Double Bass I’m trying out a Schertler DYN-B ...

[Keyser Soze]

Y'now, this is a long thread about trying to make a specific product work.

On this board -- but mostly on the electric side -- when a product is being parsed like the Dyn B is here, SOME rep of the company -- President, techie, marketing guy, distributor... SOMEBODY -- steps up to the thread and says, "I'm here to help."

How come Schertler is deaf, or is it mute? -- as far as reponse, on this thread?

This is a board -- and a thread -- where everyone present is a potential Schertler buyer.

Does Schertler's "deafening silence" speak to their "end-user satisfaction commitment?"

Schertler reps; Any help? You're selling ot a niche market and we're all here, and we're all ears.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

On this board -- but mostly on the electric side -- when a product is being parsed like the Dyn B is here, SOME rep of the company -- President, techie, marketing guy, distributor... SOMEBODY -- steps up to the thread and says, "I'm here to help."

How come Schertler is deaf, or is it mute? -- as far as reponse, on this thread?

Nah, I think you're just spoiled that so many bass related manfacturers come to visit TB. Schertler is out of Europe (Switzerland? I forget) and I don't assume that all bass pickup manufacturers are reading TalkBass intensely. I think it's a bit much to assume that every bass manufacturer needs to appease us and get a TB stamp of approval to do business. If they're already here and are lurking in the dark, that's fine too. I'm sure they have good reason and sometimes it's better they don't meddle with our experiments. Let the products speak for themselves.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

How come Schertler is deaf, or is it mute? -- as far as reponse, on this thread?

Maybe they aren't reading it. Feel free to take the 2 minutes that would be required to send a link to this thread to Schertler tech support.

Does Schertler's "deafening silence" speak to their "end-user satisfaction commitment?"

If they don't know about it, the answer is obviously "No".

 

[PB+J]

I'm one of the few guys that really likes the dyn-B--I stuck it on there somewhere, liked the sound right away, moved it three times and haven't messed with it since. every now and then I stick my old rev solo on there and cringe. It's not great at higher volumes--it feeds back, not as readily as a mic but much more easily than a piezo.

But as far as i can tell it's just true that this thing is highly highly sensitive to the bass it's on--the strings, the playing style, the amp, etc. The sound of it is a lot like a standard dynamic mic, which is what it is, except that it lacks some of the "air" that you get with a free mounted mic. It worked for me the first time I tried it, and I love playing and not being constantly irritated by that piezo clacky thing. But I would not recommend it to anyone unless they could try it before buying it.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

Alright guys, I just got back from tinkering with the setup for 2+ hours straight. Yes, you need to have a certain amount of putty to make the Dyn-B sound not so boxy. After a certain point, it stops having an effect and starts to ooze a little bit too much. Right now I have enough so that the putty barely oozes evenly around the pickup without getting into the center rubber nub. I've moved the pickup to about 2.5" below the bass bridge leg. It's probably about as even as a sound I'll get. Adhesion is def better with more putty.

Now for the interesting part: blending it witn a Rev. Solo using a DTAR Solstice. The RS is pretty hot for the Solstice - I had to engage the -20db pad and turn both the bass and mids down to 9 o'clock. Highs and volume at 1 o'clock. The RS goes in the other channel, volume, bass, mids, and volume all at 12 oclock. What do I get? A pretty darn good and even amplified sound. I think "full-bodied" describes it well. I think most people complain that the RS is too scooped, and the Dyn-B accurate but too muffled/boxy. Add the two together and I got something really interesting.

With the Solstice I can turn one off and fiddle with the other and vice versa. Going back to a single pickup at a time, the RS has a nice sound but it's kinda "shallow". For me, I get a big bottom and a clear top but anemic in the mids. The Dyn-B screams nothing but presence but no bottom. I also played around with different volumes coming from the entire rig. I found that I get most of my tonal range by adjusting how much I add/reduce of each pickup. I hardly touch the tone controls. I get my bottom by adding more RS and can cut more if I make the Dyn-B more present. But as the volumes go up, the Dyn-B has to be tuned down due to feedback. I virtually get no feedback from the RS in comparison.

In the "my bass but louder" category, yes it is similar to the acoustic sound but the louder you turn up, obviously you loose all the nice nuances. By itself, the Dyn-B is great a lower volumes on my bass, but became problematic at higher volumes. With the blended pickups, I won't say that's its accurate - the mid's and highs are similar to the real thing, but the bottom is totally artificial and I can get a better loud sound. My bass just doesn't boom like that, but it's something i'm willing to overlook since I can get a booty shaking boom if I want to. More accurate is to cut alot of it out and I get a nice punchy sound. One goal I had was to see if I can make the setup sound like the bass is coming from all directions at low to moderate volumes and was able to get that. I had to fiddle with turning the RS down a bit from my usual setting to get there.

Anyways, this is just my first results from expirementing with blending with two good pickups. Once I get my Stark E and A, hopefully I'll get more natural bottom sound. If someone else hasn't tried blending the Dyn-B with something else, please try and see what you get. I'm pretty tickled about it so far.

 

[neal davis]

I've never had any problems with this pickup it's been in the same spot as it was first put on the bass(maybe I'm lucky) I also think that the pickup needs an uncolored system to play through, I use an AE head from their second run of amps and an EA 1 10 cab and it is great I've also messed around with playing it through my Bryston 3b and one of my Magnepan ribbon speakers with the schertler pre and if I wanted to drag a set up as big as my bass to everygig I would because it was the nicest sound I've heard of any amp pickup system I've tried. Also about Schertler not carrying about us etc etc etc, I have found that they are one of the easiest companies to deal with and will bend over backwards to make you happy

 

[PhilB]

I've been using my Schertler Dyn-B on the bridge for a while now and for me it gets rid of most of the feed-back problems that I've experienced and been reading about. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has tried this, and how it compares with the other pickups used this way.

 

[BrandonEssex]

I tried that breifly, and found the sound uninspiring. Where exactly did you put it?
I've found that directly over the soundpost is my favorite spot for it. It works especially well when using that to go to a PA, and using an AI contra with a realist for stage sound. The combination of the bottom heavy AI rig and the ultra defined but bottom light sound of the DYN B over the SP is nice. I also just picked up a KK bass max, so I'm going to try that combo next...

 

[PB+J]

I posted these a good while ago but here they are again, in case no one's seen them. It's my bass, a Shen 7/8 flatback, strung with an old set of spiro weichs.

I recorded the same out of tune Bb blues simultaneously on the Dyn-B and on a Shure Beta57. The Dyn B is slightly to the left and slightly below the soundpost. The Beta57 is suspended on shock chord with the head of the mic between the bridge feet at a slight angle, about 1/2 and inch or so off the top of the bass. I REALLY apologize for being so out of tune.

First the Dyn-B
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Beta 57
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In some ways I like the darker sound of the Dyn-B better. It has less "air" in it as you might expect