Double Bass What pickup combo for jazz and orchestral styles?

[mkandolf]

Hello DBers,

I'm not that experienced with my DB yet (Gollihur Classic model from Englehardt) but am researching what would be the best types of pickups (not brands or models) to play what I hope to be using my bass for.

Right now I play mostly musicals in the area with the occasional jazz gig thrown in, all un-amped. There's a semi-pro orchestra in the area that could use more bassists (I need some work yet to get in) that I would like to play in. So let's say I would like to play a mix of jazz (various styles), classical, and the musicals.

At first I picked up the K&K Double Big Twin (piezos under the strings) but haven't installed it yet. From my research this sounds best for only the orchestral style, not very good for jazz. Should I keep these piezos and add another style pickup to catch the fingerboard sounds as well or is there perhaps a setup good for both?

 

[drurb]

I'm assuming that you won't be using any pickup at all for the classical playing. That leaves the musicals and jazz. How much arco is involved? Some pickups seem to do better than others re the pizz./arco mix. Is it important for you to be able to remove the pickup for the classical playing? Which particular pickup works for you and your bass is not always easy to predict.

In terms of types of pickups, there are several, with the major types being:

1) bridge-wing piezos
2) bridge-foot piezos
3) bridge-contact piezos
4) "adjuster-embedded" piezo
5) bridge-mounted contact transducer
6) body-mounted contact transducer

I hope I didn't miss any major types.

As for catching fingerboard sounds, IMO, that's usually a contrivance. A typical listener who is a few feet from the instrument played acoustically sure doesn't hear much in the way of fingerboard sounds. So, if your holy grail is that the amplified sound be as close to the acoustic sound as practical (as is my holy grail), then fingerboard noise is not something you'll want very much.

 

[hofner]

Fingerboards transducers are (imho) only usefull if you play rockabilly/psychobilly and want to enhance the slap...
otherwise, i don't really undestand why you would need this feature...