Double Bass Pickup for oldschool gutplaying?

[Dudie]

Hi!!
The realist on my Gut-bass just died and im looking for a new pickup that sounds god with gutstrings. I play pizz and like the oldschool sound of Paul Chambers. I have high stringheight, about 11mm on the g-string. Never been saticfied with the realist and mic only is to much of a work, i think.
Do you gutplayers have any suggestions of a pickup that will work? A pickup that works for you

Thank you!

 

[Marc Piane]

I use a mic and a Realist... Not much help I know. I've seen cats use the Full Circle with good success.

 

[Jaromir]

Old school gut playing is typically associated with NO pickup, in my opinion.
There are those contact mics, like Schertler Dyn and some other brand also discussed on this forum and they are probably more "microphone like" than piezos...

 

[Nathan Levine]

I have been loving the sound of just using a mic with my gut strings for a while now. No pickup does them justice IMHO. I did recently purchase a Headway band, and though ugly, it works pretty good, is easy to take off and put on, and most importantly, is the best sounding piezo I have tried on my big bottomed Czech bass in years.

 

[Nathan Parker]

Just raise the strings a little more and ditch the pickup. You're almost there.

 

[ctxbass]

I prefer to use no amplification or just a mic through the PA, but when I need an amp on stage, I am satisfied with the Rev. solo pickup. It really allows the gut character to come through, more so than the Underwood or Realist. I have no experience with the Full Circle and gut strings.

 

[Marc Piane]

I think it is worth having a pickup handy just in case. The hardest working gut player in jazz, Dennis Irwin, had a Realist and a Full Circle on his bass. In theory going totally commando sounds romantic, then the reality sets in.

I've played some bigger clubs, with drums, without an amp and it worked but you really sacrifice some facility that a little amplification would help.

When there is a pa I usually have my little GK on stage and run mic only to the house.

 

[Nathan Parker]

I just can't get on board with it. True, you lose some things, but if old school is the goal, no amp is the way.

I think Sir Dennis' pickups were for the studio and perhaps the road or something where the sound guy demanded it. I'm not a New Yorker, so I never saw him live, but from what I've gathered he was a no amp guy. Ben Wolfe, an avid no amp/pickup guy, told me he put a pickup on his bass for a tour with Diana Krall. Maybe Dennis did the same.

Anyways, raise the strings, pull harder. You'll be fine.

 

[Marc Piane]

IME not every place has a house sound system. The times I've seen cats like Eric Revis, Carlos Hendriquez, and Ben Wolf play ampless they were plenty loud in the house pa. Ampless, sure. But thunderously loud in the house.

Dennis' bass has two pickups and a strap mechanism behind the tailpiece for a mic. I don't know this for a fact but to me this looks like a dude that was ready to do whatever to get his sound out there.

Point is the 'old school' stuff is great but when it comes to working you need to be prepared. I've seen cats get fired for being hardheaded about the ampless thing. I don't know how it is where you live but there are plenty of big/loud rooms here that are pretty hard to do acoustically. I think you can still get an old school sound even with an amp.

 

[Nathan Parker]

I'm just trying to encourage the OP to try it out. I think it's worth it to give it a shot.

As far as working and amplification is concerned, that's a whole other can of worms. Perhaps I/we should start a thread about all that. It's an interesting topic. And hopefully someone that followed Dennis's career closely could chime in about his pickups. I am curious about that one.

Now then, back on topic: I don't know from experience, but it seems like the Full Circle and the Realist are the top dogs in piezo pickup technology. If the Realist wasn't your cup of tea, try the Full Circle. Yay.

 

[Blaine]

I saw Dennis a bit. The two pickups came when he started playing with Scofield. Before that he used a Polytone pickup when he needed to(which was rarely) and played around a bit with the C-ducer in the late 80's. With the vanguard band I could swear it was just a mic thru the house, but he might have used a little bit of the polytone pickup, not sure. Most of the time I saw him it was nothing, or a mic, whatever house mic was there put in that velvet bag, (maybe a Chivas Regal bag?) I don't think he had adjusters on the bridge until he got the full circle. He had a HUGE action.
When i first moved here in the first weeks of being here I sat in and played on 3 basses, Dennis Irwin's, Ari Roland's, and John Webber's. That was a but kicking.