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Double Bass Upton Revolution PUP unhappiness

bassplayer1960

bassplayer1960

Feb 22, 2008
181
117
Massachusetts
#1
Any ideas as to why i can't get my Revolution pickup to sound good? I find myself constantly repositioning it on my bridge and at best get a thin honky sound which i try to eq away from with bass which then makes the E sound too boomy. I am playing from a perfectly working AI Coda so it's not the amp. Perhaps i need to get a more common set-up like Gage or Fishman?
 
#3
A pre amp will help a little. The cheapest option I know of is fdeck's (search the forum - it's all over). It sounds great, but is fragile; after dropping and breaking two, I now use the fishman platinum, and it's sturdy and wonderful. The realist and full circle's are simply better pickups than what you've got. The realist does not match up well with the acoustic image contra. The dark, rich amp and the dark, rich pickup = mud and boom if you get above soft duo-trio volume. Go with the full circle. I've used all of the stuff I mention. Got an ai contra. Realist didn't work well on louder gigs, switched to upton which cut through but was kinda ugly. I'm a happy full circle guy, for now.....people seem to like this earlund gizmo......
 
#6
Mine sounds poor as well. And I have a Upton Hawkes, so the pick up was installed by the Upton guys.
Anyway, I have used the Realist for over ten years now, and I keep the RS around just in case. I wish I could get a good sound out of it. or at least different so I would have another option other than the Realist in certain situations.
 
#7
I bought one years ago with an Upton bass and they installed it. I also hated it, especially when it failed so they sent me another. I didn't like that one much either. I was using it with an Acoustic Image so it wasn't the amp. My recommendation is a Full Circle, especially on a plywood bass.
 
#8
I was unable to achieve satisfactory results with my Revolution Solo as well. I installed a Realist on my Kay bass in 2004 and have been happy with it ever since. I recently installed a Realist on my carved E.H. Roth and I like it on that bass too.

- Steve
 
#10
I think the amount of pressure on these pickups can make a big difference.... try shimming it with paper and experiment with thickness or number of layers and see what you get. Also make sure it isn't too tight either.

ps - this should be moved to the pickup and amp section...
 
#13
I had similar issues...flipped it over and the results were much better. I use sax reeds for shimming also. I had the revolution custom fit into the wing via my luthier. but previously to that I found the shim tension to make a big difference . also the exact position of the pick up , when i found the the best spot I was sure to mark it with a scribe or pencil. i currently am having good luck with a bass max , on a different bass.
good luck.
 
#14
I had my luthier do a semi-permanent install of my pickup to make sure the fit was right - tight but not too tight. Well worth the small amount he charged me while he had my bass in his shop, anyway.

Have you tried it _without_ any preamp? The AI should be able to accept straight in to the 1/4" input and sound good.

-S-
 
#15
I know this is an old thread but I am struggling to get a good sound w/my Rev Solo II. I have a Thompson Hybrid through a Genz Benz Shuttle 8t w/Fdeck pre. I've messed w/all the amp and pre settings as well as PU placement and I still get a mid rangy sound. anyone else have experience w/this?
 
#16
powerbass said:
I know this is an old thread but I am struggling to get a good sound w/my Rev Solo II. I have a Thompson Hybrid through a Genz Benz Shuttle 8t w/Fdeck pre. I've messed w/all the amp and pre settings as well as PU placement and I still get a mid rangy sound. anyone else have experience w/this?
Click to expand...

Who installed it?
 
#17
I installed it myself, I chose to modify my bridge wing instead of removing wood from the PU housing. it fits nicely and I added a piece of paper to make it a tad tighter. I watched the Upton install video and I chose to not modify the PU in case I didn't like it I could resell it unmodified. I've played with various positions and it still sounds mid heavy. I hope I'm not going down that dark tunnel of PU hell looking for my sound.
 
#18
Hammond Ashley installed mine and I get a reasonable tone out it through just about any amp, but what I run into is horrible feedback problems at any kind of volume (i.e. when drums are present). :hmm:
 
#19
I've never experienced feedback problems with the Rev Solo. I do have to tweak the parametric tone-shaping on my iamp 200 to get the sound I like but it's not all that difficult. I don't think there's any piezo pickup (or any pickup?) that would be acceptable to me without any tweaking. That said, I've found the Rev Solo to be quite satisfactory even through a cheapie rig.

My Ehrlund is on it's way to me... stay tuned. :)

powerbass, have you used any other pups on the Thompson and, if so, which ones and what was your experience?
 
#20
powerbass said:
I know this is an old thread but I am struggling to get a good sound w/my Rev Solo II. I have a Thompson Hybrid through a Genz Benz Shuttle 8t w/Fdeck pre. I've messed w/all the amp and pre settings as well as PU placement and I still get a mid rangy sound. anyone else have experience w/this?
Click to expand...

I've the Shuttle 3.0 10t and it sounded great, with either the Realist, or the Ehrlund. That said, it was with my bass, my strings, etc. I have a Upton Revolution Solo in my gig bag, as a emergency backup. I find that like all bridge wing pickups, the sound tends to have more midrange because the piezo's placement is further from the body of the instrument, and closer to the strings. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on how the bass sounds when it's being sensed at that point. I would also suggest that the 8" driver might a little small for anything but duo and low volume trio gigs. I have a EA VL 108 (totally different design) but
I only use it on low volume gigs as it will bottom out when pushed. The Genz Benz 8 is a newer design, uses a neo driver, and different porting, but you can only get so much out of a single 8. The FDeck should definitely help with that, but it can only do so much.
When this style of pickup first arrived on the market it was a god send, compared to the Barcus Berry little silver bar and the Polytone ceramic, that embedded into the bridge feet. They sounded so much better. Newer pickups like the, Realist and Full Circle, IMHO, sound better, because they both represent a advancement in pickup design, sensing ability, and placement IMHO. In some cases though, the older technology, like the Underwood and Upton, actually sound better on a particular bass, if you're not getting what you want then, the best thing to do is take a look at the entire signal chain, bass, strings, pickup, amp, and speaker. Provided all the other elements in the chain sound great, then it's time to try a different pickup.

Ric
 

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