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Double Bass Magnetic Pickups

#2
truckplayer said:
I’m curious about magnetic pickups. What kind of sound did you get? What type of strings work well with a magnetic pickup?
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Truck,

Back before the dawn of time I had a Paul T Magnetic Pickup and I've tried the Shaller. There's lot's better pickups to choose from these days than magnetics. If you are dying for that sound then I suppose metal strings be the best. Guts won't work.

Ric
 
#4
Some of the purists here will tell you that if you have to put a mag pickup on your bass, you might as well be playing a Fender P-bass. I can't say that I agree with with that statement. It's certainly not the sound of your bass, only louder, but it's not a bad sound. I have a Schaller on my backup bass, that I use for outdoor gigs, or when I have to get stupid loud. You can't beat a mag for stupid loud playing. You will need steel strings to use a mag pickup. I've got spirocores on mine.
 
#5
I used to combine with magnetic pickups. They are very useful for fusion-type stuff. They do sound like a fretless P but with more depth. I used to use Bartolini specially made p-bass pickups on DB that Bill Bartolini made for me. Actually, I have a custom 4 separate (one pickup for each string) that Bill had custom made for me specificaly for DB. Never got around to trying it. I'd probably let it go cheap----you have to figure out your own mounting strategy. All I know is that Bill is a genius as far as mag pickups
 
#8
guroove said:
IMO magnetic pickups on an upright bass always sounded like a fretless P-bass with flatwounds.
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I could start a P-bass vs J-bass flame war here. :D

But actually I agree. I played with a homemade mag pup for a few years before finally getting my piezo act together. I have to admit that I liked the sound for what it was. For that matter I enjoy playing fretless electric too. But the mag pup was not without some interesting shortcomings:

1. Listening through headphones, it was easy to hear the electric bass buzz, which may have to do with the nonlinearity of a crude variable reluctance sensor (there, I used that term).

2. The ability to achieve high gain without feedback made it too tempting to play with a really light touch, and this started to affect my playing style.

3. I was wondering why the bands that I played with were so damn loud, and I finally realized that I was the one driving up the volume level at gigs.

Now, nobody ever complained about the volume levels but me. When I switched to the piezo, I made a conscious effort to play with a gain setting that would make it more "like an upright" in the sense that during the louder passages of songs, it is possible for even a small band to drown out the bass. This is my new rule for volume: My bass has to be drown-outable. I think it allows a band to play more dynamically, because if they want to hear the bass, they have to calm themselves down after a loud chorus.

The piezo just makes the bass seem more like the instrument that I enjoy playing. It's beneficial in some ways, and a pain in the ass in other ways, but so is the bass. Plus, I am now addicted to bowing, so it would be hard to go back.

For stoopid loud gigs, I would probably use the magnetic, but I seem to have fewer of those gigs since I stopped playing so loud myself. And playing quieter has of course lessened my amplification needs.
 
#9
I should make a slight correction that the sound is not exactly the same. Even with a magnetic pickup, you still get a lot of the attack and decay properties of the DB, and some of the harmonic structure, which is simply unavoidable because the strings and the bass are a coupled system.
 
#11
barend said:
I have a Biesele pickup/preamp on the way. It should be here this week.
I bought it primarily to get rid of the stupid feedback that I have with the Full Circle. I will let you know what I think.
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You may want to try putting a 1 nanofarad capacitor in parallel with the FC, as I found it overloaded the biesele preamp and caused it to distort.

If you use lower tension strings than spiro mittels you probably wont have any problem though.
 
#14
Another Pierre Josephs user. The String Charger pickup sounds best to my ears in the upper registers, the lowest notes are lacking in depth but still quite usable.

Arco works poorly because the bow keeps the string from moving very much so the pickup has little to work with.

I use piezos (Realist or K&K Bass Max) most of the time but in certain situations it's just impossible to get a decent sound without feeding back, especially when using a less than optimal amplifier. Mag pickups will work well with any bass amp in any room at any volume level.
 
#15
barend said:
why do you think it distorts? the FC doesn't have a high output or so.

I use Spiro weich.

Very curious about the Biesele pickup.
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When playing the mittel E string hard, it would create a really strong low frequency thump which made a distorting/clipping sound on the attack of the note. I isolated it to the preamp, and the capacitor just rolled off a tiny bit of the volume of the FC which solved the issue.
 
#17
just recieved my Biesele pickup and preamp today.

Looks good and I like the sound so far. Have only tried it it home.
Took me a while to install it correctly but once done you can easily take it off en reinstall it.
Curious how it will hold with loud volumes regarding the feedback.

I like the fact that you can adjust the volume for each string and that you can easily deinstall it.

Not sure what the phase switch at the back of the pickup actually does.

Do you have some tips to prevent the preamp from sliding down?
 
#19
I never liked the preamp attached to the tailpiece because it was too much deadening mass on the bass. That plus the mag pickup attached to the FB changed the acoustic tone a little too much for me.

But I suppose if you have to play a loud gig that warrants a magnetic pickup then the audience wont hear the subtleties of your bass.
 
#20
that is why I like the fact that you can both take it off easily. I didn't notice so much change of the acoustic tone on my bass yet.

Jazzman: do you know what the phase switch actualy does?

And would it be overkill if I also use my Fishman preamp in combination with the Biesele preamp (the Biesele doesn't have EQ).
The Biesele has 1,5 M-ohm imput impedance and the Fishman Platinum 10 M-ohm. Not sure if the Biesele if sufficient for getting the best out of the Full Circle.
 

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