Dude of Ace, the single Yama is by itself a great solution pickup. Either side depending on your bass and sound and amp etc. I notice with one pickup (E side) the thumb position is slightly de-emphasized with just the G side it is well balanced but less bassy. I like the fuller two pickup sound but many will prefer the single sensor.
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Double Bass Yamahiko Double Bass Pickup
- Thread starter Mike Arnopol
- Start date
Just got word from Kiyohiko that based on my tests and the tests he made in Japan he is ordering the parts to begin making and offering the reverse sensor. I believe from his communication that the Reverse sensor is factory produced for him that way.
I am getting such a good sound by reducing bass, and using the VariZ to keep the imp lower (cutting bass) somehow it evens out the whole rest of the spectrum so that the sound is even above it and way more acoustic. Arco is sick...a little dry but VERY excellent acoustic sound. (Perpetual strings are the bomb). After so many years of getting complicated it is totally refreshing to plug into a preamp/powered speaker and play. So far it has worked great in all situations. When I have it at it's thinnest sound in a room it still sounds acoustic and warm and really nice. Sits so well under piano and drums.
I am getting such a good sound by reducing bass, and using the VariZ to keep the imp lower (cutting bass) somehow it evens out the whole rest of the spectrum so that the sound is even above it and way more acoustic. Arco is sick...a little dry but VERY excellent acoustic sound. (Perpetual strings are the bomb). After so many years of getting complicated it is totally refreshing to plug into a preamp/powered speaker and play. So far it has worked great in all situations. When I have it at it's thinnest sound in a room it still sounds acoustic and warm and really nice. Sits so well under piano and drums.
So perhaps the theory is that dual element pickups, to be in phase, have to be "out of phase"? Because the main movement of the bridge is rocking from side to side. So when the G-wing side is recieving more pressure, the E side is recieving less and vise versa. Just thinking out loud.
Yes, that’s the idea. Did that with with the (homemade) bridge foot pickups for my Clevinger EUB that way. Sounded better than in phase.
In my experience with the two Yama's having the two in phase cuts out some frequencies which may or may not be bad depending on your bass, it also seems to emphasize other mid tones (Eddie Gomez sound...although I think he turns up the mids too). With one out of phase it seems like an unrestricted signal; everything comes thru which is very bass heavy (we play bass) but in that state (like an open spigot) rolling off the excessive bass leaves you with a much more acoustic tone. Gone are the wanky mids, the piezo artifacts, the electric sounding elongated sustain (a lot of that can be really well dealt with with a tube preamp and strings and imp matching) what's left is a thick sound that as you roll off the bass becomes more mic like, and airy with a much more pizz thump and the notes die off more like I hear them do acoustically. I recently had a conversation with @Mike Arnopol who first experimented with variable phase and he is firm on the ideal being somewhere in between(he has a EA Doubler where you can run each pickup to its own channel and then adjust the phase of one of them up to 180), but I don't have those capabilities and I ain't buying any more amps.
In my experience, there is also some truth in that a single element transducer can sound a bit one dimensional (duh). So this way you avoid the phasing problems (at least to an extent), and add some dimensionality/complexity.
Variable Phase is only avaliable on a Double Bass amplifier with the EA Doubler. It's something I believe Mike told them to do. He also told them they needed an variable HPF, so they put one in, only to take it out when they released the EA Doubler MK II
Yeah... thing is it isn’t ya know always a winner. My old bass sounded it better I think with just that single representation of the sound.
Using the wonderful dual Yamahiko reversed and bridged Tracks your line across the strings and registers in a way that is really cool. I am interested in the Wilson again ( and with the tube preamp in line ) because of that tracking , it sounds really good with MAS speakers
Using the wonderful dual Yamahiko reversed and bridged Tracks your line across the strings and registers in a way that is really cool. I am interested in the Wilson again ( and with the tube preamp in line ) because of that tracking , it sounds really good with MAS speakers
Yfter spending several weeks and a lot of gigs with the stellar Y+/Y- pickup I put back in the original bridged, and I gotta say though I don’t think it was his original design intent Kiyohiko has created the most versatile modular robust pickup system out there: it can be used singly on either side,bridged, bridged with one reversed polarity, a stereo jack can be used to send each pickup separately to its own channel ( thru one TRS cable) for eq, and from all of those starting points you can get a really excellent sound with a minimum of eq..... but you have to have the impedance right.
Can you describe the differences between single sensor, bridged in phase, and bridged out of phase? I’m using a single sensor on my laminate bass but thinking of getting the out of phase double sensor for my carved bass.
single is like a photo of the sound, two of them is stereo in a 3D kind of way that may or may not be preferable depending on the bass and mics the thumb position, bridged is the direct sound that EG has on many records, but it can be naturally altered by using the right imp and tube preamp to give a really excellent sound, +Y/-Y sounds the most acoustic with an unrestricted bass response that is thick and woody, but liberal use of an HPF balances the sound tremendously.
I gotta say about the +Y/-Y I think @Mikearnopol got it spot on, the very best sound is somewhere in between. Wish there was a small box that could take two signals and dial the phase.
I gotta say about the +Y/-Y I think @Mikearnopol got it spot on, the very best sound is somewhere in between. Wish there was a small box that could take two signals and dial the phase.
Just in case anybody reading the K4 thread should get the wrong idea, the Yamahiko is the best bass pickup out there and just really has the best possible sound for a piezo that I have ever tried. The K4 cuts but sonically the Yama is such a better representation of the sound of the instrument.
Agreed! I've used just E side single sensor on my last two basses.
I've of course considered getting a second and trying all these experiments (and honestly I probably will someday) but every now and then I plug it in and remember how frustrating all my previous pickups have been (copper realist, bp-100, full circle, ehrlund, ischell). This thing is 0% frustrating. It sounds great. Under the right circumstances (i.e. room acoustics) with my acoustic image clarus sl and MAS 18 it just sounds unbelievably mic like. But of course with no bleed, feedback or dealing with a mic of any kind. Just plug a 1/4" cable in like an electric bass.
Stellar, couldn't be happier with the thing.
I just received a reverse sensor with serial # R001
Will get to try it out tonight
I decided to start over with my new bass - this set is 1/4-20 thread
Earl
Supporting Member
I agree completely. Whether I am using both tied together (most of the time lately) or one side or the other; with a preamp/hpf or without, it just works and sounds great every time. I have had comments from many listeners that it is the best amplified bass sound they have ever heard.
I have the Felix for the HPF.
Steve Swan set me up with a great 60’s German carved back bass that he had a top regraduation and new fingerboard done - it’s miles better than my previous bass. I decided to start over with this one. Back to spirocores from gensslers and will wait for it to tell me what to do next.
BTW, I did a rehearsal in a well damped studio tonight with the Yama +/- setup. I used the stereo splitter cable instead of the stock cable (in case I needed the flexibility). But I ended up playing with the Felix set flat, both channels equally blended and both channels phased the same. The result was nice clear highs, really clean mids and huge bass that I had to tame with a higher than usual HPF rolloff. Tomorrow, I'm playing in a big basement room with cement walls - it's a very lively room and typically sounds crappy. I'll see how the Yama +/- sounds there.
Remind me what thread diameters the Yamahiko is available in again? I think Piro mentioned a new one somewhere that wasn't on their website when he posted it.
the main Yama thread is M8, but maybe a year or two he started making the standard 1/4in for the USA market.
