Double Bass Realist mud bath

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

My love affair with the Realist on my flatback may be over.
Changing out my bridge has made a nice improvement in both the arco and pizz response of my bass, making it warmer, darker and a louder and deeper E string. The tone out of the amp on tonight's gig sounded like I had cranked the bass knob to 11 and everything else to 0.
The room was a grand opening for an Audi dealership; big, glass, tile, live. My amp was on a tile floor and against a large glass wall. I shudder to think what it might sound like in a room with carpet and curtains.

I actually had a momentary thought that an Underwood would sound nice.
Were it not for a couple of plywood gigs this weekend, I would canibalize the Full Circle and try that. May do that next week.

I spent hours fitting the bridge feet with lipstick and they fit the top as well as possible.
Fit isn't the issue.

Sometimes I hate this instrument.

 

[Ric Vice]

My love affair with the Realist on my flatback may be over.

Sometimes you just have to move on.

Changing out my bridge has made a nice improvement in both the arco and pizz response of my bass, making it warmer, darker and a louder and deeper E string. The tone out of the amp on tonight's gig sounded like I had cranked the bass knob to 11 and everything else to 0.

As I understand it, it takes months for a new bridge to settle in, and things could possible improve a little further down the road. That doesn't solve the immediate problem however, so going with a different pickup is a good solution for now. I hope you are aware that a Realist can totally crap out after about 4 years, but they usually loose signal when they are headed in that direction.

The room was a grand opening for an Audi dealership; big, glass, tile, live. My amp was on a tile floor and against a large glass wall. I shudder to think what it might sound like in a room with carpet and curtains.

Quite possibly, much worse.

I actually had a momentary thought that an Underwood would sound nice.

It will work, just depends on the sound you're looking for. There are basses with the tone quality you describe from your new setup and bridge that the Underwood sounds great on!

Were it not for a couple of plywood gigs this weekend, I would canibalize the Full Circle and try that. May do that next week.

I assume that you mean to take the Full Circle off you your plywood bass and that's unfortunate, but I wouldn't buy a new pickup until I'd found one that works. Just remember, this is the time of year that your sound post can dislodge when you decrease the pressure on the top.

I spent hours fitting the bridge feet with lipstick and they fit the top as well as possible.
Fit isn't the issue.

It occurs to me that if you accidentally got any lipstick on the Realist, foot of the bridge, or top of the bass that might be messing with the sound, but it's hard to say. I thought it needed a little rosin on the surface of the top to help stick it in place.


Sometimes I hate this instrument.

This too will pass as the bridge settles in and you find the right
pick up. Time heals all bass bridge reconstructions. They have to settle in.

Ric

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

I never heard that a bridge needs to settle in, but surely don't doubt it. For one thing, perfectly fitting a bridge with a Realist is a pain. The foot fits the top as well as I can imagine possible, but then sticking a copper foil with two little bumps in it between the foot and top complicates it. However, the bumps in the Realist create dents in the top but it takes time for them to sink into the maple foot. I would imagine the fit improving due to the pressure over time, the way mattresses conform to our bodies.

No? I'm being OCD here, of course.
Point is, it all fits together as well as I've seen.

I'm confident the Full Circle would sound good on this bass, so I may just try it.
Or maybe I'll borrow an Underwood and give that a spin. I already know it sounds good on the plywood.

Regarding Realist failure. I have an old one that is failing and has much lower output. What it has is very middy and nasal, the opposite of what I have now. Mine is about two years old.

Thanks for the support. We should meet in the middle of the state and share a beer sometime and remind each other why we put up with all this S**t when we could have played triangle or maybe tamborine.

 

[Ric Vice]

I never heard that a bridge needs to settle in, but surely don't doubt it. For one thing, perfectly fitting a bridge with a Realist is a pain. The foot fits the top as well as I can imagine possible, but then sticking a copper foil with two little bumps in it between the foot and top complicates it. However, the bumps in the Realist create dents in the top but it takes time for them to sink into the maple foot. I would imagine the fit improving due to the pressure over time, the way mattresses conform to our bodies.

I thought, I could be wrong about this, that when they redesigned the Realist about 7+ years ago they took the "bumpy elements" out because it was putting funny wear spots under people's bridges? If that's the case, your pickup may be more than two years old.

No? I'm being OCD here, of course.
Point is, it all fits together as well as I've seen.

The Realist, as good as it is, does interfer slightly with the transmisson of sound between the foot of the bridge, the top of the bass, and the bass bar.

I'm confident the Full Circle would sound good on this bass, so I may just try it.

But it sucks that you'll have to take the pickup off of your other bass, correct?

