Magnetic pickups: what's out there?

[razze06]

I want to buy and install a magnetic pickup for my bass, but i've seen very little choice. Apart from the Schallers and Krivo, what else do people use and recommend? I've heard of Kent Armstrong, any further suggestions?

Ease of installation is very important, I am not going to drill holes in my fingerboard, or have anyone do it for me!

Looking forward to bask in the wisdom of the Hive Mind of Basschat

[stingrayPete1977]

Well I've got a Schaller as has Bassace (Roger, a wiser man than me), we both like them and people have fitted them without drilling using various contraptions. I've drilled mine though

[bassace]

Yes, my Kolstein is very unbalanced across the strings - loud on the E going to quiet on the G - and this is picked up with a piezo. After I saw and heard Pete's Schiller I fitted one and it sorted the imbalance, made the rig feedback free and it cuts through the mix in the band. So much so that I get plenty of compliments from the musos - somewhat to my surprise, may I add. I still prefer a Piezo on my better basses but the mag should certainly not be discounted. And I was quite happy to drill pilot holes for the screws into the fingerboard. They're very small diameter screws.

[bassace]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1478546609' post='3169812']
Well I've got a Schaller as has Bassace (Roger, a wiser man than me), we both like them and people have fitted them without drilling using various contraptions. I've drilled mine though
[/quote]

Not sure about the wise, Pete.

[stingrayPete1977]

I was trying to avoid saying older Roger

I think blended with a full circle it would be awesome but I'm just enjoying feed back free gigs for now : D

[alexpea]

I use a Kent Armstrong. It works well and each pole piece can be adjusted in order to balance the volume of the strings. I attach it to the end of the finger board with velcro.

I find sounds best blended with my Realist.

[razze06]

So a few with Schallers, a few with Kent Armstrong, any other ones to consider?

There are about a million different piezo options, i'm surprised there's only two options for magnetic

Edited November 8, 2016 by razze06

[BassBod]

I've tried the Schaller (yuck, it rattled) and Kent Armstrong (good, but dark...like a giant Fender) and the best was an old Pierre Joseph String Charger.

Looks very Wallace and Grommet, but its a single coil with a more open sound, attaches using strong velcro and the coil can moved around a bit to balance up the sound. I bought it used on here, but they sold me some extra mounting bits (posted form USA) with no hassle. It did fall off once, so the velcro isn't fool proof (you have to make sure its really locked into place).

Look it up? They've made them for a long time, so I guess there are used ones around.

[BassBod]

One other thing - and this applies to all of them.

With piezo pickups and mics, the sound reduces in "energy" as you go up the dusty end...but with magnetics as the strings get close to the pickup...they all tend to get louder. Not surprising when you look at the geometry, but its worth thinking about.

[timbass]

I tried J-Tone piezo and Schaller before I settled on a Kent Armstrong magnetic pickup and an AKP 411P contact condenser microphone, that needs 48v DC power. I sent Aaron Armstrong the fingerboard-end profile of my instrument and he made a pickup to fit exactly. I use two screws into the end grain of the fingerboard through the ready-made holes that Aaron put in the pickup. On its own the Kent Armstrong does make the instrument sound like a big bass guitar and gives good volume with no feedback problems. The AKG mic on its own brings out the woody sound and acoustic overtones but feedback is the problem, as with any microphone set up. Combining the two through a good mixer, I use a Bose ToneMatch, the sound is very natural and "round". I experimentally moved the AKG around to get the best of the acoustic sound but not bothering too much about the deep bass because the Kent Armstrong gives that in abundance. I ended up the the AKG stuck with its acoustic putty in the middle of the upper bout. Different stage setting demand slightly different settings, after two years of rehearsals and gigs with this set up I can't think of anything better for me.

Edited November 8, 2016 by timbass

[razze06]

I intend to keep my Headway band pickup on, and use the magnetic for gigs where the on stage volume and monitors placement makes life too difficult. I might consider blending them at some point, but I prefer simple solutions!

