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Double Bass Revolution SOLO Pickup Reviews

#241
I tried the RS on my bass yesterday with my amp at a regular rehearsal. I forgot to bring the patch cord for my Fishman pre and went directly into the Focus SA poweramp.

I gotta tell ya, it sounded great! Even with no pre-amp and straight into 600 watts. The sound wasn't boomy at all and just right. Had this unique kinda natural sound. Seems like it was doing a really good job bring out the sound of the Anima's I have on. I'm convinced that any inconsistent sounds coming from the setup is mostly coming from my hands. I'm gonna go no preamp from now on (only one dial!) and will only break it out if the room is boomy or there's feedback. Thing thing is great!
 
#242
hdiddy, I think we're on the same wavelength again. Just on opposite coasts I guess. :D

I have a D-TAR Solstice, which I think is a real nice preamp/mixer. But like you said I actually slightly prefer the sound of my SOLO plugged straight into both my amps, without the Solstice.

Of course without the Solstice I can't blend my AMT with the SOLO too easily, but most of the places I work now have ridiculous levels of crowd noise, so I leave the AMT at home for those gigs anyway. [ The AMT does pick up people talking near the bandstand in between sets quite well if I leave it on. IMO it's very natural sounding at reproducing meaningless crowd banter, bad pick up lines, and idle conversation. ]

Like you said, for whatever the reason, the RS just seems to sound very natural to me (for a pickup) going straight into my amps, without a pre. Part of it may be the input sections in my amps (EA & AI), but the bigger part is undoubtedly the SOLO itself.

hdiddy said:
Thing thing is great!
Click to expand...
Oh is she now? ;)
 
#244
stockbass said:
As you see I found both pros and cons. For my needs the cons is not that I can live with. I will stick with my wilson for now and get a realist in near future.

/TD
Click to expand...
I agree, the same to me:( .I felt Solo like a week pickup , through preamp coulďnt get good sound.
Tried many pickups - Shadow,Bassmax,Underwood, Realist,Revolution Solo, all with or without preamps, various amps. Finally have found the Underwood, directly to my old combo GK 150MBE is the best way for me: enough volume of pickup and simple control over midrange of amp.I am happy with the sound now,and so my gigfriends are happy too.Finally I can hear what I am doing...;)
 
#245
stockbass said:
As you see I found both pros and cons. For my needs the cons is not that I can live with. I will stick with my wilson for now and get a realist in near future.

/TD
Click to expand...
I agree, the same to me:( .I felt Solo like a week pickup , through preamp coulďnt get good sound.
Tried many pickups - Shadow,Bassmax,Underwood, Realist,Revolution Solo, all with or without preamps, various amps. Finally have found the Underwood, directly to my old combo GK 150MBE is the best way for me: enough volume of pickup and simple control over midrange of amp.I am happy with the sound now,and so my gigfriends are happy too.Finally I can hear what I am doing...;)
 
#246
While the Solo has a fairly low output, I think with a high impedance input it isn't such a big deal. There isn't any other pickup out there that I have played that has the same clarity and natural sound as the RS. This is also one of the only pickups that I found blending a mic into the signal didn't add a whole lot to the sound. It really does sound great on its own.
 
#247
carved czech said:
...
Tried many pickups - Shadow,Bassmax,Underwood, Realist,Revolution Solo, all with or without preamps, various amps. Finally have found the Underwood, directly to my old combo GK 150MBE is the best way for me:...
Click to expand...

This may reflect the importance of interactions between the response of the amp and that of each pickup. Was the GK combo a constant throughout all of these trials? If so, your dissatisfaction with the Shadow, Bassmax, Underwood, Realist, and Revolution Solo may have more to do with the characteristics of the GK than anything else.
 
#248
DRURB said:
This may reflect the importance of interactions between the response of the amp and that of each pickup. Was the GK combo a constant throughout all of these trials? If so, your dissatisfaction with the Shadow, Bassmax, Underwood, Realist, and Revolution Solo may have more to do with the characteristics of the GK than anything else.
Click to expand...

Truly say, I used GK 150MBS for most trials.Lately for RS and Realist I used GK 150MBE, which I think is better.But I think, that Underwood is very useable and prefer this pickup before all others!
 
#249
carved czech said:
Truly say, I used GK 150MBS for most trials.Lately for RS and Realist I used GK 150MBE, which I think is better.But I think, that Underwood is very useable and prefer this pickup before all others!
Click to expand...

