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Help with Bassix EUB found in the Loft


JMT3781
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Evening All

Wondering if i could get some help from the double bass peeps..

Basically, ended up going round this blokes house who was selling a load of music gear off cheap as he was moving house (reason i went was because he told me he had a USA strat which turned out to be an encore kinda thing) but anyway he had this bassix EUB which his dad had had custom made many years ago at the cost of 1200 quid. He'd already tried to sell it back to bassix, who told him to stick it on ebay for 300 quid.. at which point i've ended up with it, as he told me his old man would have loved it to go to someone who would play it.

Now it sounds lovely acoustically, but ive plugged it in and it sounds absolutely awful... really thin and generally quite dreadful, with a horrid metallic noise at the end of every note... the pickup seems to be a single pbass coil at the end of a piece of metal under the bridge... surely such an expensive eub should sound better?

i've included some pics, so if anyone has any advice on... anything at all really lol, i'd be glad to hear from you... have a look at the pics, and see what you think.

James

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I used to have a Bassix EUB, and ended up replacing the original piezo and preamp, as the original setup was barely workable IMO. Mine had a Kent Armstrong magnetic pickup at the end of the fingerboard, which was blended passively (which didn't really work) with a piezo disc inside the body, before going to a generic Artec preamp. I kept the magnetic pickup, and blended it with a K&K piezo on the bridge using a Fishman Powerchip preamp. I always suspected that the electronics side of things were not his strong point, but the bass sounded good once I'd changed things around.
When I bought mine there were no NS WAVs, Stagg EUBs etc on the market, so the choice of EUBs was very limited. I hope his current models have ironed out the electronics issues I had with mine.

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[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1327961' date='Aug 4 2011, 10:53 PM']I used to own one identical to this... maybe even the same one?

Anyway, it was a backup for my other Bassix EUB... but it was a completely different beast and I was never happy with it. Is there a piezo anywhere on it?[/quote]


not the most encouraging of feedback lol!

well i guess you can call it a piezo... its half a pbass pickup underneath the bridge lol

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[quote name='JMT3781' post='1327988' date='Aug 4 2011, 11:09 PM']not the most encouraging of feedback lol!

well i guess you can call it a piezo... its half a pbass pickup underneath the bridge lol[/quote]
Under the bridge? Zoiks...

Nah, it's not the one I had.

I'm sure with decent electrics in there it'll do the job...

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Darn it I've been after that model Bassix for a while. Saw one in angel music, but it had been sold by the time I got the money together.
I had a Multitech which was supplemented with a K&K 2 channel pre and additional piezo, as the original 'lecs weren't that good.
But I do love Alan's work, very quirky. Had a couple of his EUBs.

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[quote name='oldslapper' post='1328063' date='Aug 5 2011, 12:09 AM']Darn it I've been after that model Bassix for a while. Saw one in angel music, but it had been sold by the time I got the money together.
I had a Multitech which was supplemented with a K&K 2 channel pre and additional piezo, as the original 'lecs weren't that good.
But I do love Alan's work, very quirky. Had a couple of his EUBs.[/quote]

how much was it up for if you dont mind me asking?

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[quote name='JMT3781' post='1328075' date='Aug 5 2011, 12:16 AM']how much was it up for if you dont mind me asking?[/quote]

I think this one has different controls & colour to yours, but it's the headless jobbie.

£599

[url="http://www.angelmusicguitars.com/Misc/75-Bassix-Upright-Electric-Double-Bass.htm"]http://www.angelmusicguitars.com/Misc/75-B...Double-Bass.htm[/url]

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My tuppence worth ...if i understand this correctly(its not clear from the photo) and i know nowt about Bassix....

A coil under a piece of metal sounds more like an attempt at an Ampeg Baby Bass type of setup which has a lot of sound limitations. The metalic noise could be due to the way the coil is set up compared with the metal plate (too close). A single coil would sound a bit thin especially as its only the vibration of the metal plate which creates the signal in the coil.
Its a lovely looking bass though so dont give up, i would suggest buying a piezo based pup and a pre-amp to emulate the acoustic sound which you are happy with.

If ive read this incorrectly and its just a single coil picking up string vibrations, i still think a good piezo would improve it greatly.
If its a setup like Beer's where there is a piezo in the body plus a coil, you would require a buffer circuit to match the impedance of both, it prob wont sound nice at all without it.

Either way a good piezo solution would solve it.

hope this is not wildly innacurate and is some help !

Ian

Edited by scojack
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It's a piece of junk I'm afraid, but I'll give you a fiver for it :)

Or more seriously, sounds like a bassixly (sorry) under-spec'ed pickup system with some vibration creeping in which you could probably get rid of... but generally you don't want a mag pickup down the bridge end on an EUB. Getting a bridge transducer and wiring that into the pre-amp would be worth trying, alternatively fitting a mag pickup at the end of the fingerboard.

Either way that's a nice looking EUB and I'm sure it can be sorted - lucky you!

ficelles

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