Double Bass Old-school pickups thread

[Don Kasper]

Those pick ups especially that way can sound great through a modern amp. The main issue is getting them grounded. I used it for years. With the AI Clarus I get a pretty acoustic sound with the Barcus Berry, though my favorite aspects of it are that it comes off the bass easily and the lightness interferes less with the un-amplified sound so I can use a volume pedal and play acoustic when possible.

Are we both talking about the same "Polytone" pickup?
This it the one I'm referring to: (NOT "light...." at all.)
I found it to be very uneven and inconsistent with extremely Hot and Cold notes. IME.
Underwood came to the rescue and was a great improvement. IMO.

 

[statsc]

Polytone to Underwood to Fishman BP-100 to Fishman Full Circle to Realist to Full Circle to Rev Solo to Full Circle. These days I use a Tonedexter with only a little Full Circle mixed in.

 

[Don Kasper]

Polytone to Underwood to Fishman BP-100 to Fishman Full Circle to Realist to Full Circle to Rev Solo to Full Circle. These days I use a Tonedexter with only a little Full Circle mixed in.

 

[Ric Vice]

Those pick ups especially that way can sound great through a modern amp. The main issue is getting them grounded. I used it for years. With the AI Clarus I get a pretty acoustic sound with the Barcus Berry, though my favorite aspects of it are that it comes off the bass easily and the lightness interferes less with the un-amplified sound so I can use a volume pedal and play acoustic when possible.

Interesting, the Polytone was really susceptible to dammage, since it's a
ceramic element that cracks under to much pressure and feeds back, as it’s a microphone of sorts. I’ve heard the Barcus Berry clamp pickup sound nice Ray Drummond used one and it certainly sounded good on his bass. He was playing a Duo with Bill Mays or Trio with Kenny Barron.

 

[damonsmith]

Are we both talking about the same "Polytone" pickup?
This it the one I'm referring to: (NOT "light...." at all.)
I found it to be very uneven and inconsistent with extremely Hot and Cold notes. IME.
Underwood came to the rescue and was a great improvement. IMO.

View attachment 3309113

Yep, one that is working and installed diagonal with a GK MB or better amp can sound great! Peter Kowald used them and he turned me onto them. Through the Polytone amp they were rough (I tried it once), but, I got a great sound from the GK, they were too hard find and get working and grounded. I liked the sound and that they came off the bass. The Lifeline would probably be good for me to try.

 

[damonsmith]

Really, the main question about the old pick ups is: how much do they mute the bridge? The Underwood and BP100 are the worst offenders there, still, you can get a great sound with either with the right technique and amp. Marc Johnson was able to get a great sound out of the BP 100. Fred Hopkins got a very original sound with it. The Underwood is great pick up for louder gigs. I wish I still had mine.

 

[Don Kasper]

The Underwood and BP100 are the worst offenders

Not in my experience....and, I only use 1 element on the E side.
FYI/TMI.

 

[Ric Vice]

Marc Johnson was able to get a great sound out of the BP 100. Fred Hopkins got a very original sound with it. The Underwood is great pick up for louder gigs. I wish I still had mine.

I heard Marc play live with Bill Evans using an Underwood, with a Walter Woods MI-100-8 and a Bose 802. While Marc played beautifully, the sound of the bass over emphasized the upper midrange and wasn’t the same sound he got with Bass Desires or Elanie Elias. The last time he came to town he was not using the BP-100 on his bass. Just my take. With Elanie he used a Full Circle.

 

[mustBmtd]

Back in the day for me was the Bartolini radius style pickups.

 

[Ric Vice]

Back in the day for me was the Bartolini radius style pickups.

Hello,
Were these for Double Bass or Electric. You're on the DB side. Just curious

 

[B String]

Eric,
Did you ever install the Polytone "diagonally" on the bridge? (NOT parallel with the top, but from the foot, up to the top part of that arc on the bridge.) I recall this producing a different, (though not necessarily better!), sound.
Thanks for the memories.

How did you deal with the big holes the Polytone made in your bridge feet? I didn't experiment much it for that reason. The Underwood was a god send in every way after the Polytone.

 

[Don Kasper]

How did you deal with the big holes the Polytone made in your bridge feet? I didn't experiment much it for that reason. The Underwood was a god send in every way after the Polytone.

We all just lived with a bridge that looked like it had been attacked by a crazed woodpecker.
And, we had to mark the locations so that we could re-install the pickup to its "optimal" location - I used pencil-marks. (We were all in school and many of us were using 1 bass for both our Orchestral and jazz gigs, so the pickup had to be removed on a daily basis.) I was also too stupid at the time to understand how adding a heavy brass chunk to the bridge might alter the acoustic sound of the bass.
I also had a Polytone (Minibrute??) amp for just a while and all I remember was how much better my crap sounded through my (first) Walter Woods Amp and my first Underwood. (Thanks, Walter! Thanks, Don!)
Thanks!

