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Double Bass I can't decide on what pickup to buy

B

Bromatz

Jun 29, 2010
4
0
35
Newport News, VA
#1
I am in need for a pickup for my upright. I just am unsure about which one to get. I am (obviously) looking to get the best tone that sounds as natural as it can get.

The pickups I was looking at:

K&K Double Big Twin Double Bass Transducer
Fishman Full Circle
Realist Upright Pickup


Which one is the best? Or are there any other that I should look at?
 
#2
Wish there was an easy, straightforward way to answer that. Pickups sound different on different basses, and what works on one bass sounds terrible on an other. Some pickups are really good in the low end and bad up high, some are good at articulation and bad at whomp. I've tried all three of those and I'd rank them this way, from best to worst.

1 Full circle


2 realist
3 K&K

On my bass the Full Circle was MUCH better, but lots of people love the realist and get great sounds from it. It depends on your bass and your playing style.

The best sound, the sound that's most like your bass, will come from a mic, but mics have many disadvantages. I use a Schertler Dyn-B, and I like it better than any piezo type pickup, but it's far from perfect and has its own problems.
 
#3
Having no experience with the K & K, that one will be unspoken for.

In my experience, the Realist can be great IF you value a dark, woody sound and amplify your bowing. The downside is that it is dark and woody sounding which can turn to mud at higher volumes.

My first recommendation is always a Full Circle because it just sounds good.

All pickups are flawed and have their own characteristics. For these reasons, you owe it to yourself to do your homework. Threads like this normally turn into popularity contests.

Your homework assignment:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43100
 
#5
Also, never forget that ALL a pick up can do is make the sound you get out of the instrument louder. If you don't work at getting a big warm projecting sound out of the bass, you won't get it out of an amplifier.
 
#8
Full Circle over The Realist for sure. I dont know too much about the K&K. I Just ordered a new bass for the show Im doing. Its a touring show so we had a really nicely set up Plywood bass that could take the touring lifestyle but you really couldnt pull too much tone out of it. I ordered a Hybrid from my friends shop and it arrived with a Realist. (The old bass had a Full Circle) I plugged the new bass in and compared to the old plywood bass it sounded thin. The sound guys hated it and the musical director didn't want to use that bass in the show. To me it didnt make any sense. The bass sounded much better acoustically. We sat and played them back to back unplugged and plugged with in ear monitors as well. I even thought for a second the sound post was knocked out of place on the new bass. But it was a matter of the pick up. It was completely night and day. The Full Circle sounds huge. I've used a Realist for years but in this case, with these 2 instruments, it came in at a distant second to the FC. The Realist definitely has its applications, but in a bigger space through a PA I like the Fishman MUCH better. The arco sound is good for it being a pick up but becareful of the jump in volume. I found it more aggressive with the FC than the Realist...Hope this helps..
 
#9
Ed Fuqua said:
Also, never forget that ALL a pick up can do is make the sound you get out of the instrument louder. If you don't work at getting a big warm projecting sound out of the bass, you won't get it out of an amplifier.
Click to expand...


very well said.

moreover, every pickup responds differently to every bass. i've heard some basses sounds great with a fishman, then awful with a realist, and vice versa. every bass has its own unique sound that will react differently with every pickup. personally, i have no experience with the K&K. but with the fishman and the realist, both are very well built solid pickups. you can't really go wrong with either one. is there any way you could try either of them before buying?
 
#10
j.stemmler said:
very well said.

moreover, every pickup responds differently to every bass. i've heard some basses sounds great with a fishman, then awful with a realist, and vice versa. every bass has its own unique sound that will react differently with every pickup. personally, i have no experience with the K&K. but with the fishman and the realist, both are very well built solid pickups. you can't really go wrong with either one. is there any way you could try either of them before buying?
Click to expand...

Sadly, I won't be able to try any of them before buying.
 
#11
Bromatz said:
Sadly, I won't be able to try any of them before buying.
Click to expand...

That's too bad. There isn't a universal pickup that works with every bass. I've had 8 basses in my life. The Fishman BP-100 worked great with 3 of them, ok with 1 and not at all on the other 4. For no reason that I can figure out. The Realist worked extremely well with 2 of the them and not at all on 3. Didn't try it on the other 3. Schertler Stat B worked great on 1, not at all on another and ok on a 3rd. The new Gage SoundClip works fantastically well on 2 basses but not at all on the 3rd. BTW: I'd put the SoundClip in there for pickups to consider.

Any choice you make is a game of Russian Roulette though. Spend your money and hope for the best. Good luck.

mark
 
#12
Aren't there any bassists in your area who would let you try their PU on your bass?
Everyone's right though.....every PU is different on every bass.
In terms of sustain, i've had the best luck with the Underwood but that may not be your cuppa.
 
#14
The Full Circle is the most consistant pickup I have found bass to bass. I have yet to play it on a bass where I didn't like the tone. That said, I have a BP100 on my Tyrolean, and while I wouldn't recommend it(there aren't a ton of basses it sounds good on), its the only pickup that works for me on this particular bass. You just need to try out a few. However the Full Circle is usually a pretty good bet....
 
#15
I used an underwood for years, then a stat-b, vektor, bass max and finally a full circle. I like the full circle the best. It seems to be the best sort of middle ground between all of them in my opinion. Warmer less nasal than most but still with some bite and less of a volume increase when you switch to arco. And while the mini mics sound a little more acoustic at low volumes maybe, when you start to turn it up (even at reasonable levels) it sounds more acoustic and less wolfy. No pickup or even mic will sound exactly acoustic when coming out of speakers. What I like about the full circle is how hassle free it is to get a good usable sound with. The only thing I don't like is the install/switching to another bass issue.

It's also important to remember that having the pickup set up properly can have a HUGE impact on the sound. Like with the realist, if the bridge is not sitting squarely and straight up and down on the pickup it can really sound thin and crappy. Tilt the bridge up just a bit and suddenly it comes to life! Similar things can be said about all the pickups I've mentioned.
 
#17
I am thinking of getting a bp100, they can be nasty and it is easy to get snooty about them but Red Mitchell, Fred Hopkins and Marc Johnson all sounded great with them.
I have a busted wing on an otherwise nice bridge, so that rules out the underwood, my Polytones have really been unstable lately.
Feel free to PM if you have a cheap Fishman you want to unload!
 

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