Indeed, I should not have included the Underwood in your "dissatisfaction" list. Given that the GK (or variant therof) was a constant, I feel confident that your preference really does deomonstrate the omportance of the interaction I mentioned. Which is to say, the preferred pickup will be the one that sounds best to YOU with the bass and amp that you are using.

That being said, there do seem to be pickups that work well with a large variety of basses and amps.
 
#251
$140 shipped from Upton to my doorstep.

What I got: Wood encased pup with wire and plug, RCA to 1/4inch adapter/jack, metal clip, fine sandpaper, short piece of plastic tubing(?), piece of paper with instructions and an Upton decal all contained in a small cloth drawstring bag.

Installation: This took longer than most folks' experience. My bridge had very little space between the wing and the body. As per instructions, this meant that I had to sand the bridge wing and not the pup. It took me about half an hour of sanding, fitting, resanding and refitting before the pup slid in snug to my satisfaction. Tip to future customers: Have some coarse sandpaper or narrow files handy before your order arrives. The rest of the installation went without a hitch.

Test: I plugged my Prima BSO/CCB into my SWR Workingman 210 combo and powered up. In contrast to some users' observations, IMO the pup's output was plenty to drive the amp. It also picked up some fingerboard noise. I'll rotate the pup a bit tomorrow to see if the orientation change will get rid of it. Also, the jack was picking up vibrations from my tailpiece and causing a low hum. I EQ'd some mids out and got rid of most of it. I'll see if I can isolate the jack by relocating or insulating it.

Sound: I have to agree with some of the comments here. It sounds like my URB, only louder! Nice and tubby, very clear with a hint of sparkle up top.

Druthers: The instructions could be clearer and the pics could be better. There was no mention of what the plastic tubing was for.

Bottom line: I think I made the right pup choice with the RSII.:bassist:
 
#252
syciprider said:
...short piece of plastic tubing(?)...
Click to expand...
see below...;)

syciprider said:
...Also, the jack was picking up vibrations from my tailpiece and causing a low hum. I EQ'd some mids out and got rid of most of it. I'll see if I can isolate the jack by relocating or insulating it...
Click to expand...
see below...;)


syciprider said:
...The instructions could be clearer and the pics could be better. There was no mention of what the plastic tubing was for...
Click to expand...
I am still working on the newest version of the instructions. There should have been a business card sized photo of what that tubing is for...but, it is an after length dampener...and can be quite handy for controling some of the afterlength vibration issues you were getting.:D
RS2_ALD.jpg
Yours might be black...
 
#254
Hi all,

I just received my RSII yesterday. Less than 10minutes of sanding later (My wings were already sanded to accept a k&k Bassmax) Everything was ready.

This is a really significatn upgrade compared to the Bassmax.

The sound I get is far more evenly balanced even the output level is lower than the bassmax (in fact, it's probably the bassamx that have high output).

It also took me some time to understand the role of the plastic tubing (I didn't have read this post before). placing it between the strings increased vibration insulation.

However I still have some little noises that came from my quiver who is slightly moving. I have to check that or maybe be thighten the leather cords that hold it.

I've read here that the orientation ("RS" sign up or down) wan influence the sound... that my next test for tonight.

If someone interested I can probably record some samples with both the RS2 & the bassmax (who still is mounted under the G wing. it sounded really too boomy on the E side).
However, my playing is still poor & my bass is cheap (this last point is not an excuse for the first one).

Sylvain Clement aka wphantom
 
#255
hai there, can you give me description how revolution II work in a bass. my bass is in short not a good one. it's china-made. bassmith wrote that the SOLO worked good, natural in his bass. however, what if it's nstalled in a bass that doesnt produce a quality tone like mine? for you to know i hve used uderwood so far, and it hasn't been satisfying. well, a friend of mine reccommended realist. thx guys
 
#256
Hi,


of course the RSII will probably sound different on different bass. I assume tat no one can predict the sound before trying it.

You should be aware that the placement of the RSII can drastically influence the sound.

My bass is also a cheap carved chinese bass and the sound I get with the RSII is really good for live. Of course the sound would be better with a mic however my band (7 musicians) often play in really small place or if not, with deaf pseudo-sound tech... so the pickup is the way to go. However when recording I always use a mic...


Sylvain Clément
 
#257
I've not used the Underwood, but a lot of bass players like them quite well. However, what I can tell you about the RS pickups is that they pretty much nail the sound of your bass as it sounds acoustically. And the one time I used a Realist I wasn't so happy with the feedback rejection. The best thing about the RS is its near total lack of feedback. But can it turn a sow's ear into a silk purse? Probably not.
 

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