Double Bass Krivo

[flatback]

Hey the Krivo is an excellent pickup. I am really digging it. I had to take off my beloved Tempera strings and go back to Weichs (they sound great with the Krivo) because you must use metal strings, but the compromises that you have to make in terms of non acoustic tone are no quantitatively different from a piezo (quack) and there are some really rich advantages.
The Krivo mixed with another pickup, really shines. Blended with the EAP is killin. Same with Stat B. Same with Wilson.
Once you get up into thumb position the Krivo makes the upper range into an instrument amplified like I have never experienced outside a studio...
Totally great pickup for playing in the crazy bars, night clubs, wine bars, and restaurants I play in mostly. Wish I had bought one sooner.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I have long wanted to try one on my Kolstein Busetto travel bass, which amplifies unevenly with every pickup I’ve used even though the acoustic response is pretty even. But it has a contoured fingerboard end and I don’t know how you’d mount a Krivo on there. But glad you are enjoying yours!

 

[Ric Vice]

I once owned a Paul Tonnenges 4 element Magnetic Pickup that I installed on my Mirecourt 5|8 bass. I had to de-solder and switch around two of the elements to get a balance between all four strings. While I’m sure the Krivo is a vast improvement over that older pickup there ate still variables between the curvature of the bridge vs the curvature and string spacing of a magnetic DB pickup. There is a limit to how far the pickups pole pieces can be moved around. Bartolini made the magnetic pickups on the Clevenger EUB I owned ( a two element) and it was actually better than the four.
Weirdly enough, the Ehrlund EAP (in combination with a RedEye Preamp) sounds great on my Kolstine Busetto (better in fact, than the Realist Lifeline)
Just my take however.

 

[lurk]

I, like most guys around Detroit in the 70's, jerry-rigged mag pickups from guitar or bass guitar pickups, and they worked great. At some point we decided that the new Barcus and Underwoods were more natural sounding, but I am curious about the Krivo. Out of town bassists used to rave about the sound from those mag pickups -- through Ampeg B15's of course.

 

[Roger Davis]

I have long wanted to try one on my Kolstein Busetto travel bass, which amplifies unevenly with every pickup I’ve used even though the acoustic response is pretty even. But it has a contoured fingerboard end and I don’t know how you’d mount a Krivo on there. But glad you are enjoying yours!

Chris, my KB amplified unevenly with piezos so I fitted a Schaller mag - reckoned to be somewhat inferior to a Krivo - and it sorted the balance out very well and sounded good. As I recall, I may have chosen the Schaller because of the difficulty in matching the Krivo to the bevel. I remember two of the poles set relatively high to the others to get that even sound.

 

[Jason Hollar]

I’m in.

I did a lot of research and made the difficult decision to have the swoop removed at the end of the fingerboard and had my guy do a tighter setup to accommodate the Krivo’s 7/8” spacing.

The results are phenomenal. Not only in my opinion, but my band mates’ as well.

At this point I’m a pretty seasoned (grizzled?) practitioner and looking back at 35+ years of laying it down for a living has given me a certain perspective on what works and what doesn’t.

My primary point of reference has always been the Fender bass. I’ve got a couple of them and enjoy playing them immensely. However, try as I may, I’m never quite satisfied with my walking as compared to the upright, but on some gigs the fender offers advantages due to weather, logistics, etc., as well as chording and solos when it’s just me and sax for example.

Anyway zero regrets except I wish I had done it sooner as well. The sound is solid, warm, even, and eliminates the quackiness of a piezo.

TBH I’ve never gone down the microphone or blending Route. I’m trying to keep it simple and focus on the instrument without too many gizmos.

(Side note: I also ordered and had properly installed a new Upton Rev Solo as an onboard backup. It is extremely clacky and microphonic and I removed it immediately. It’s currently relegated to the gig bag in case of emergency.)

I want to find an elegant solution to keep the Krivo from shimmying around at the end of the board - something like a thin double sided tape or adhesive. I don’t ever want it to come off!

Epic thread sorry.

But I must end with a small personal victory. This past weekend I did a lovely jazz trio brunch in a medium sized country club ballroom. I’ve played there a couple times before so I knew what to expect. Boomy. Gets kinda loud with all the people.