 

[B String]

We all just lived with a bridge that looked like it had been attacked by a crazed woodpecker.
And, we had to mark the locations so that we could re-install the pickup to its "optimal" location - I used pencil-marks. (We were all in school and many of us were using 1 bass for both our Orchestral and jazz gigs, so the pickup had to be removed on a daily basis.) I was also too stupid at the time to understand how adding a heavy brass chunk to the bridge might alter the acoustic sound of the bass.
I also had a Polytone (Minibrute??) amp for just a while and all I remember was how much better my crap sounded through my (first) Walter Woods Amp and my first Underwood. (Thanks, Walter! Thanks, Don!)
Thanks!

After awhile I hated those holes so much, I started using little rubber spacers. The sharp ends would just barely go in the wood and the rubber held it in place very well. As I recall, it sounded about as good.
I actually still have that pickup in my drawer. No idea why. Oh yes!.... I'm much better at buying than selling. I have sooo much I could get rid of. lol
I also had a Minibrute. It (literally) finally blew up on a gig. The amp sparked and made a little explosion. The speaker blew up. I emptied everything out of the box and turned it into my small speaker box. My first Woods amp and Underwood (#008) pickup was a revelation. It was even better when I used a buffer pre.

 

[Ric Vice]

After awhile I hated those holes so much, I started using little rubber spacers........Oh yes!.... I'm much better at buying than selling. I have sooo much I could get rid of. lol........... My first Woods amp and Underwood (#008) pickup was a revelation. It was even better when I used a buffer pre.

Same here, Walter single handedly revolutionized amps, most of us all had B-15N's that weighed what 75 lbs. Don Underwood revolutionized pickups at around the same time. Regardless of what we think of the Underwood now, it

solved a lot of issues for jazz bassists, arco withstanding. Comparing the Polytone to an Underwood, is a no brainer, one sounds markedly better. The issue was always the weight of the cabinets, until recently when Duke Lejune and Mike Arnopol solved that.

Just my take of course.

I could never get the FDeck to sound right with either of my Walter Woods amps. But, I really didn't need it anyway.

 

[B String]

Same here, Walter single handedly revolutionized amps, most of us all had B-15N's that weighed what 75 lbs. Don Underwood revolutionized pickups at around the same time. Regardless of what we think of the Underwood now, it

solved a lot of issues for jazz bassists, arco withstanding. Comparing the Polytone to an Underwood, is a no brainer, one sounds markedly better. The issue was always the weight of the cabinets, until recently when Duke Lejune and Mike Arnopol solved that.

Just my take of course.

I could never get the FDeck to sound right with either of my Walter Woods amps. But, I really didn't need it anyway.

I found my Sansamp sounded better at 4.7 megohms. Just used it as a Di buffer pre with the Woods. No tone shaping.

 

[Ric Vice]

I found my Sansamp sounded better at 4.7 megohms. Just used it as a Di buffer pre with the Woods. No tone shaping.

Somewhere around 4.5-5.0 seems to be the sweet spot for the Realist, Revolution Solo, Planet Wing, Ehrlund EAP. Not sure about the Fishman Full Circle, they set their preamps at 10 Meg Ohms. That’s absolutely necessary for he BP-100. Since, I’ve only used the Underwood, Fishman BP-100, Reailst, Revolution Solo, and EAP with the Woods I only needed a buffer preamp with the Fishman.

 

[shwashwa]

I'm surprised so much negative feedback on the polytone pick up. I've never used one personally but my impression was that they were great because back in the 90s I saw Peter Washington playing at the vanguard with a polytone pick up installed diagonally on a large English double bass. It sounded amazing (hawkes bass)

 

[Ric Vice]

I'm surprised so much negative feedback on the polytone pick up. I've never used one personally but my impression was that they were great because back in the 90s I saw Peter Washington playing at the vanguard with a polytone pick up installed diagonally on a large English double bass. It sounded amazing (hawkes bass)

Steve,
Their are many problems with the Polytone. The ceramic element can crack under pressure and the pickup is useless. The extention screw and barrel mounting was made for a standard 3/4 bridge. If you had a 7/8's or 5/8's bridge the arch could be to small or to little for the pickup to fit properly.

The conecting cable was propriteary so if you forgot it you were screwed. It fed back very easily. The last time I saw Peter here in St. Louis, I believe he was using a Realist (might have been a Barcus Berry though. He's such an amazing player, that he could be playing anything with any pickup and sound incredible.

Believe me when I say this cause I used a Polytone with my Ampeg B-15N(C) and it was a nightmare. Plus, it put holes in the inside of your bridge, and in a few cases cracked the inside of the bridge itself.