Mike Carr said:
Well...it's been close to year since I posted these comments but I can't recall seeing too much more about this pickup since then. I've been wondering how this pickup might work on a good bass thru a good amp. I've used the Realist with good results, there's one of course on my Czech-Ease. Since returning six months ago to China I bought a Shen Hybrid (my second Shen, my 3/4 Willow is back home in California, missing me as much as I miss it, wow, what a terrific bass, that Willow is!) to use on my gig here. They cost a bit less to buy here in China than in the States, so it wasn't difficult to justify the purchase. I 've been using an Underwood on the Hybrid, I tried my Realist but had trouble getting the bridge feet to sit right after my installation attempt. It's bridge is the non-adjustable type. After sliding the Realist under the E bridge foot in the prescribed way I noticed a bit of a gap under the G foot as well, no good, the bass lost a lot of tone. Now one might suggest that I take the bass to Sam Shen to get adjustors installed or even have the G side bridge foot re-worked, some re-shaping or shims or whatever. But frankly it's a real pain to travel with a big bass from Hangzhou, the city I am currently living and playing in. Sam's factory is in Suzhou and his shop/showroom is in Shanghai. Both cities are at least two hours away by train or bus, car hire would be too expensive. The trains here are often standing room only, and the conditions on board are not unlike what one might imagine in a still developing nation. The poorest of the poor ride these trains, many of them carrying all their posessions with them, from the hinterlands riding the rails in search of a better life in the big cities. All that, and me and my bass! The busses are much better, but then there is the problem of stowing the bass down below with the baggage, and all of it slamming against the basses soft case for the trip's durration. It's not so easy to go see Sam, and still make it back to Hangzhou in time to make my 9:30 pm downbeat at JZ's Club, I play at least six, most often seven nights a week here, leading a terrific jazz trio.
Nevertheless, I've been wanting an under the bridge foot type pickup to try on the Shen, so I've decided to give this new pickup from Shadow a whirl. The only reason in particular being that it's got dual film elements, one per each bridge foot. They both seem to be the same thickness, so it's my hope that they can fit properly under my non-ajustable bridge. My bass and amp are a whole lot better than the BSO and rig that Shadow had available to demo with at last years trade show, some sort of wonky keyboard amp, set up in a real noisy hall. I couldn't get much of a sense of the pickup's capabilities when I saw it there . Fed-Ex is bringing me one tommorow, from Lemur with a sound-post setter too! So I should be ok here in Hangzhou for a while. I'll give a full review once I finish it's installation and have had a few days to mess with it on the gig here. Hope it's all it's cracked up to be!