[TheRev]

I use the Krivo pickup and I'm really happy with it - nice woody tone great note definition and plenty of feedback resistance. Our drummer loves it as he can actually hear individual notes in a live setting. I bought it as I was fed up with fighting with feedback to the point that I didn't care if it made it sound like 'a big P bass', but the sound is actually very natural - not at all electric. In fact, when I've A/B compared the Krivo with my K&K Bassmax, (at living room levels) I reckon that the Krivo sounded more natural than the Bassmax. I'm a total magnetic convert now - the only thing I don't like about mag pickups is having to use a steel G and D string.

Another one worth looking into is the Biesele:

[url="http://biesele.org/pickups/"]www.biesele.org/pickups/[/url]

I've not used one myself, but the bassist in Skinny Lister uses one. I've seen them loads of times and he always gets a great sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keftDs_abec

[randythoades]

I use the Kent Armstrong and really like it. I have the Krivo too but find it a little harder to balance across the strings, sounds good though. I just use No More Nails tape to hold it onto the end of the fingerboard and then run the cable down (under a piece of tape) and fix the jack to the bottom of my bass to keep the cable out of the way.

[TPJ]

Do your Armstrong pickups have a jack or a phono connection? When I ordered one, I explicitly asked for a jack socket and Aaron seem confused as to why anyone would want a pickup with that attached. I said all other bass pickups work like that, but it seemed confusing to him. Mine came with a male phono plug on the bottom and I had to make a cable to use with it.

Edited November 10, 2016 by TPJ

[BassBod]

I think his normal method is to fix a phono socket into the mould, and you then make up a phono plug to jack socket wire, and fix it somewhere on the tail piece. I'm guessing a jack socket is too big to easily fit into the moulded body. Also, jack sockets have springs that wear out...not good in a moulded pickup housing?

[razze06]

The more I read about it, the more I live the Krivo pickup. Now, to get one in the uk...

[TheRev]

[quote name='razze06' timestamp='1478787075' post='3171636']
The more I read about it, the more I live the Krivo pickup. Now, to get one in the uk...
[/quote]

I bought mine from Bob Gollihur's online shop. No problem.

[randythoades]

My Armstrong pickup just came with the connecting wire and I added the jack socket myself. The Krivo came with jack socket already attached.

[frannie01]

A bit late to the party but I noticed JTone are doing a mag pup setup has anyone heard or tried it ? Thanks 

[Beer of the Bass]

9 hours ago, frannie01 said:

A bit late to the party but I noticed JTone are doing a mag pup setup has anyone heard or tried it ? Thanks 

It looks like it's just a P-Bass pickup mounted on a plastic project box with volume and tone controls, and a bracket that attaches to the fingerboard underside with velcro. Less elegant than some, but it would save some tinkering if you wanted to go the P-Bass pickup route.

[Happy Jack]

Similar to this is the units made by Steve Whitehouse (originally of The Sharks) - you can find him on Facebook if you want to know about his stuff.

 

His magnetic Pbass-alike sounds very similar to the Schaller, whilst looking wildly different.

[Burns-bass]

I’m going to buy one as a back up for gigs.

[NickA]

On 08/11/2016 at 22:43, TheRev said:

having to use a steel G and D string.

Wonder if those lightwave people would do an optical pickup for double bass. 

[Beer of the Bass]

8 hours ago, NickA said:

Wonder if those lightwave people would do an optical pickup for double bass. 

 

Seems like it would be quite an ungainly thing using their current technology, since the pickup housing has to fully surround the string near the bridge. I can't imagine people going for that as an add-on system for double bass, though perhaps someone could make an interesting EUB. And I believe their systems have a sneaky piezo to fill out the highs anyway.

[BigRedX]

5 minutes ago, Beer of the Bass said:

Seems like it would be quite an ungainly thing using their current technology, since the pickup housing has to fully surround the string near the bridge. I can't imagine people going for that as an add-on system for double bass, though perhaps someone could make an interesting EUB. And I believe their systems have a sneaky piezo to fill out the highs anyway.

 

Piezo element on Lightwave pickups has its own volume control. I left mine off most of the time as it also picked up too much handling noise on my Lightwave bass, but I didn't notice any lack of highs as a result.