I've never even bothered with it and I've never had a problem. Then again, I don't use the amp to achieve high levels.
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Double Bass Revolution SOLO Pickup Reviews
- Thread starter drurb
- Start date
I've never even bothered with it and I've never had a problem. Then again, I don't use the amp to achieve high levels.
Definitely not glued. Just string it up like David Santos said. The pressure from weaving it through the strings keeps it in place. In the middle (between the bridge and the tailpiece) maximizes the "dampening" effect. Slide it closer to the tailpiece, lesser effect. I don't have the Upton version. Genuine Vibramute user
. Same principle.I got a RS2 last week and was about to fit it to the bridge this weekend when I noticed that this thing is way too fat. It was not the 7-8mm stated on the web site, but 11mm on one side and slightly over 11 on the other. My wing gap is 5mm - which should be fine according to the instructions. But then I noticed that the RS side alone is 6mm. So I cannot sand it down to 5 - I would cut across the glue line. I don't want to alter the bridge, because if this pickup does not work well, I cannot fit the old one back.
What is the average width new and how much after fitting it? Does anyone really get it down to 4mm?
What is the average width new and how much after fitting it? Does anyone really get it down to 4mm?
Just installed my rev solo 2 on my shen hybrid. If I get a perfect and tight fit in the bridge wingslot, it sounds nasal - esp the D string! If I rotate it so there is a tiny gap between the wing and the pickup (my sanding job was a bit uneven!), it has a more balanced sound. A previous poster tipped me off about this...it seems the pickup doesn't like being too tight!
I also agree with others about getting more bass when the RS is facing the instrument.
So far so good, although it is a bit on the trebly side and I am getting some string noise. I am also getting a little feedback on my yorkville 100 amp. The string noise I attribute to the evah pirazzi regulars I'm using. Suggestions ?
I also agree with others about getting more bass when the RS is facing the instrument.
So far so good, although it is a bit on the trebly side and I am getting some string noise. I am also getting a little feedback on my yorkville 100 amp. The string noise I attribute to the evah pirazzi regulars I'm using. Suggestions ?
- Dec 9, 2003
- 369
- 45
- Disclosures
- Kontrabass-Atelier, Lando Music (Germany), "The Double Bass Book"/"Das Kontrabass-Buch"
I went through more than one RS and several iterations. My sanding and "woodworking" skills are lacking.
I got the best sound when then pickup makes full contact on both sides. This means sanding both sides of the slot in the bridge leg and wing so that the planes of both surfaces were completely parallel. And not too tight. But that's just my bass, my ears, et al.
If you sand too much, another tip is to wrap the pickup in scotch tape to increase its thickness ever so slightly. Not ideal perhaps, but workable / good to know.
For preamps, maybe consider the HPF-Pre from fdeck like jonas said.
I too made the observation that the difference between the two faces of the RS is the thickness of the spruce on each side. This is a little off topic, but I've often wondered what the old Fishman B100 pickups would sound like if you were to encase the elements in spruce and mount them like the RS.
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm pickup shopping and therefore digesting threads. A friend of mine has a B100 on his hybrid Eberle. Instead of clipping the elements to the top of the bridge between the strings he has each of them wing mounted with an older preamp. Pretty decent sound. I tried it for a 2-hour rehearsal of my jazz/dance band and I didn't have to do too much tweaking. Also, no phasing issues as some have been concerned about.
I tried to like the BP-100, I really did, but ultimately it's the ugliest sounding pickup I've ever used on my bass. Others have found that it works great on certain instruments so this is just my opinion. I think that the Realist, Full Circle, and Revolution Solo II work better across a broader spectrum of different instruments. The reason the BP-100 isn't a dual wing slot pickup is that it might have infringed on Don Underwoods pattens. I sent you a PM.
