Standing Bass Pickups

[bigboom]

The bass player in my school's jazz band has been wanting to get a pickup for his standing bass for a while now but he doesn't know anything about them and asked me to find out what pickups people recomend. If any of you have suggestions or another place I could ask it would be much appreciated.

Ben Dennis

[Alex F]

Check out www.talkbass.com. Go to the Double Bass forum and you will learn all you want about pick-ups.

[bigboom]

Thanks Alex, that's a great site.

Ben

[Bob Mosso]

http://www.b-band.com/products.shtml

Scroll to the bottom for the bass stuff. I don't know how good the Bass pick-ups are, but the AST/UST dual pick-up I put on my classical guitar is awsome.

[Art Hovey]

I have been using Underwood pickups on my bass for many years, and am still happy with them. I have no idea if they are still available. The feedback problem that somebody mentioned above is not the fault of the pickup, but rather the bass itself.
A good bass fiddle is designed to transmit sound energy efficiently to the air. But that means it also absorbs sound energy efficiently from the air, which leads to feedback when an amplifier is used. Les Paul solved that problem for electric guitars many years ago by making a solid-body instrument which does NOT transmit sound to or from the air. In my case it was not necessary to go to that extreme; I just put in a second sound post under the other foot of the bridge. The bass still puts out enough sound to practice with, but in a band I rely on my amplifier. Of course this is not recommended for an expensive instrument, but it makes a cheap plywood bass sound great.

[Paul S]

In addition to the TalkBass Forum, check with Bob Gollihur (all Hail Bob as he is known in the Bass world). He has a great web site listing tons of different pick-ups with some honest opinions of where they fit, excell and fail, at: http://www.urbbob.com/pickupmain.html

I used to play an Eminence that had a David Gage Realist and my current Ergo also uses a modified Realist pick-up. These are thin piezo films that fit beneath the bridge foot and delivers a strong bass sound. It is superb at making arco sound real. It is not great for getting more string sound though but is excellent for getting wood body sound into the amp. I rarely play bass anymore but I do like the sound of Realists.



Eminence Hybrid bass on left. Ergo Stick Bass in cherry on Right