I’ve been running the Krivo through my new-to-me Grace ALiX into my GK legacy 1x12. Headroom and clarity for days.

Anyway, the first set was pretty mellow as guests were arriving - so toward the end of the set as the place was filling up, I reached back to turn up a little and was shocked to find the preamp had been on mute the whole time! The musicians couldn’t believe it.

I give full credit to my luthier who did a fantastic setup and really opened up the acoustic tone and volume. Raising up the 3/4” Weichs made a huge difference. Once the amp was back on, I was in fat city and enjoyed every note (except for any clams of course).

Purists will certainly chime in and delight to disagree - but I’m a believer and can’t wait to do some of the outdoor shows this summer that have been such a pain to amplify in the past.

Thump on yinz guys!

 

[Ric Vice]

Chris, my KB amplified unevenly with piezos so I fitted a Schaller mag - reckoned to be somewhat inferior to a Krivo - and it sorted the balance out very well and sounded good. As I recall, I may have chosen the Schaller because of the difficulty in matching the Krivo to the bevel. I remember two of the poles set relatively high to the others to get that even sound.

Good words Roger,
Although, I remember having 60 cycle hum issues with the Schaller, playing gigs on stages with big house lighting setups. Did you experience any of that? I could usually cancel the hum by turning a few degrees to the right or left, but several times I just had to “live with it” To the best of my recollection one way we stoped it was to ground the pickup to one of the string’s, but I may be wrong about that. It’s been quite some time since I used one.

P.S. It appears that the Schaller DB pickup was discontinued.

 

[Ric Vice]

View attachment 7471528

I’m in.

I did a lot of research and made the difficult decision to have the swoop removed at the end of the fingerboard and had my guy do a tighter setup to accommodate the Krivo’s 7/8” spacing.

The results are phenomenal. Not only in my opinion, but my band mates’ as well.

At this point I’m a pretty seasoned (grizzled?) practitioner and looking back at 35+ years of laying it down for a living has given me a certain perspective on what works and what doesn’t……….Anyway zero regrets except I wish I had done it sooner as well. The sound is solid, warm, even, and eliminates the quackiness of a piezo.




Epic thread sorry.

But I must end with a small personal victory. This past weekend I did a lovely jazz trio brunch in a medium sized country club ballroom. I’ve played there a couple times before so I knew what to expect. Boomy. Gets kinda loud with all the people.

I’ve been running the Krivo through my new-to-me Grace ALiX into my GK legacy 1x12. Headroom and clarity for days.

Anyway, the first set was pretty mellow as guests were arriving - so toward the end of the set as the place was filling up, I reached back to turn up a little and was shocked to find the preamp had been on mute the whole time! The musicians couldn’t believe it.

I give full credit to my luthier who did a fantastic setup and really opened up the acoustic tone and volume. Raising up the 3/4” Weichs made a huge difference. Once the amp was back on, I was in fat city and enjoyed every note (except for any clams of course).

Cool, whatever works for you then it’s a good thing.

 

[Francois Blais]

The Schaller was single-coil, so 60Hz noise was to be expected.
I had a couple of them over the years and got hum from both.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Chris, my KB amplified unevenly with piezos so I fitted a Schaller mag - reckoned to be somewhat inferior to a Krivo - and it sorted the balance out very well and sounded good. As I recall, I may have chosen the Schaller because of the difficulty in matching the Krivo to the bevel. I remember two of the poles set relatively high to the others to get that even sound.

That's great to hear! Since I already own the bass, I should really try this. Surely there has to be some clever mounting method to get around the swooped FB end? Hmmm. The spacing is another matter. When I get the bass back from the student I loaned it to, I'll have to measure the spacing.

 

[Jason Hollar]

FYI they do show that you can extend the Krivo mount out to match the end of the swoop - I considered this but imagined it would be less stable.

I think I recall seeing a photo of a swoop that was leveled off a bit but not entirely removed - giving the pup a little more to lean against.

 

[Don Kasper]

 

[Kenan]

I've been tempted, but I'm too addicted to non ferrous strings.

 

[marcox]

As of a few years ago, the Krivo includes an extended mounting bracket that, according to @Mark Gollihur, "enables the Krivo to fit even basses with a very thin or even curved 'cutaway' style fingerboards."

