Double Bass Hurley Pickup Review

[Violen]

I have had his pickup for two or three years now, and i have to say that it is superior in price and performance. It reproduces the exact sound of your instrument, does not require a piezo buffer and is only 40 dollars. My professors and bandmates have commented how much clear and how much it really reproduces the sound of my instrument.

I have used it in the studio and it has an excellent response and sound.

I am ordering two more sometime next week.

And seriously guys, its 40 bucks and i cant stress how amazing it sounds.

Everyone needs this pickup.

 

[Jazzdogg]

I have had his pickup for two or three years now, and i have to say that it is superior in price and performance. It reproduces the exact sound of your instrument, does not require a piezo buffer and is only 40 dollars. My professors and bandmates have commented how much clear and how much it really reproduces the sound of my instrument.

I have used it in the studio and it has an excellent response and sound.

I am ordering two more sometime next week.

And seriously guys, its 40 bucks and i cant stress how amazing it sounds.

Everyone needs this pickup.

Got a photo, URL, or sound clip?

 

[davidhellbilly]

Which amp and strings do you use???

 

[timobee4]

Hurley Virtuoso Upright / Double Bass Pickup by Hurley Pickups | eBay

Got a photo, URL, or sound clip?

 

[Peck_Time]

"It reproduces the exact sound of your instrument"... comedy WIN

 

[drurb]

...It reproduces the exact sound of your instrument, does not require a piezo buffer and is only 40 dollars.

It's a piezo pickup. If, by "buffer," you mean a pre-amp that loads it optimally, then, like any piezo pickup, it doesn't "need" one but it sure would benefit from one.

As for reproducing the "exact sound of your instrument," well, it's a piezo pickup. Hey, I use a piezo pickup with which I'm very happy but I'd sure never make that claim. Yeah, yeah, I know, you just gotta hear it. The site claims that it's gotten "rave reviews" and then Link Removed is available to view. Well, one guy thinks it sounds better than a BassMax. Then, there's this on DBC. Again, someone thinks it's better than a BassMax. Some reviews here as well pasted into the seller's eBay page. What other pickups have you used to which you can directly compare it on your bass or basses?

It's $40. That, I believe.

 

[Violen]

I have used it on my cheap plywood bass with Helicore Orchestra, and on a carved german flatback with Helicore Hybrids.

I am 90 percent sure this pickup was reccomended to me by James Albright. He told me he had been using one and loved it and liked it better than any other pickup out there.

I am trying to find a video of him using it but i havent been succesful in making sure it was the pickup (as the camera never gets close enough to his bass to directly see it.) i'll try to get something up in a few days or a week.

I am going to see if i can get into the studio on campus and do an A/B comparison on the same mic.

As far as an amp I have used the pickup with my Mesa boogie M-2000, A Kustom 70's keyboard am that was full frequency response, through a G&K 1x15, a Peavey TNT 1x15 as well as a handful of other amps and it really puts out a sound that is clear and unmodified.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Glad it's working for you. As a two element wing type pickup, I would be surprised if it didn't share the phase problems of the Underwood. It's unavoidable, although possibly insignificant in practical use.

It's all dependent on how a particular pickup works on your bass and into a particular amplifier.

With the amplifiers you are using I highly recommend this to raise the impedence and give some low frequency roll off. I have the one on the left: Invalid Link Removed

 

[drurb]

I have used it on my cheap plywood bass with Helicore Orchestra, and on a carved german flatback with Helicore Hybrids.

Thanks for the detail but I was really interested to know what other pickups you've had on your bass or basses as a basis of comparison.

Glad it's working for you. As a two element wing type pickup, I would be surprised if it didn't share the phase problems of the Underwood.

With regard to phase problems and multiple-element pickups, I thought you'd like this.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

"It reproduces the exact sound of your instrument"... comedy WIN

I love how the ad says the pickup has gotten rave reviews, but when I click on the website to read the reviews, there's only one of some psychobilly dude.

IMO, one element stuck in a bridge wing - sorta ok. Two elements in both bridge wings? No thanks. I'll let some other brave soul try it and report back first.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

TalkBass Forums - Rules/FAQ/CUP: Commercial User Policy

 

[Roger Davis]

Not sure what all this stuff about two-wing pickups is about. I use Underwoods on all my basses without probs. Perhaps I'm deaf.

 

[Michael Glynn]

Well, from my personal experience and from what I've heard from others, I think it's perfectly clear that there is no "best" piezo pickup for every person, and every bass, and every amp, in every room, etc., etc....

I spent years trying out different pickups because everyone told me that the Underwood I was using was no good. Well, half a dozen or more piezos later, and the Underwood is still the most reliable piezo for me, and is in the top 1 or 2 soundwise. On the other hand, I know other people who can't get a good sound out of an Underwood no matter what.

With regard to phase problems and multiple-element pickups, I thought you'd like this.

