I think I might have bagged a bargain Schaller 411?

[stingrayPete1977]

[url="http://www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk/products/pick-ups-8/double-bass-pick-up-738.aspx"]http://www.touchston...ick-up-738.aspx[/url]

Came in at just under £70 inc the P&P, used ones are selling for about the same on eBay?

I know there are better mag pickups out there but I just want to be heard without too much feedback so I can get gigging the DB,I have looked all over for a used Krivo or new UK stock of anything else, Thomann do the Schaller for £91 plus postage so I decided to grab this for £20 less. I had a great stage to have used a DB last night but I went with the EUB because of the feedback issues, I am hoping this coupled with my K&K and Fishman into my fx return to add a bit of 'something' should get me close enough?

Edited August 23, 2014 by stingrayPete1977

[Rabbie]

Pete, I'm struggling to understand this. Mag pickups are great if your reason is to capture a certain kind of sound, but purely for feedback? You are on the forum a lot so I'm sure you already know all the products out there, which leads me think that maybe the band you play with may have serious stage volume issues. I play everything from small club to big festivals and I do it all with a revolution solo or similar, either straight into my amp or via Fishman if I'm using a stage back line bass amp. I have zero feedback issue normally (unless the sound guys are morons). All I'm saying is that these days very high stage volume and feedback are unnecessary regardless of the genre of music you play. Get them to turn down, use amps as stage monitoring only and mic/di amps to get a good front of house balance. Nowadays PA systems with sufficient channels are available second hand very cheaply in case you play places who don't have a decent PA. Just a thought, otherwise you will always run the risk of fighting a loosing battle against feedback.

[stingrayPete1977]

Actually this band is the most quiet ever! Electric drums, 3 piece band, guitarist doesnt even use an amp, although it is blues and rock etc. I just want a plug and play solution almost like a regular bass, I have already asked Jake to spend half an hour of one of my lessons setting up my fishman in the near future to see where I am going wrong amybe over time and once I have gigged it more I will blend the mag out and rely on the piezo but I feel like I will be spending far too long messing about right now to be able to gig it, certainly at quick turnaround slots like tomorrows beer festival thing.

What sort of sound can I expect from the Schaller, terrible?

[Rabbie]

Ok thanks Pete, sorry for jumping to conclusions about your band being stage-loud. I have never tried the Shaller per se, but as I said magnetic p'ups are fine for a certain kind of sound. All pickups produce a sound which is not like the acoustic sound of your bass, mag pickups probably more so, but you may like it and be able to get a great sound out if it. Good luck

[stingrayPete1977]

I fear the terrible sounds already come from it even when un amplified

[Clarky]

I do agree with Rabbie. Your Fishman Plat Pro should sort any feedback issues - unless you are a mega-loud psychobilly band! - with its phase switch, high pass filter and para EQ. If it doesn't manage it then I would recommend getting an fdeck pedal (there's a thread about a UK manufactured clone I posted in this forum) as this has a broader sweeping high pass filter than a Fishman (plus a phase switch) which many TalkBass DB'ers (and some on BassChat) recommend highly.

As for the Schaller, most reviews say they are quite fretless bass or EUB sounding - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not very acoustic-y sounding.

[stingrayPete1977]

I am currently using the Stagg which kind of sounds like a fretless bass anyway, so at least I will get to use the proper DB live even if it sounds similar to the Stagg, the Stagg has the piezo transducer but no body to resonate hence the fretless bass sound I guess, at least this way I can mix a little K&K in to taste or if I can get it right 90% piezo for example, the more I use it the better I will get at setting it up, in the house the sound bounces around and feeds back quite easily, if I have my bridge altered I will get them to fit the K&K where and how they think best, it is in the treble side at the moment as it was so boomy even with the preamp cutting the lows when installed on the bass side.

[fatback]

I've always mounted both piezzo and mag pickups. i've never had to switch to the mag, but the fact it was there gave me a lot of confidence when I started gigging the db.

I feel it's useful to have a backup as well, in case the Full Circle packs in mid gig one day.

[stingrayPete1977]

I think that is it really mate, at least I know I can have a sound albeit maybe a bad one in a reasonably short period of time, the more I use it live instead of the Stagg the more I can fiddle in a real world setting with the piezo and learn its secrets!

[stingrayPete1977]

It arrived yesterday, I taped it to the fingerboard and put some foam behind it to stop it drooping! I really like it I have had a fiddle with the piezo into the aux in and the schaller into the input and blending them and that works well to but last night I just plugged it into a desk channel, adjusted the EQ a bit and away we went. For what I am doing on it it is OK on its own really, it will give me confidence to gig the DB which in turn will give me a better chance of setting the piezo up or maybe a troll mic or something later. I just need to fit it properly and adjust the pole pieces up before putting some thread lock on them, I think I like it enough to drill the little screws into the board as I can always fill them with black saw dust and wood glue if need be later, Hhhm.

Here is a pic of it out last night but not me playing it, my mate who lent me the stingray copy took the pics of his bass in action but you can see the pickup, I played loads of DB last night and I could hear myself I am looking at a scribbled chart for Amy winehouse's you know I am no good

[URL=http://s997.photobucket.com/user/stingraypete/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-08/20140829_223202_zpsrcfyhgs2.jpg.html][IMG]http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af100/stingraypete/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-08/20140829_223202_zpsrcfyhgs2.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[stingrayPete1977]

I have bit the bullet and screwed the schaller to the fingerboard, first screw snapped off on one side, pilot drill broke off in the opposite one, lol. Nothing a bit of countersink drill and ebony filler and sanding wont fix if it ever comes off but I cant see that anytime soon. Sounds pretty good on its own but better when blended with the piezo via the fishman, my bass is very feedback prone im certain of it now.

[alyctes]

I think you can get painted blockers (made of hard foam and thin ply, I think) for the F-holes? Might help with the feedback.

[fatgoogle]

One thing i found to help with feedback was to sit down while playing with my knee damping the back. Not very cool at gigs but works.

[stingrayPete1977]

I have made a nice set of black f hole covers which I might use to allow more blend of the K&K live but it sounded great on its own at the jam session so just a bit of the real DB sound mixed in should be enough for me, I am not sure about sitting down for the gig

[3below]

Guess I must be lucky with my DB, I use the Schaller and have not had any feedback problems playing with some fair volume (Barefaced Dubster plus 700W Peavey). Not an acoustically faithful tone but I quite like it.

[stingrayPete1977]

Do you mean you use the schaller alone? If so then thats why I added it, its the piezo ones that cause feedback, the schaller can go as loud as you like on its own as it turns it into a big electric bass, its not as bad as I was expecting though much more DB than I expected from other peoples comments id read elsewhere, once I get the blend right it will be killer for live shows

[timbass]

For me, the Schaller was good (still have it in my attic if anyone is interested) but I think the [url="http://www.armstrongpickups.co.uk"]Aaron Armstrong[/url] pickup I now have is better. A rounder sound and cleaner low end. Aaron took the end profile of my fingerboard from a diagram I sent him and made a pickup to fit.

[stingrayPete1977]

Im sure there are better ones, krivo looks good too, but for £70 im happy with it.
Tried blending the piezo in with it today at practice but the piezo output is too weak to go into the aux in via the fishman, im thinking of making a special double lead with two jack plugs on each end, one schaller and one for the bassmax, bassmax via the fishman then send both via a behringer ab100 pedal to blend them to the right levels. I can either just unplug that from the normal input on my amp when using elec bass or put it into the pa mixer as we use one of those pa systems that goes behind us backed up with mackie tops for larger gigs.

Edited September 14, 2014 by stingrayPete1977