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Double Bass Shen Owner's Club

#601
Folks,

This topic has probably 'resonated' here before, but please indulge this new Shen 88 owner.
Last Saturday we had our 'maiden voyage' together, but it was like a disastrous blind date:
Put on a fairly new set of Pirastro Perpetuals and an unused Revolution Solo pickup. The trio backing a singer featured a sensitive drummer and a loud guitarist, and the Shen and I were left coughing in their dust. Lows were tolerable, but mids and highs were embarrassingly weak in tone quality and volume.
Is it as simple a switch as going to Spiro Mediums (Orchestra) and a Full Circle pickup?
The Perpetuals are easy on the fingers, but perhaps too supple to shake the bridge sufficiently when high volume is needed.
My only other piece of gear, an old Fishman Platinum Pro EQ, made things sound even thinner during the sound check, so I chucked it (thinking maybe the battery was dead).
Your recommendations are most welcome.
Thank you - and Virus con Dios.
 
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#602
Richard Simon said:
Folks,

This topic has probably 'resonated' here before, but please indulge this new Shen 88 owner.
Last Saturday we had our 'maiden voyage' together, but it was like a disastrous blind date:
Put on a fairly new set of Pirastro Perpetuals and an unused Revolution Solo pickup. The trio backing a singer featured a sensitive drummer and a loud guitarist, and the Shen and I were left coughing in their dust. Lows were tolerable, but mids and highs were embarrassingly weak in tone quality and volume.
Is it as simple a switch as going to Spiro Mediums (Orchestra) and a Full Circle pickup?
The Perpetuals are easy on the fingers, but perhaps too supple to shake the bridge sufficiently when high volume is needed.
My only other piece of gear, an old Fishman Platinum Pro EQ, made things sound even thinner during the sound check, so I chucked it (thinking maybe the battery was dead).
Your recommendations are most welcome.
Thank you - and Virus con Dios.
Click to expand...

My money is on the pickup, but don't chuck it yet! I hear the rev solos are extremely finicky about positioning but once you find the perfect spot they are pretty good. just keep experimenting with it and see if you can get a better sound. there's no reason that any modern string wouldn't be able to stimulate a pickup enough to give you good volume. Another KEY piece of equipment for any piezo pickup (such as the rev solo) is a HPF (high-pass filter) with high (>=1 MOhm) output impedance. Search the forums for "HPF" or "fdeck hpf". i would recommend buying one of these asap
 
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#605
Richard Simon said:
Folks,

This topic has probably 'resonated' here before, but please indulge this new Shen 88 owner.
Last Saturday we had our 'maiden voyage' together, but it was like a disastrous blind date:
Put on a fairly new set of Pirastro Perpetuals and an unused Revolution Solo pickup. The trio backing a singer featured a sensitive drummer and a loud guitarist, and the Shen and I were left coughing in their dust. Lows were tolerable, but mids and highs were embarrassingly weak in tone quality and volume.
Is it as simple a switch as going to Spiro Mediums (Orchestra) and a Full Circle pickup?
The Perpetuals are easy on the fingers, but perhaps too supple to shake the bridge sufficiently when high volume is needed.
My only other piece of gear, an old Fishman Platinum Pro EQ, made things sound even thinner during the sound check, so I chucked it (thinking maybe the battery was dead).
Your recommendations are most welcome.
Thank you - and Virus con Dios.
Click to expand...

nogbert said:
Another KEY piece of equipment for any piezo pickup (such as the rev solo) is a HPF (high-pass filter) with high (>=1 MOhm) output impedance. Search the forums for "HPF" or "fdeck hpf". i would recommend buying one of these asap
Click to expand...
It's a high INPUT impedance that is important, and you already have that with the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ. The input of the preamp "buffers" the signal from the pickup. Depending on which version of the Platinum Pro that you have, you might also already have an adjustable HPF; I think it's labeled "Depth" and is only on the Bass version, iirc. The fdeck HPF-Pre is a fantastic piece of gear (I actually have one I should probably sell since I'm using a mic with a two channel preamp these days, but I kind of hate to let it go), but probably not a necessity for you.

I don't have any experience with the Rev Solo, but it's a bridge wing pickup, right? If so, then I agree that it's probably a fit issue. You may need to sand the bridge wing slot or use a thin guitar pick to tighten the fit.
 
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#606
I would agree the best troubleshooting would be to check the fit of the pickup and experiment with it. I've troubleshooted a lot of bridge wing pickups and a proper fit usually helps a lot for sound. That being said, sometimes certain pickups don't work on all basses and your instrument might want another pickup. The full circle on my SB150 is great, but I also got a surprisingly good sound out of a $40 vic's bridge wing pickup on my old SB88. I thought Perps sounded great on that bass, fwiw.
 
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#607
I stopped using the Rev Solo because after you finally get it fit and positioned where it sounds like YBOL, if you so much as breathe on it it shifts and sounds awful.

If you want to keep using that pickup, I’d suggest getting it exactly where it works for you, using a pencil to mark the ideal pickup position, removing it and re-seating it with a drop of hot hide glue to hold it in place. It should release with a light tap.
 
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#608
Similar experience here. My new to me Shen didn’t like my Vic #2, so I went to the backup BP-100. Yeah, I know, but it worked OK and got me through some jobs. I’m working on shimming it better and will go to plan C if not. Point is, you sometimes have to dink around with piezos to keep them happy. DB is a PITA to amplify. The quest continues.
 
#609
Inky13 said:
Similar experience here. My new to me Shen didn’t like my Vic #2, so I went to the backup BP-100. Yeah, I know, but it worked OK and got me through some jobs. I’m working on shimming it better and will go to plan C if not. Point is, you sometimes have to dink around with piezos to keep them happy. DB is a PITA to amplify. The quest continues.
Click to expand...

