don't try them on your own bass. Other people's opinions can only take you near the ballpark....to hit a home run you gotta step up to the plate yourself. And you can always flip used strings for all or most of what you paid.

At 24:24 Pete Turland talks about strings and pickups. It's not by any means the whole picture but he's a pretty accomplished slap player and well worth checking out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gerry grable
Thanks Double Midi again sorry for the delay. I'm a secondary school teacher and things are hectic at the moment to say the least. I think I'm going to go with the easy option and put a piezo pickup on the fingerboard and send that to a preamp and blender. That way seems easier plus I get the advantage of adjusting the level of the slap and the bass tone.
Jeff thank you for your reply. I have RS4000s on my acoustic and second hand ones (RS4000s again) on the EUB. .I think it's more than string and eq. As the pickup is to far away to pick up the slaps and is drowned out by the bass tone I think a fingerboard pick up is needed.
Just need to find a piezo pickup with preamp now lol!
 
I stuck a piezo on my fingerboard the other day just to see and I think you're going to be disappointed. It really didn't pick up much more fingerboard clack than the piezo I have on the bridge. String choice, technique and probably to a much smaller degree EQ is how people get this sound.
 
Just a quick update. I bought a J Tone fingerboard pickup from eBay for about £18 and it works a treat. The clack really stands out. As I now have 2 outputs from the bass (one from the original bass pickup and one from the new fingerboard pickup) I'm going to get a cheap 2 channel mixer with EQ to route it through so I have complete control over the tone and volume for each. ThAnks guys for all your help

Jeff Bonny would you like some pics and a sound file?
 
Here are some pics I'll do sound file start of next week pick up on fingerboard so 2 outputs as said in previous posts. Put in mixer as 2 channels eq bass heavy for main bass pick up and remove low end for fingerboard pick up. Result = a nice clicky EUB!
image.jpg
image.jpg
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    363.5 KB · Views: 208
  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    372.6 KB · Views: 163