I have not had any feedback issues either, and I also try to avoid high volume situations. My guess is that it is probably the same or possibly a little better than a Realist since you still have the element between the bridge and the top/bass bar.Robin Ruscio said:
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Double Bass Pick Up Pick up the world
- Thread starter flatback
- Start date
David at PUTW is building me a new pick up. It will have shorter wires, and the wires will be shrink wrapped. I think the problem Robin was having was an impedance problem. If the impedances do not match one can get a huge reduction in bass...I am also getting the blender preamp to replace the line driver (which matches impedance and adds clear gain) so that I can have a bit more control over the individual PUP elements.
I am still very enthusiastic about this pick up and I am getting Very good responses from the people I play with and from the audience. I played this pup up against a full circle (on another bass) and the FC sounds a lot more piezoy to me (although better then a realist)
Bob did you a/b the two pick ups?
I am still very enthusiastic about this pick up and I am getting Very good responses from the people I play with and from the audience. I played this pup up against a full circle (on another bass) and the FC sounds a lot more piezoy to me (although better then a realist)
Bob did you a/b the two pick ups?
No, I had to make a new bridge for the FC and when I took it off, I went back to my old bridge with Robertson adjusters. Incidentally, I could hear a difference when playing acoustically with the Aluminum FC bridge adjusters and the bridge with Robertson adjusters. I made a DAT tapes of both and I definately prefer the acoustic sound coming from the bridge with the Robertson ebony adjusters. YMMVflatback said:
It's been almost a month since the last PUTW report.
I've split the signal so the foot element runs through channel 1 of the PMBII, and the articulation pickup through channel 2, which works better than a mono signal. I tried it the other way around, but this arrangement gives me the best bass response. While doing this, I was able to shorten the wires.
The sound is very natural and clear with the best dynamic range of any pickup I've owned.
Some of the gigs have been pretty loud, but there have been no feedback problems. I'm able to hear my bass like never before.
BTW, there was a bad connection in the articulation pickup, which PUTW replaced right away. Good customer service!
I've split the signal so the foot element runs through channel 1 of the PMBII, and the articulation pickup through channel 2, which works better than a mono signal. I tried it the other way around, but this arrangement gives me the best bass response. While doing this, I was able to shorten the wires.
The sound is very natural and clear with the best dynamic range of any pickup I've owned.
Some of the gigs have been pretty loud, but there have been no feedback problems. I'm able to hear my bass like never before.
BTW, there was a bad connection in the articulation pickup, which PUTW replaced right away. Good customer service!
Thanks guys, I'll probably give it a whirl sometime with a stereo blender. Even the description for the PUTW says that it's feedback resistant.
I made an interesting discovery about the PUTW this weekend. I was playing an outdoor concert with higher than normal (for me) volume and I was getting a slapping sound when I was playing hard - particularly on E string. When I got home I examined the bridge carfully and noted that the bridge had pulled forward ever so slightly leaving a tiny gap between the bridge foot and the pickup foot element. When I pulled the bridge back enough to close the gap, the slapping sound disappeared. I've never had that happen with the Realist. I assume that is because the copper foil on the Realist is more rigid than the fabric like PUTW elements. Something to consider if you start getting strange sounds out of your PUTW.
Got my PUTW yesterday but didnt have time to install it before last nights gig. Got busy this afternoon and put it on the same bridge as the Full Circle so I can do some good A/B comparisons. Ended up with the small transducer on the face just above the arch.
On my bass (50s Kay w/Corellis) the PUTW wins big. The pizz tone is better than anything Ive had (Polytone, Underwood, Barcus Berry, Fishman BP 100, Full Circle) and the arco is excellent, far superior to anything Ive heard. I never thought Id say my bass only louder but the arco is and the pizz is close.
On my bass (50s Kay w/Corellis) the PUTW wins big. The pizz tone is better than anything Ive had (Polytone, Underwood, Barcus Berry, Fishman BP 100, Full Circle) and the arco is excellent, far superior to anything Ive heard. I never thought Id say my bass only louder but the arco is and the pizz is close.
thought I'd pass on a few more PUTW thoughts... This pick up can sound absolutely amazing or like the worst pick up you can remember having and I think that special care has to be taken to make sure that first the impedances match and that your signal chain is full frequency then that you don't over play the strings. It seems to bring out that Piezo quality when you pull too hard or slap the strings. All of those sounds can be super amplified by the P-UP. But if you play with good tone and air in your sound then it has a wonderful presence that I have not heard in other P-UPs. When you are playing with a drummer it has a presence and bottom end that doesen't muddy up . If you play in the thumb position you may want to hear this P-Pup. At least on my bass, starting at the octave D there is a slight volume boost and the center of the pitch and acoustic qualities are really nicely balanced. You can play with a much more open dynamic range and the little nuanced slides and articulations kind of sing out.
I think it does the airy no sustain walking sound better then most too. I am curious to to hear someone's response to this P-Pup who is really old school, to see if they can get a sound with it...Coupled with a mic it is really versatile.
I think it does the airy no sustain walking sound better then most too. I am curious to to hear someone's response to this P-Pup who is really old school, to see if they can get a sound with it...Coupled with a mic it is really versatile.
