Double Bass Guess the pickup

[Jeremy Morgan]

Thought that you may enjoy guessing the pickup that the bass player is using in this recording.

The concert was for the BBC National Big Band Competition 2004 and featured the winners of the competition. It was broadcast on BBC radio a couple of weeks after the event. The competition is open to amateur big bands in the UK, but sadly ended in 2005 after a 30 year run.

I chatted to the bass player after the show & was surprised by the pickup that he was using.

Any ideas?

I'll leave the thread to run for a few days & then post the 'answer'.

Here's the link to the mp3:

http://www.mediamax.com/drdomestos/Hosted/Audio/Beautiful%20Love.mp3

Have fun!!

 

[Monte]

Thought that you may enjoy guessing the pickup that the bass player is using in this recording.

The concert was for the BBC National Big Band Competition 2004 and featured the winners of the competition. It was broadcast on BBC radio a couple of weeks after the event. The competition is open to amateur big bands in the UK, but sadly ended in 2005 after a 30 year run.

I chatted to the bass player after the show & was surprised by the pickup that he was using.

Any ideas?

I'll leave the thread to run for a few days & then post the 'answer'.

Here's the link to the mp3:

http://www.mediamax.com/drdomestos/Hosted/Audio/Beautiful%20Love.mp3

Have fun!!

Hmm, hard to tell with a big band and laptop speakers.

I guess Fishman BP100. Sounded a bit mid-rangey to me.

 

[Jazz Ad]

Mid-rangey indeed. It says magnetic pickup to me.
A Schaller maybe ?

 

[Jaromir]

The bass sound is very ambient, so it can be anything. It could even be no pickup at all and what we hear is the bass picked up by mic.

 

[mje]

As a pickup implies he's amplified, we're listening to a pickup and an amp together, so it could really be anything. But I'm going to guess a Fishman. Unless it's an SM57.

 

[Jake deVilliers]

On my pathetic yard sale computer speakers I can hardly even tell that there is a bass!

Put me out of my misery soon please.

 

[reedo35]

My guess - Underwood with a preamp
(I think)

 

[robgrow]

Polytone? DeArmond?

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Nice band. Who cares, I'm diggin' a swinging band!!

 

[Monte]

Ok, what is tha answer? Been a few days now.

 

[PB+J]

hard to tell in that sonically crowded mix, and it's an amp tone, as everyone has said. To me it also has the middy ness that I associae with the BP-100

Hard to tell though

 

[Doghouse_Oli]

All I can say, It sound great.... But I'll take a guess with a Magnetic Pickup, like a Biesele. For second guess, I'll go for a SM57...

 

[Jeremy Morgan]

Hi there everyone.....

Thought it was time to 'open the gold envelope'!

The pickup is.................. a Fishman BP100 through a GK MB150 amp. The amp was close mic'd (not sure of the type of mic).

Top marks to Monte & the others who guessed correctly!

I was quite surprised when I saw the setup, as the BP100 seems to get universally slated on this forum & personally I thought the sound he was getting was very good - it certainly fitted well with the big band. I couldn't hear excessive string noise which is what I would expect with this pickup - maybe it was EQ'd out.

He is evidently a pretty good player too, which backs up the oft-mentioned adage - "a good player doesn't necessarily need the best equipment to sound good". However, I think his bass was fairly decent, but I didn't have a chance to discuss that or which strings he was using etc.

I have never tried a BP100 myself - maybe I'll try one sometime just for the hell of it. It's cheap enough, and if it doesn't work out it can go & live with the other pickups in my drawer of discarded pickups!

 

[Monte]

To each his own, but this was the mid-rangey mess that made me hate the Fishman BP100.

In a big band, nuance is mostly lost in volume anyway, but playing in a trio, the sound is not for me.

Each to his own; some great players use the Fishman