P.S. David at PUTW has made some modifications that deserve consideration: The new pick up he is sending me will have shorter leads a more secure attachment of wires to pick ups and shrink wrap around the microphonic leads. This should solve some of the problems and put this pick up back in the running.
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Double Bass Pick Up Pick up the world
- Thread starter flatback
- Start date
flatback said:
My sentiments exactly. I got mine yesterday and threw it on before last night's gig. It took about 30 mins to install it. The sound at the gig was amazing. For example, I could hear the woody tones of the lower postitions that I only seem to hear when I'm at home practicing alone.
Here's my signal path...
pick up the world -> eden wt300 -> ea vl-208
My eden was set flat with a slight cut at 1k or so. Not sure exactly why - partly due to habit (I'm used to my underwood) and partly due to a percieved piezo scatchiness.
Its two pickups in one. One goes under the bass foot of the bridge and the other goes somewhere on the bridge. As flatback stated, it comes wired in mono, but its easy to change to stereo to contol the mix between the two pickups. I found the mono balance to be pretty good. I'll probably end up breaking the signals go I can have the option to mix them if I want (an AI focus 2 is on my wish list) or run mono with a specially wired stero cable.
I got the pickup only option. There is an option for an in line preamp for another $100 or so. I found that my eden does a good job with buffering the pickup, so I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not getting the inline preamp (other than volume control on my bass)
Installation is easy, but there are some things to consider. The whole thing is incredibly 'microphonic'. The wires seem to pickup as much energy as the transducer. Fortunately, I have an underwood pickup installed on my bass which provided something to tywrap the pickup wires to. Without stabilizing the wires, the tone gets farty.
I played a trio gig last night (piano, vocal, bass). The piano player graduated and taught at Berklee in the 70's - definitely not a slouch. I played a duet with him to start the gig. When we finished, he had a big grin on his face and said 'man, great sound'. That clinched it for me...
Here are some pics of my installation (hope this works)...
Attachments
Yep, I wanna take some time to try different placement for the small transducer. I just put it where it is in the photo due to time constraints (had to throw it on my bass and hit the road).
Flatback, which leg of the bridge did you put the small pickup on? Do you have bridge adjusters? I don't seem to have a lot of space on the leg part of my bridge (short bridge due to a low neck angle).
I want to clarify the 'microphonic' cables issue I brought up. I don't think they are truly microphonic, just acoustically coupled to the pickup. If you move the cables the pickup will sense the vibration. Since the pickup needs a wire attached to it to carry the signal, I don't see how to make this a whole lot better. I think the key is stabilizing the cables - it seemed to work for me...
I'm curious about the pickup response in a high volume setting (not that I have to worry about this too often)...
Flatback, which leg of the bridge did you put the small pickup on? Do you have bridge adjusters? I don't seem to have a lot of space on the leg part of my bridge (short bridge due to a low neck angle).
I want to clarify the 'microphonic' cables issue I brought up. I don't think they are truly microphonic, just acoustically coupled to the pickup. If you move the cables the pickup will sense the vibration. Since the pickup needs a wire attached to it to carry the signal, I don't see how to make this a whole lot better. I think the key is stabilizing the cables - it seemed to work for me...
I'm curious about the pickup response in a high volume setting (not that I have to worry about this too often)...
Wow. Thanks for being the brave ones and trying these things out, and then letting us know. I remember the guitar builders over at MIMF being really excited about these pickups when they first appeared.
Why??? A month ago i bought an iamp 500 + wizzy speaker + audio technica mike, great rig, but now i hear this....G.A.S. again
..... i wanto to try it, i need to try it......
NUNO
..... i wanto to try it, i need to try it......NUNO
Does anyone else here really just want to play unplugged, or is it just me? 
And no, we don't have to go down that road again, the question is rhetorical.
And no, we don't have to go down that road again, the question is rhetorical.
Paul Warburton said:
I didn't have a chance to try arco at my gig. I'll try tomorrow night and post my opinion...