I don't have any soundclips, but I have to say the Rev Solo II is a vast improvement over the Realist for my bass. I also switched from Helicores to weich Spirocores, so the sound is pretty different to begin with, but it's much cleaner, no boom/honk, and it's far less prone to feedback at higher volumes. Those who have said it's better for plywood basses appear to be spot on in my experience. There is a bit more string noise but when I get a preamp I should be able to take care of the crispy-ness. I'm really, really, pleased with it through both the AI Coda at Hammond Ashley and through the Ampeg BA300 115 in the rehearsal studio.
I like my Rev Solo II on my fully carved bass much more than the Realist and BassMax. VERY resistant to feedback. The sound really changes with little changes in position, both left and right and up and down. Can make it more dry vs more hollow/reverb sounding with a little position change, and change from a more bass/midrange dominant sound to a more treble dominant sound with little position changes of the pickup. I have mine in the E side wing of my bridge. No need for a preamp when I run it into my AI Coda R Series III. I play arco 95% of the time.
I'm getting very interested to this pu, since you say it's very resistant to feedback. Did you compared to Full Circle? It works good with realtive lower impedance input? I mean something like 500Kohms too.
I don't have a Full Circle. Check with Eric or Gary at Upton Bass about the input impedance requirements. I tried it through my Markbass LM II at home and it sounded fine. I have only used it with my AI Coda R otherwise.
As far as I know Markbass amps has about 500Kohms input impedance, so the question is answered! I use Aguilar AG500, it has 1Mohms input impedance. Buy the way customer support, my friend has a bass shop, and he emailed to Upton guys, that he likes to sell this pickups in my country, but they doesn't aswered. Off Course, since Hungary is a Europen Union country I can buy online from Germany easily, but strange...
Indeed, the input impedance of the LM II is 500 kohms. I don't recommend that for the Rev Solo or other piezo pickups. While the RS II is more forgiving in this regard than was the RS I, the minimum input impedance with which it is really happy is 1 Mohm. All this can be solved by buying one of Invalid Link Removed. The input impedance is 10 Mohm and the high-pass filter will rid you of the pesky infrasonics that virtually all such pickups are happy to pass right through your amp and onto your speaker cone. Not a good thing.
P.S.-- While fdeck doesn't sell outside the USA, perhaps there'd be a creative way of getting one of his units to you.
I'm sure there are technical guides but they might not help you understand what's really operating here. I'm going to give this a shot with as much non-technical language as I can. Here goes.
Resistance is a reasonably easy concept to understand. It is the amount by which a circuit resists the flow of electrons. Resistance is the term used for direct-current (DC) circuits. Impedance is akin to resistance but is the term used for complex (AC) circuits. Impedance can vary as a function of frequency. It's more complicated than that, but let's leave it there. The unit of measure of resistance or impedance is ohms.
The signal generated by a pickup and amplified and reproduced is an AC signal, so we speak of impedance. When you plug a piezo pickup (or another transducer) into an amp, that transducer will respond in a way that is dependent on what it "sees" or "looks into" when it is connected to that amp. We speak of the transducer "looking into" the input impedance of the amplifier, whether it's 500 kohms, 1 Mohm, whatever. The result of connecting the pickup and the amp forms a filter that will affect different frequencies in different ways. Exactly how the frequencies are affected will depend upon factors including the internal characteristics of the pickup itself (it's capacitance and resistance as a function of frequency, i.e., it's impedance).
Glossing over the details, when you put all this together, plugging the piezo pickup into the amp basically forms a high-pass filter. That is, a filter that lets pass frequencies above a certain point, while decreasing the level of (attenuating) frequencies below that point.
As it turns out, again glossing over the technical details, as the input impedance of the amplifier increases, the frequency "cutoff" of the effective filter that is formed decreases. That means that progressively lower frequencies will be allowed to pass through as the input impedance of the amp goes up. For the typical piezo pickup, once the input impedance of the amp is as high as about 1 Mohm, you'll get virtually all the "bass" frequencies to pass that you'd want. Lower the input impedance of the amp and you'll cut out some of those desired "bass" frequencies and the pickup will sound "honky" or lacking in bass.
