Double Bass Underwood Pickup - Preamp Needed?

[Steve Freides]

Underwood pickup question:

I rent out a 1/4 sized Roma hybrid bass. One of my students, who rents it from me, now needs a pickup for the jazz band at a summer thing he's doing through the local school district.

I have an Underwood pickup that came with a bass I bought for myself a few years ago - I got the pickup but never had a need for it and thus never installed it until earlier today, when I put it on my bass. It installed easily and sounds fine, but I have only AI gear - my understanding is that AI heads are built to deal properly with the impedance issues of piezo upright pickups. My questions:

1) I don't know if my Underwood pickup is a piezo, but I'm guessing it is. It installs in the wings like other piezo pickups I've used. I don't know if this distinction even matters.

2) This is the important one - if my student plugs into whatever bass amp he owns and/or whatever bass amp the school supplies, which is likely something designed for an electric bass, will a preamp be necessary? I know only enough about electricity, impedance, and the like to know that I don't know enough to answer this question. I assume that needing a preamp, in this instance, would be defined as having insufficient gain without it, and/or having a poor signal-to-noise ratio without it, and/or having some funny frequency response without it, and I might or might not notice the funny frequency response, or I might notice it but my student might not...

Link to Underwood installation instructions that I found online:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Many thanks in advance for whatever education I'm about to receive.

-S-

 

[Rosebud]

I'm no expert but I feel like when I used an underwood I didn't need a preamp it was a real plug in and play pickup. Others will have more info/expertise. Fred

 

[mdcbass]

No pre-amp needed with and my old tube Ampeg Portaflex or Polytone Mini-Brute.

 

[MR PC]

You need at least a 1 Meg input impedance to make it sound decent. Lotsa amps provide that these days, and even a Boss Tuner or graphic eq pedal will do service. Find out what he's plugging in to, take it from there...pretty simple stuff, no?

 

[Ric Vice]

Underwood pickup question:

I rented out a 1/4 sized Roma hybrid bass. One of my students, who rents it from me, now needs a pickup for the jazz band at a summer thing he's doing through the local school district.

I have an Underwood pickup that came with a bass I bought for myself a few years ago - I got the pickup but never had a need for it and thus never installed it until earlier today, when I put it on my bass. It installed easily and sounds fine, but I have only AI gear - my understanding is that AI heads are built to deal properly with the impedance issues of piezo upright pickups. My questions:

1) I don't know if my Underwood pickup is a piezo, but I'm guessing it is. It installs in the wings like other piezo pickups I've used. I don't know if this distinction even matters.

2) This is the important one - if my student plugs into whatever bass amp he owns and/or whatever bass amp the school supplies, which is likely something designed for an electric bass, will a preamp be necessary? I know only enough about electricity, impedance, and the like to know that I don't know enough to answer this question. I assume that needing a preamp, in this instance, would be defined as having insufficient gain without it, and/or having a poor signal-to-noise ratio without it, and/or having some funny frequency response without it, and I might or might not notice the funny frequency response, or I might notice it but my student might not...

Link to Underwood installation instructions that I found online:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Many thanks in advance for whatever education I'm about to receive.

-S-

Steve,
Your instinct's are correct, it is one of the earliest piezo pickups to actually sound good. It's passed the test of time.

I used one a long time with various amps, well before I had a HPF/Buffer Pre Amp. It sounded fine into my GK 200MB, Walter Woods MI-100-8 and MI-400-8

As Mr. PC says, most amplifiers have 1 Meg Ohm inputs now the only one that I know that isn't is a Mark Bass Little Mark.

Ric

 

[DoubleMIDI]

Some decades ago the Underwood was often used with a Polyton Mini-Brute, which has an input impedance of 330 KOhms. So ir should work with most bass amplifiers.
It might sound a bit better with a high input impedance preamp on some amplifiers, but for a limited time only I wouldn't try to get a preamp for the Underwood.
On the other hand a HPFpre is rather cheap and always good to have one in the pocket and you can be sure to get the best sound out of your pickup with any amp.

 

[BHBassman]

I have the Underwood on my Basses. Great PU.
Can sound a bit harsh or mid-rangy, depending on the equipment: bass, strings, amp & venue ( indoors, outdoors, carpet, glass, cement, wood floors - etc.)
No "need" to use a Preamp-depending on the amp & knowledge EQ-ing with or without a preamp.
I have used a few different preamps & EQs, including the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ, which can warm up the tone, etc.
Now, I've been going direct to my amps & only using the amp EQ.
Got to experiment & learn to play amplified.

 

[bassfiddlesteve]

I used an Underwood for several years and I always found that it sounded much better with a preamp. At the time I was using a Fishman Pro-EQ (the older one with the metal case) and an SWR Workingman's 12 combo which I'm pretty sure did not have a high impedance input. I stopped using the preamp one I switched to a Realist.

- Steve

 

[Jake deVilliers]

IME, the Underwood sounds great with an FDeck Pre.

 

[BHBassman]

Agreed-Much better sound with a preamp.

 

[B String]

Just about always sounds better with a 10 meg ohm (or close) preamp. I've used mine with the FDeck, basic Fishman preamp, Tech 21 Paradriver, and a few others made for me. They all sounded better than without a preamp.