Double Bass removed Realist and my acoustic tone improved

[tww001]

I took the Realist off of my bass this past weekend, and there is a hugely noticeable difference in the acoustic tone of my instrument, the strings feel lower in tension, and the bow moves across this strings with a lot less effort.

 

[Ric Vice]

I took the Realist off of my bass this past weekend, and there is a hugely noticeable difference in the acoustic tone of my instrument, the strings feel lower in tension, and the bow moves across this strings with a lot less effort.

I have a Realist and it is in fact a trade off when you put something in between the bridge and the top. The new Aptflex pickup is made of a much thinner material. I guess you could say that any pickup actually interferes with the sound production of the instrument. The Fishman BP-100 is like putting a metal mute on the bridge. I haven't noticed a difference in the string tension so much but I'm using Tomastic Weich's so they are pretty low tension anyway. I've considered a DYN-B because Realist's placement, but .....

Ric

 

[Mark Perna]

It seems to be bass dependent. I had the same problem with my main bass ('28 Juzek). The Realist was completely unusable because of it. It REALLY affected the sound and playability of the instrument. I have a Realist on my back up ('74 Juzek) and it works fine on that bass. I don't notice any change in acoustic sound or playability.

mark

 

[MrSidecar]

+1 to that it changes the sound and feel. Did it on mine certainly. It wasn't by much, though, and I think that's because my bridges have always had rather thin legs, so they can flex a little better to asymmetries. But I didn't dig it, so I looked further.

Best
Sidecar