This SB 88 is new to the world and to my little place therein. It was mfd during 2021.
My Fishman Pro EQ Platinum is probably 20 years old, without the bells and whistles described above. I’ll take it along when I try out different pickups at the store that sold me the 88.
Anyone having good results using an Underwood in a Shen ply? My sales guy swears by it, recommending using just one transducer and letting the second one just hang; that procured a brittle sound last time I tried it.
 
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#611
Right.
The fit is snug but not choking; the wooden biscuit can be turned pretty easily. The shop owner even slid a saxophone reed in the slot to take up a little slack.
My hunch is that each time the bass bag goes off or back on there’s likely to be movement of the element. I could follow others’ suggestion and mark the placement of it, like some luthiers outline the bridge feet with chalk.
Will try a K & K next.
Thanks for all the ‘feedback.’
 
#612
Richard Simon said:
This SB 88 is new to the world and to my little place therein. It was mfd during 2021.
My Fishman Pro EQ Platinum is probably 20 years old, without the bells and whistles described above. I’ll take it along when I try out different pickups at the store that sold me the 88.
Anyone having good results using an Underwood in a Shen ply? My sales guy swears by it, recommending using just one transducer and letting the second one just hang; that procured a brittle sound last time I tried it.
Click to expand...

I use an Underwood on my SB88. It sounds good. As people have said, it takes some patience fitting it but I like it.
 
#613
9076211B-46B2-4185-9603-146C583992CD.jpeg
This is the mystery pickup that came with my Shen.
I might get some putty and give it a go.
 
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#614
Richard Simon said:
This SB 88 is new to the world and to my little place therein. It was mfd during 2021.
My Fishman Pro EQ Platinum is probably 20 years old, without the bells and whistles described above. I’ll take it along when I try out different pickups at the store that sold me the 88.
Anyone having good results using an Underwood in a Shen ply? My sales guy swears by it, recommending using just one transducer and letting the second one just hang; that procured a brittle sound last time I tried it.
Click to expand...
Richard, how does the bass sound acoustically? For me the Full Circle seems to sound good on most basses. I know you probably have lots and lots of experience with the Underwood on different basses. I'm also interested to know which shop you bought it from? I'll bet it sounds great if you bought it!
 
#615
dylanjohnson said:
Richard, how does the bass sound acoustically? For me the Full Circle seems to sound good on most basses. I know you probably have lots and lots of experience with the Underwood on different basses. I'm also interested to know which shop you bought it from? I'll bet it sounds great if you bought it!
Click to expand...

Dylan, et al:
Sonic success!
- Underwood (taken from my Morelli, which does mostly orchestra playing)
- Platinum Pro EQ - which does have a ‘depth’ knob, another name for a ‘high pass filter’ according to basically_eli (above)
- Genz-Benz Shuttle 6.0, recently refurbished by their intrepid engineer
- Pirastro Perpetuals

Bass was purchased from Tom at Fantastic Musical Instruments, Pasadena, CA.
Yes, the bass sounds warm and ‘carved-like’ acoustically.

Thanks to all of you for being my guard rails against post/purchase insanity - when I couldn’t account for the crummy amplified sound. No aspersions intended towards your many intriguing suggestions; just relieved. Now that y’all have eliminated an excuse not to practice, it’s back to the woodshed here.
 
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#617
Sheriff,

Maybe you know something I don’t.
Have I been duped by FMI?
It was my first bass purchase there, but it wouldn’t be the first time I bought badly.

My impression is that I got the 88 I wanted, at a price below most.

Where did I fail this time?

They have their ideas about setup, and if I find the setup lacking, I have other options.
In fact, when I brought the bass home, I raised the bridge via the adjusters to get the ‘action’ I’m comfortable with.

They offered to put on my choice of new strings at a below-retail price, but I demurred because I had the strings I wanted at home.

They recommended a certain pickup, but I thought I’d try a different one.
A Shen rep told me, “Yeah, they cater to the rockabilly crowd”; true enough, there was a guy in the store practicing string-slapping, and beside him was a bass the shop had pin-striped like a customized ‘56 Chevy.
One of the owner’s daughters does a lot of the work on their instruments. It’s safe to say she’s not the Martin Luther of luthiers, but it wasn’t her craftswomanship (or lack thereof) that sent me home with this bass.
I went there for the bass, nothing else.
The transaction seemed satisfactory.

Have you done business with them?
Did it go badly?
If there’s something sinister, illegal or otherwise objectionable about the shop, please let us all know.
 
#619
Got it.
There haven’t been any of those leaflets or rhetoric flung in my direction, but I can understand your antipathy towards a cult that proselytizes.
Last weekend I discovered the workshop of a luthiery with a hyphenated name that I hadn’t heard for decades. The owner and I swapped names of bassists-past, and time stood still. It was all very cordial. In the background a persistent radio voice caught my ear - with the unmistakable whine of right-wing invective. Though the proprietor and I were both wearing masks, when the topic of the coronavirus came up, he disagreed with the government’s policies to contain it and added that we’d never be rid of it because it infects other animals besides humans. I suddenly felt that I’d stayed a little too long. I left but came back a minute later to buy some rosin, a token of thanks for his having given of his time. (He’d been working on a bow he said he had to finish, though he put it aside for our conversation.)
Do you encounter people who believe the election was stolen, or that Covid shots are a sinister government plot?
Once those irrational beliefs are expressed, I have a hard time maintaining a relationship with those who express them.
My siblings are convinced that I’ve been kidnapped by a bass cult, and I’m not sure they’re wrong this time.
 
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