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Double Bass Passive EUB?
- Thread starter Kyle Augustine
- Start date
Sure... You could put a K&K on most EUBs and it would be passive... I gutted my Palatino and ran the pup straight to the jack and like it much better!
-robert
-robert
Kyle,
I bypass the onboard electronics of my Yamaha and use a Full Circle. Waaayyyyy better. If u want to check it out sometime, hit me on FB - mAx
I bypass the onboard electronics of my Yamaha and use a Full Circle. Waaayyyyy better. If u want to check it out sometime, hit me on FB - mAx
If you mean no internal preamp, then the Ergo basses and cellos are passive. Even some of the cheaper NS Design instruments are passive in this sense. I'm sure there are lots of them.
If you mean "doesn't even require an external preamp" then you're pretty much limited to something with magnetic pickups, or taking your chances with a long cable run between your pickups and an amp with very high input impedance.
The physics of piezoelectric materials require that if you want any volume or tone control, you can only do it conveniently with a powered preamp of some kind.
My Ergo cello has two sets of passive pickups internally, but I velcro two Baggs Gigpro preamps to the back of the instrument, to shorten the cable run.
This is still of value, even though it's not entirely passive, because the preamps are not structurally part of the instrument. I can have a spare and can swap a failed one out without disassembling the instrument, or using proprietary parts.
Most EUBs with relatively standard piezo pickups (discs/strips of piezo material under bridge feet) can certainly be modified so they're passive, bypassing the internal preamp and going straight to a jack. Or you can actually get those piezo buzzer elements and make your own pickups and do the same. The only difficult part about it is having to risk taking your main instrument out of commission while you experiment; it takes fiddling and experimentation, but isn't intellectually or mechanically hard.
If you mean "doesn't even require an external preamp" then you're pretty much limited to something with magnetic pickups, or taking your chances with a long cable run between your pickups and an amp with very high input impedance.
The physics of piezoelectric materials require that if you want any volume or tone control, you can only do it conveniently with a powered preamp of some kind.
My Ergo cello has two sets of passive pickups internally, but I velcro two Baggs Gigpro preamps to the back of the instrument, to shorten the cable run.
This is still of value, even though it's not entirely passive, because the preamps are not structurally part of the instrument. I can have a spare and can swap a failed one out without disassembling the instrument, or using proprietary parts.
Most EUBs with relatively standard piezo pickups (discs/strips of piezo material under bridge feet) can certainly be modified so they're passive, bypassing the internal preamp and going straight to a jack. Or you can actually get those piezo buzzer elements and make your own pickups and do the same. The only difficult part about it is having to risk taking your main instrument out of commission while you experiment; it takes fiddling and experimentation, but isn't intellectually or mechanically hard.
If you want an EUB with a passive piezo pickup, you also want NO kind of electronics inside (and specially not passive electronics).
I got a Clevinger EUB used, passive Piezo followed by passive Bass-Guitar-like electronics and it sounded way better when I bypassed the electronics and directly connected the piezo to the output jack.
But a lot of piezos need impedance buffers/preamps, depending on the input impedance of the amp (and sometimes you need to play with other peoples amps that are not built for high impedance piezos), so I recommend to use a high impedance buffer or preamp directly following the passive piezo. A simple but neutral impedance buffer needs about 5 to 6 electronic parts, not very sensitive to damage. I built them into my Clevinger and now I'm independent of the input impedance of the bass amps I use.
I got a Clevinger EUB used, passive Piezo followed by passive Bass-Guitar-like electronics and it sounded way better when I bypassed the electronics and directly connected the piezo to the output jack.
But a lot of piezos need impedance buffers/preamps, depending on the input impedance of the amp (and sometimes you need to play with other peoples amps that are not built for high impedance piezos), so I recommend to use a high impedance buffer or preamp directly following the passive piezo. A simple but neutral impedance buffer needs about 5 to 6 electronic parts, not very sensitive to damage. I built them into my Clevinger and now I'm independent of the input impedance of the bass amps I use.
Eminence EUB has a modified realist pickup and I believe that would be classified as passive. I have an eminence and also have a full circle on it...also passive. Either pickup can be used without a preamp.
... if the input impedance of the amp is high enough.
Any piezo can be used with any amp, but the sound may suffer from a lower input impedance of the amp. Specially if you pluck harder.
Higher voltages will break down because the output current needed for this voltage loaded to the input impedance of the amp could not be delivered by the piezo. So the voltage breaks down to the point that the piezo can deliver the current. This might alter the waveform depending on the speed of voltage breakdown and doesn't sound good.
I have a Full Circle too and I know that it doesn't sound well with my Polytone Mini-Brute II (300KOhms input impedance), but sounds nice with my Genz Benz Shuttle 3.0-10T. It's not the Polytone in general, other (Piezo) Pickups sound good (at least not as bad as the Full Circle) with it. (As good as an old Polytone can sound at all.)
Any piezo can be used with any amp, but the sound may suffer from a lower input impedance of the amp. Specially if you pluck harder.
Higher voltages will break down because the output current needed for this voltage loaded to the input impedance of the amp could not be delivered by the piezo. So the voltage breaks down to the point that the piezo can deliver the current. This might alter the waveform depending on the speed of voltage breakdown and doesn't sound good.
I have a Full Circle too and I know that it doesn't sound well with my Polytone Mini-Brute II (300KOhms input impedance), but sounds nice with my Genz Benz Shuttle 3.0-10T. It's not the Polytone in general, other (Piezo) Pickups sound good (at least not as bad as the Full Circle) with it. (As good as an old Polytone can sound at all.)
I have a 2001-vintage Clevinger solid-body EUB that uses passive electronics. I believe that the majority, if not all of the Clevinger basses don't use active electronics.