Lots of useful information on Gollihur's site.

 

[flatback]

Well nice to see there is interest in it. Yeah by itself it is phat city but super present, makes a whole other instrument out of thumb position. Blended with the body pickup EAP it is just a totally sick upright sound. This is going to be my set up for a while. I have the 2 ch super light GR Bass cube and while I have tried it now thru all my gear including the tube stuff, straight in to the GR sounds great. (Works amazingly well with the EAP at about 75% to Krivo 25...and with the compressor on the Krivo killin) incredibly ballsy sound that just cuts thru like butter, but solid underneath.
...Have you ever played in a terrible room and just been drowned out but then the guitar player bops in and sounds great (speaking of which jazz guitarists all use magnetic pickups and if you told them that you cant hear the specific instrument thru their mag pickup they would think you are crazy ((whats with bassists?) guitarists play thousands of different kinds of guitars and get vastly different nuanced sounds thru all the variations hollow body to tele...THis pickup kind of solves the problem of bad room piezo vague dispersion.

THe way it mounts does not suck but pretty much does. There is stronger super velcro that I keep on hand and I used that without even trying the stuff it came with that said I may velcro the bottom of the fingerboard to the pickup too. It does move too much. But on my travel bass (contrabassetto) which has a sharp S curve it totally worked and made that instrument thunder. (but I am going to make a longer bracket for that instrument AND fill in the S with a piece of hard foam cut to fit.It should be fine then and really I would go back to playing that instrument a lot with the Krivo attached)
That said on my big bass with new Weichs, holy moley.
I really think into a 2 ch amp with a mic, contact mic, or EAP using the Krivo can blend total clarity and ease of play and phat bottom with open woodiness and a more acoustic sound in a way that presents a really complete and bullet proof sound. I am kind of suprised that the finger finesse guys like Brian Bromberg dont use this pickup, or Eddie Gomez just because it really enables all kinds of notes to be heard from super short fast passages to legato sustain and really singing soloing. Maybe they play places that are quiet enough all the time that piezos work fine...

Note on alignment and evenness of sound, if it isn't centered it can get a wonky uneven sound but I found no need to futz with it once the poles are lined up as good as they can be (not perfect on my bass but no unevenness of sound)

 

[marcox]

Issues with the old Krivo, which mounted directly to the end of the fingerboard using dual-lock tape (i.e., industrial velcro) are what drove me to switch to a Biesele, a mag pickup which sounds similar and whose mounting clamps are a little inelegant but way more secure.

 

[Ric Vice]

View attachment 7471703

“If you’re happy and ya know it you’re pickups good”, “If you’re happy and you know it you’re pickups good”, If you’re happy and you know it then you’re pickups not gonna blow “If you’re happy and you know it you’re pickups good” yes sir

 

[Jason Hollar]

@flatback

100% agree on the upper register. There’s like an ease and weight to each note that was definitely never there on any piezo I’ve worked with.

I played a loud venue last night (jazz trio in a lobby for a big celebration). Decided to go sans preamp. Sounded ok but missing some punch. Pulled out my boss bass EQ and it leveled things right back up. I was trying to travel a little lighter on this event so I didn’t bring the AliX. I missed it a lot. The Krivo and a nice preamp make a formidable combination.

At some point I will reinstall the Rev Solo and play around with mixing the signals. My fear is that I’ll love it and have to buy a Felix lol

 

[flatback]

Yeah man. ….not a fan of the REV and it being a wing pickup it is kind of as close to the Krivo as a piezo can get.Try an EAP or contact mic or a mic if you want to blend….

 

[Ric Vice]

@flatback

100% agree on the upper register. There’s like an ease and weight to each note that was definitely never there on any piezo I’ve worked with.

I played a loud venue last night (jazz trio in a lobby for a big celebration). Decided to go sans preamp. Sounded ok but missing some punch. Pulled out my boss bass EQ and it leveled things right back up. I was trying to travel a little lighter on this event so I didn’t bring the AliX. I missed it a lot. The Krivo and a nice preamp make a formidable combination.

At some point I will reinstall the Rev Solo and play around with mixing the signals. My fear is that I’ll love it and have to buy a Felix lol

I was never able to get the Revolution Solo to work with my bass, where the Underwood did just fine.