Since no one else has responded, I guess I am the old school guy to answer the question. I agree with flatback that you don't get good sound out of the PUTW if you pull too hard on the strings. The solution for me is to simple turn up the volume slightly so that I don't have to pull so hard to get the sound out of the bass. I'm of the "less is more" school when it comes to amplifier volume levels, so I tend to pull harder to get more volume instead of turning up the amp when the crowd gets noisier. Unfortunately, that doesn't work too well with the PUTW.
Bob Branstetter said:
I guess I won't mess with this one. I was considering it, but I love to play hard at times with a good rhythm section.
Another thing I forgot to mention is that with the five strings on my Bohmann, pick-ups that are just on one side of the bridge, like this one looks to be as well as the Realist, don't seem to pick-up the G as well as they pick-up the other strings.
Ya know, there's only one way to find out and not wanting to invest that amout of $$ to see, and the big factor, as I said before... I hate to move my bridge from a position that has taken me many years to find.
Ya know, there's only one way to find out and not wanting to invest that amout of $$ to see, and the big factor, as I said before... I hate to move my bridge from a position that has taken me many years to find.
I'm not Bob, but I did have some "digging in" problems at first.Marcus Johnson said:
My bass had Corelli 370tx strings, which worked well with the old Bass Max setup, but proved too powerful for PUTW and caused some compression. Pirastro Permanents are a bit drier and cleaner sounding, which this pickup seems to like. (on this bass, anyway) Maybe some experimentation is called for.
Also, as mentioned in an earlier post, splitting the signal allows me to control the balance and tone of each pickup. Now if I want a thumpier, old- school sound, I turn down the articulation pickup a bit, and dig away. Running them at the same level gives a more modern sound with plenty of growl and sustain.
This is not a bad pick up for digging in, its just that if you dig in and get a lot of slap (if you play kind of messy) all that is amplified too. If you have high enough action it will just give good tone. I am gettinb the blending box to tone down the articulation pick up too. But the PUP surely deserves a serious listen...
I noticed the problem mainly when pulling very hard on open E. Cleanly, with No slap what so ever. I wouldn't call it distortion, but there was a big tonal difference. It's may be overloading, but I never remembering having this happen with the Realist. If the blending box didn't have to be mounted on the bass, I might consider it.flatback said:
Bob,Bob Branstetter said:
I don't know what that is....I am just referring to its piezo-y-ness when the strings are overplayed(but I would call David at PUTW and talk to him about it...I sent my first Pup back because of some abnormalities but the new one with shorter and wrapped wires seems much better suited for bass.) I gave up on mounting anything on the bass, the Pup picks up all kinds of vibration including little mounted boxes. For the last month I have been using a short cable and resting the line driver on the floor in front of me, then a longer cable to the amp. When I get their new little blender I might have to figure something out.
I had the wires shorten to as short as possible. How did they wrap the wires? My problem really isn't bad enough to be a show stopper, so I can live with it. I'm in the middle of another CD project and our recording engineer loves it as a backup for the Neumann U87 in the event that the piano has to punch in anything later (the piano bleeds into the bass mic), so I won't be changing anything until this project is over.flatback said:
The material itself would probably attach to the soundpost OK. My concern would be the the long wires that would be required. They are very microphonic.arnoldschnitzer said:
Along with my new Dtar solstice I just received a stereo line blender from PUTW. This is a box about the size of a pack of cigarttes with a stereo line in and two mono 1/4inch outs. With a switch you can turn it from stereo to mono which blends the outputs to a mono signal. There are nylon gain screws on the bottom for setting gain and two volume/blending knobs on the top for blending the signals. All the wiring is point to point. this is a hand made box and as small a blender as exists. I was really interested in splitting up the two pup signals to see what the tonal characteristics of each were and if I wanted that relationship to be different, and there is a huge difference between the two. But what i noticed was that the under the bridge foot pup is fine by itself (better then a realist, more clarity more gain more high end) and that the second element which is double sided taped to the bridge sounds just about right when wired mono. It makes more difference where you place it then blending the signals. But...
The usefulness of this little blender could be huge to bassists looking for a two pick up blender that they want to keep small and discreet. It could easily fit on the tailpiece of the bass (although I noticed with this particular pick up that it is so live that ANY non musical vibration is picked up too)
I read here about people blending realists with underwoods and other combinations that could be just the right job for this unit.
For those looking for an extremely small clean line blender with lots of clear gain check it out.
I am still very enthusiastic about this PUP. It has a very sophisticated sound and both the bass and high end are fantastic. Blended with a mic it is the best sound I have had to date and no feedback or piezo hell.
Turned up really loud and standing close to my speaker (something I dont want to do again) on a gig the other night I got a standing wave feedback loop off of the E string, but that took way more gain and proximity then I would normally ever use.
The usefulness of this little blender could be huge to bassists looking for a two pick up blender that they want to keep small and discreet. It could easily fit on the tailpiece of the bass (although I noticed with this particular pick up that it is so live that ANY non musical vibration is picked up too)
I read here about people blending realists with underwoods and other combinations that could be just the right job for this unit.
For those looking for an extremely small clean line blender with lots of clear gain check it out.
I am still very enthusiastic about this PUP. It has a very sophisticated sound and both the bass and high end are fantastic. Blended with a mic it is the best sound I have had to date and no feedback or piezo hell.
Turned up really loud and standing close to my speaker (something I dont want to do again) on a gig the other night I got a standing wave feedback loop off of the E string, but that took way more gain and proximity then I would normally ever use.