I would have a hard time taking my lam bass out, knowing that my solid bass was at home! I just sold my lam, after playing my LaScala for about 2 minutes.
Hybrid, with AMT mic and K&K Double Big Twin (when needed)at the moment. They go thru the Raven Labs PMB II, and usually end up thru the Bose L1/B1, or an AI Contra.
I wouldn't kick a Cleveland, set up for arco, outta my house, that's for sure....
I wouldn't kick a Cleveland, set up for arco, outta my house, that's for sure....
jcbassomatic said:
I tried arco tonight (pickup the world -> eden wt300 -> ea vl208) and was pretty happy with the sound - considering my arco sound without an amp
As a reference, my bass is a 30yr old romanian carved top with a relatively midrangy tone when using spirocores. I just switched to obligato strings and it warmed up my tone quite a bit.
With the pickup, I could hear the buzz of the hair on the strings and all the big overtones that go along with arco. I didn't get any of the obnoxious scratch that I get with my underwood. I'd probably go as far to say that it sounds amazing with arco.
Keep in mind that I have nothing to compare it to other than my underwood pickup which I find useless with arco. Flatback will have to fill in the gaps with comparisons to other pickups.
Having said that, if another pickup sounds better than this, I'd be impressed. I'm more than happy with my purchase...
Probably the former. I don't think most of us have had a chance to try it yet. You guys are the Lewis & Clark here.
I think you've created a fair amount of interest. I'm interested. TEABALLS seems interested.
I think you've created a fair amount of interest. I'm interested. TEABALLS seems interested.
One thing I forgot to mention in my review of the PUTW.
Contact Lou Roten at [email protected] (www.lnrmusic.com). He has the best price I've seen for the PUTW-B and I appreciated his excellent customer service.
I have no ties with Lou other than being a happy customer...
Contact Lou Roten at [email protected] (www.lnrmusic.com). He has the best price I've seen for the PUTW-B and I appreciated his excellent customer service.
I have no ties with Lou other than being a happy customer...
Here we go again..............off on the great gear addiction!
I got a Fullcircle last winter from BOB and was truely amazed. Great tone, no feed back, wonderful arco..............but now I want to try PUTW!!
I got a Fullcircle last winter from BOB and was truely amazed. Great tone, no feed back, wonderful arco..............but now I want to try PUTW!!
What's the deal with the two pickups exactly? The description says that the main element is the under the foot pickup. Is there a pan control to blend the two pickups, or are they always equal, or is the foot pickup always favored? The other thing I'm wondering, is besides the element that mounts onto the face of the bridge, what's the difference between this and a realist? I'm just curious.
Jacob Bartfield said:
One pickup goes under the e-side bridge foot and the other sticks onto the face of the bridge. The bridge foot pickup is similar to the realist in its recommended position, but I understand that the pickup material/composition is different.
Mine came with both pickups wired to the tip of a 1/4" trs (tip-ring-sleeve aka stereo) connector which gives a mono output signal.
One of the pickups can be desoldered from the tip and soldered to the ring. This configuration gives a separate signal for both pickup elements. You can then run a stereo to mono y-cable to two amps or two channels of a blender/mixer preamp.
Most any blender should work. PUTW makes a stereo blender preamp about the size of 2 9V batteries. It plugs into the pickup connector (no cable, just a plug) and has two pots, a switch and a trs output connector. The switch allows you to configure the preamp in two ways. One configuration is a two channel preamp with two outputs (no mixing) with separate volume controls for each pickup element. The other config is separate volume controls for each pickup element that get summed to a mono output.
I can't speak for the sound quality of the stereo blender from putw, but I have one on order. I'll give my opinion when I get it and try it on a gig...
I just ordered one direct- they're here in Colorado! super easy to order from, so i hope i like it, but if i don't i can return it they said! I'll be weighing in next week sometime. Maybe this will be like when the relaist came out- a big day for my tone.
I've got one on order too. Since the Full Circle didn't give me what I wanted with one of my basses, I hope this one will. I should have mine next week also.