Or maybe I'll borrow an Underwood and give that a spin. I already know it sounds good on the plywood.

I've never been inclined to reverse engineer between the Underwood and the Realist, because on my bass, there is a marked difference between the two pickups.

Regarding Realist failure. I have an old one that is failing and has much lower output. What it has is very middy and nasal, the opposite of what I have now. Mine is about two years old.

That's the typical thing that happens. My description of this is BP-100 itis.

Thanks for the support. We should meet in the middle of the state and share a beer sometime and remind each other why we put up with all this S**t when we could have played triangle or maybe tamborine.

I played cymbals in marching band when I was a wee lad, but they kept flying off the handles! Tamborine should only be played by a certified professional, otherwise they become the anti clicktrack. Triangle's can cause tintinitus after only one or two playings. I used to play at Murray's in Columbia with Tom Andes. that's the half way point maybe we could get together sometime.

Ric

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

This might seem like going from one extreme to the other, but I borrowed an Underwood and tried it in my practice room. Although I suspected it would sound OK, it sounds really nice. The sound out of the amp sounds much closer to the acoustic sound of my bass than I expected. Every bass I've heard with an Underwood on it reminded me of a big fretless bass. I get just a bit of that, but it is very slight. Sure, there is an upper mid problem, but just a little EQ gets rid of it. My Fdeck wonderbox (arriving any day now) should help with that.
The sound holds together with the amp cranked as high as I ever have it; much better than it ever did with the Realist.

I have two gigs tomorrow, a combo hit outdoors and one indoors with a loud big band. If I like the sound in 24 hours it's an Underwood.

 

[Eric Hochberg]

If you haven't already, try the Underwood with only the E element installed (the other can dangle). A big improvement on my bass when I used that PU.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

So the outdoor gig went well. I did pull the G element because with it in the bridge the G string sounded out of phase and slow. There was a delay of maybe half a second before the sound came through the amp. The other strings were fine so it seemed weird. Anyway, I was able to get a nice sound and the other guys told me I never sounded better. I count it as a success.
The indoor big band gig was a mixed bag. The volume of the entire band was so loud that maybe just hearing myself was all I could hope for. The tone at that volume was clear, but hard and metallic at times. Even with the G element out the sound was kind of phasey (if that's a word).

Fdeck's HPF pre came in the mail so I used it on both gigs. The HPF was very useful in taming the low end, but switching the phase made little difference. Phase sounded in/out, in/out regardless of setting.

I would like to try it on a nice trio gig but don't have anything for several days.

Will just have to see what develops.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Gonna go the Full Circle route. Hilda gladly loaned out her pickup for a few days and it sounds just about perfect at home. Nice deep, fat low end but very clear all the way up. No gigs until the weekend but I'm pretty sure we have a winner.
Hilda will sit in the corner until I buy another pickup and put her back to her usual ugly but good sounding self.

 

[timobee4]

I remember when I first got my Realist I was on cloud 9 opening the box loosening the strings and taking the G off so I can put the jackholder on, I even drilled a hole into the back of the tailpiece so I dont have to take the strigs on and off if I wanted to change to Underwood. Well, it didnt matter how I positioned the pickup it always sounded like "mudbath" plus after while I noticed that under the bridge there were little indentations, I took it on the chin but pissed of cos after all its a ten+000 fully carved beauty! after a year of headache I got rid of it on ebay(thank God) and got a Planet Wing! Oh my Lord! Easy install! Bloody GREAT sound!!! I will pray for the guy every day who brought it to my attention! For around 200$+ pickups its the best for me as I dont like adjusters (FC)

 

[Ric Vice]

Gonna go the Full Circle route. Hilda gladly loaned out her pickup for a few days and it sounds just about perfect at home. Nice deep, fat low end but very clear all the way up. No gigs until the weekend but I'm pretty sure we have a winner.
Hilda will sit in the corner until I buy another pickup and put her back to her usual ugly but good sounding self.

Clink,
Well, Hilda would be my go to instrument for the outdoor stuff, so hopefully someone on Talkbass will want to part with a Full Circle. If I didn't have such a love affair with my ebony adjusters, I'd have headed to the Full Circle roundup long ago, but they make a pretty significant difference in the way my bass plays and sounds IMHO. There also easier on the hands, when St. Louis river humidity makes the top swell up overnight, and you have to do a on the gig, height adjustment. If someone ever comes up with a way to build a ebony Full Circle I'll take a close look, but the internal design of that pickup isn't compatible with wooden adjusters and Fishman would have to do it, since they have the US patens on the design.

Ric