That's a simplified version of what's going on. I hope it helps.
For more detail, see here.
Resistance is a reasonably easy concept to understand. It is the amount by which a circuit resists the flow of electrons. Resistance is the term used for direct-current (DC) circuits. Impedance is akin to resistance but is the term used for complex (AC) circuits. Impedance can vary as a function of frequency. It's more complicated than that, but let's leave it there. The unit of measure of resistance or impedance is ohms.
The signal generated by a pickup and amplified and reproduced is an AC signal, so we speak of impedance. When you plug a piezo pickup (or another transducer) into an amp, that transducer will respond in a way that is dependent on what it "sees" or "looks into" when it is connected to that amp. We speak of the transducer "looking into" the input impedance of the amplifier, whether it's 500 kohms, 1 Mohm, whatever. The result of connecting the pickup and the amp forms a filter that will affect different frequencies in different ways. Exactly how the frequencies are affected will depend upon factors including the internal characteristics of the pickup itself (it's capacitance and resistance as a function of frequency, i.e., it's impedance).
Glossing over the details, when you put all this together, plugging the piezo pickup into the amp basically forms a high-pass filter. That is, a filter that lets pass frequencies above a certain point, while decreasing the level of (attenuating) frequencies below that point.
As it turns out, again glossing over the technical details, as the input impedance of the amplifier increases, the frequency "cutoff" of the effective filter that is formed decreases. That means that progressively lower frequencies will be allowed to pass through as the input impedance of the amp goes up. For the typical piezo pickup, once the input impedance of the amp is as high as about 1 Mohm, you'll get virtually all the "bass" frequencies to pass that you'd want. Lower the input impedance of the amp and you'll cut out some of those desired "bass" frequencies and the pickup will sound "honky" or lacking in bass.
That's a simplified version of what's going on. I hope it helps.
For more detail, see here.
I'm sure there are technical guides but they might not help you understand what's really operating here. I'm going to give this a shot with as much non-technical language as I can. Here goes.
Resistance is a reasonably easy concept to understand. It is the amount by which a circuit resists the flow of electrons. Resistance is the term used for direct-current (DC) circuits. Impedance is akin to resistance but is the term used for complex (AC) circuits. Impedance can vary as a function of frequency. It's more complicated than that, but let's leave it there. The unit of measure of resistance or impedance is ohms.
The signal generated by a pickup and amplified and reproduced is an AC signal, so we speak of impedance. When you plug a piezo pickup (or another transducer) into an amp, that transducer will respond in a way that is dependent on what it "sees" or "looks into" when it is connected to that amp. We speak of the transducer "looking into" the input impedance of the amplifier, whether it's 500 kohms, 1 Mohm, whatever. The result of connecting the pickup and the amp forms a filter that will affect different frequencies in different ways. Exactly how the frequencies are affected will depend upon factors including the internal characteristics of the pickup itself (it's capacitance and resistance as a function of frequency, i.e., it's impedance).
Glossing over the details, when you put all this together, plugging the piezo pickup into the amp basically forms a high-pass filter. That is, a filter that lets pass frequencies above a certain point, while decreasing the level of (attenuating) frequencies below that point.
As it turns out, again glossing over the technical details, as the input impedance of the amplifier increases, the frequency "cutoff" of the effective filter that is formed decreases. That means that progressively lower frequencies will be allowed to pass through as the input impedance of the amp goes up. For the typical piezo pickup, once the input impedance of the amp is as high as about 1 Mohm, you'll get virtually all the "bass" frequencies to pass that you'd want. Lower the input impedance of the amp and you'll cut out some of those desired "bass" frequencies and the pickup will sound "honky" or lacking in bass.
That's a simplified version of what's going on. I hope it helps.
For more detail, see here.
Nice job!
Gives me flashbacks to my days as an electrical engineer.
Nice job!
Gives me flashbacks to my days as an electrical engineer.
Thanks! It's my life!
