Double Bass Those who know the 'Underwood' pickup

[gypsydjango]

I have an Underwood pickup (2 wing pickup). I believe that one pickup will do the job as having the 2 pickups mounted on the bridge. Is that so?
a) I have tried the one pickup and that seems to work OK. If I cut one pickup off and use that on another bass will both work?
b) Does the pickup have a more 'positve' (more volume) side than the other side?
c) If the pickup has a more positive side would that side work better facing the crown of the bridge or the top of the bass?

Ummm???

 

[Francois Blais]

I indeed cut mine and now have two pickups; one for the DB and one for the EUB.
On the DB, it works better mounted the regular side.
On the EUB, it works better the other side. (the cable arriving from the "inside" of the wing)
Just try both and let your ear tell you what works best.
You may have to reverse the phase at the preamp or amp to control feedback depending on the pickup mounting orientation.

 

[Jeff Kissell]

Do a search in this forum (amps, pickups and mics) for "Underwood"

 

[Jeff Kissell]

I have two Underwood pickups-
One is a single element that was salvaged from the wreckage of a very damaged freebie.
The second is a good condition older two element model.

The two element (as designed) one sounds much better on my bass.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Your bass will tell you what pickup it likes, not the other way around.

 

[B String]

Your bass will tell you what pickup it likes, not the other way around.

Just to add on.... These pickups usually sound better with a 10 megohm impedance. Fdeck makes a great inexpensive buffer preamp that has a 10 meg input. I've always found both parts of the pickup work better than using only one side.

 

[massimo]

Mine works best with both parts too !

 

[Ric Vice]

Mine works best with both parts too !

When I used one I used both elements, into a Walter Woods MI-400-8 or before that a MI-100-8. Walter set the input inpedance on his amps to 1 Meg Ohm usng a pickup provided to him by Don Underwood. Understand, I’m not telling you to run out and buy a Walter Woods.
What I will say, is that a 1 Meg Ohm load, along with a sensitive EQ and a Phase Reverse switch, will get you a good if not great sound with the dual element Underwood. So, a FDeck HPF buffer preamp can address all those issues.

 

[Jeff Kissell]

If I go into the preamp of my GB Shuttle 6, I usually use the Fdeck pre first, otherwise I run into an LR Baggs Para DI FOH and into the aux in (of the Shuttle.) Both scenarios have high impedence input, phase reverse and semi parametric mid eq.

 

[gypsydjango]

Thank you fellow Talkbass'ers for your knowledge of the Underwood--much appreciated.

 

[Eric Hochberg]

I spent many years using a two element Underwood until the treble side fell out one night at a concert and my sound changed for the better instantly. Took me a minute to realize what had happened but I never used both elements again.

 

[Ric Vice]

By the time I would have experimented with the Underwood, I had probably moved on to the Realist, mostly
because I had to do some solo bowed work early on, and the Underwood combined with Tomastik Spirocore Weich's
just sounded awful, even with a two channel Walter Woods and dual EQ sections. So, being able to easily transition
between arco and pizz, in the middle of a performance, made the Ehrlund EAP th obvious choice for me. I guess
I tend to favor pickups, that produce a really smooth bowed sound, and as a result, perhaps a little less edgy pizzicato.
Just my preference.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

You may have to reverse the phase at the preamp or amp to control feedback depending on the pickup mounting orientation.

The orientation does no matter to the phase, because the crystal is pressure sensitive, but the selection of the wing where it is mounted in influences the polarity of the phase because the bridge crown wiggles left and right.