Moving slightly off topic for a minute, do you have any explanation for why people notice a difference in sound when removing one element? Or is it all in our heads? (serious question!) Maybe I'll try recording my Underwood with treble, bass, and both pickups and do a blind listening test in a new thread.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

I spent years trying out different pickups because everyone told me that the Underwood I was using was no good. Well, half a dozen or more piezos later, and the Underwood is still the most reliable piezo for me, and is in the top 1 or 2 soundwise. On the other hand, I know other people who can't get a good sound out of an Underwood no matter what.

Same here. BP-100 all the way. Best sound and consistency with least amount of fuss.

Moving slightly off topic for a minute, do you have any explanation for why people notice a difference in sound when removing one element? Or is it all in our heads? (serious question!) Maybe I'll try recording my Underwood with treble, bass, and both pickups and do a blind listening test in a new thread.

I don't think it's in my head. There's a definite loss of puff to my bass when both elements are in. I notice it even with just one element. I used to use a Planet Wing on my old Chrissy and sounded good with it. Not this one. Depends on the bass.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Thread cleaned. When we have a new commercial user, sometimes it takes a bit for them to get the hang of the site rules. Hurley, please read the rules for commercial user participation (linked above by clink) as far as the ways in which commercial users are and are not allowed to respond to posts about their products. It can be really nice to have product designers present on the site in that they can answer direct questions from regular users about their products; the rules exist to ensure that Talkbass doesn't become a site to provide free advertising by commercial users and others connected to the commercial enterprise in question. It's a fine line, but one that has to be walked with good intentions by all in order to make the site informative and spam-free at the same time.

Back on the subject of the pickup, it looks like it could be a good low-priced alternative to the various wing pickups out there for newbies who want to save a few $$$, and also - depending on the sonic results - for those looking for different wing pickup options. I hope one of our regular members will have a go at one of these at some point and post some sound clips from a gig.

 

[Violen]

I will have some sound bites/videos up soon.

This pickup really delivers.

And also, in case anyone was wondering, I didnt receive one free, and i dont talk to Ryan Hurley. James Albright told me to get this pickup above all others and my teacher said if he said to do it, its money in the bank so i got it.

He was dead on about it. I paid for one just like anyone else, and i have A/B'ed it with a Realist the last few days, and i like the Hurley better, it gives more high end definition as well as some fingerboard/string/finger noise, but not too much.

 

[Mark Perna]

Same here. BP-100 all the way. Best sound and consistency with least amount of fuss.

The BP-100 is a universally reviled pickup but it is the best sounding pickup I've tried on my two older basses and it sounds really good on my 2006 Kolstein travel bass. It was absolutely unusable on the other basses I've owned-it was fingernails on a blackboard bad. Also, the two basses that work great with the BP-100 sound terrible with the Realist. On the other hand, the basses that sounded terrible with the BP-100, worked great with the Realist. And remember this was with the same player, same strings and same amplification. The only thing that changed was the bass and pickup. Pickups are very bass-dependent. You get it, try it, if it works, use it, if it doesn't, throw it in the drawer because it might work on your next bass.

mark

 

[drurb]

Moving slightly off topic for a minute, do you have any explanation for why people notice a difference in sound when removing one element? Or is it all in our heads? (serious question!) Maybe I'll try recording my Underwood with treble, bass, and both pickups and do a blind listening test in a new thread.

To the extent that it's real, I do have an explanation. The underlying assumption is typically that both piezo elements are identical. Suppose they are not. Specifically, suppose one piezo element has a substantially different phase response than the other at the frequencies of interest. That would explain the reported effects. Assuming random effects, one would expect that some players would experience an increase in low-end response with two elements installed. So, while the "phase-effects" may not be related to differences in effective propagation length across the bridge, they may come about as a result of variability between the properties of the pair of elements.

Actually, I'd be surprised if there was a substantial difference in the phase response between two piezo elements of the same "model" at low frequencies. Still, I've never measured a pair. Maybe someone who has measured the responses of piezo elements can enlighten us.

...There's a definite loss of puff to my bass when both elements are in. I notice it even with just one element.

Help me out here. What do you notice "even with just one element?" I understand that you experience a loss of "puff" when going from one to two elements.

 

[timobee4]

From what I see it's like an Underwood arrangement, now I'd like someone to smarten me up a little! I read it somewhere that in pickup making they don't just use one kind of piezo crystals?! I am a long time Underwood user (20+ years) and I wonder if in the past 20 years they came up with newer ways, different crystals what not, perhaps it is possible that someone cooked up a pickup that sounds fantastic at low cost. Searching the net you'd find piezo disc's for 0.002 cents if bought in large quantities, I recently opened my Realist only to find 2 little element jammed between the foils and one was shattered, salvaged the other and it works very nice in the wing slot now So who knows!! One thing is for sure NO piezo will ever reproduce the exact sound of the double bass and that is a crazy claim (I know as I also have made some thoughtless claims about pickups some time ago)

 

[hurleypickups]

I think electronics engineering has come a logs way in 20 years. As for the piezo's you can buy for $.002 online; all I have to say to that is you get what you pay for. Those are absolute garbage. The piezo chip in the cheap ones is thinner than a sheet of paper. The crystals convert mechanical energy (the vibration of the strings on your bridge) to and electrical output. Sooooo, the less of the piezo element you have the smaller the output. ie no balls.