Magnetic pickups: what's out there?

[Beedster]

On 10/11/2016 at 14:11, razze06 said:

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

 

I think I've got one going spare, I'll have a look 👍

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, Beedster said:

 

I think I've got one going spare, I'll have a look 👍

 

Is there any piece of kit that you don't have lying around, Chris?

[TheRev]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

 

I think I've got one going spare, I'll have a look 👍

You'll have to send it 9 years back in time, mind.

[Burns-bass]

I’d be I tereted in the Krivo Chris. 

[Beedster]

On 11/02/2025 at 16:03, Burns-bass said:

I’d be I tereted in the Krivo Chris. 

I’ll dig it out mate 👍

[Beedster]

On 11/02/2025 at 10:56, Happy Jack said:

 

Is there any piece of kit that you don't have lying around, Chris?

I very much doubt it Jack. I buy stuff with the best of intentions but occasionally it just goes into the void. No joke, I found a Beat Buddy - brand new and boxed - the other day, and remembered that my wife panicked one Xmas having not bought me anything so I bought it for her to give to me but completely forgot about it! 

[Burns-bass]

59 minutes ago, Beedster said:

I very much doubt it Jack. I buy stuff with the best of intentions but occasionally it just goes into the void. No joke, I found a Beat Buddy - brand new and boxed - the other day, and remembered that my wife panicked one Xmas having not bought me anything so I bought it for her to give to me but completely forgot about it! 

 

I've still for a brand new and sealed Bose speaker upstairs. I bought in summer when I had outdoor gigs, but I haven't needed to use it since then, and so it's now covered in (clean) washing.

[frannie01]

On 03/02/2025 at 21:09, Beer of the Bass said:

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.

Yes I think you might be right about that.I’ve just got a Krivo and happy with it. 👍🏽

[frannie01]

2 minutes ago, frannie01 said:

 

Edited February 12 by frannie01

[frannie01]

Not sure if anyone has seen the Chris Min Doky interview with Geoff at Discover Double bass ? 
 

He made a valid point which kind of did my head in.

 

The reason the mainly uses the Yamaha Silent is that the mic sound is so much more “double bass friendly  “ than any peizo. It’s true piezos allow one to be heard but do they truly represent the sound of a big f*** off acoustic chamber ?

 

No not really.So having just purchased the Krivo I’ve essentially saddled myself with a massive acoustic pbass sound.To conclude I’m not getting a silent yet to expensive. The Krivo will do for now it has solved so many problems but the nagging feeling of not hearing the full acoustic sound is buggin me 😆🙏🏽👋🏽

[Burns-bass]

51 minutes ago, frannie01 said:

Not sure if anyone has seen the Chris Min Doky interview with Geoff at Discover Double bass ? 
 

He made a valid point which kind of did my head in.

 

The reason the mainly uses the Yamaha Silent is that the mic sound is so much more “double bass friendly  “ than any peizo. It’s true piezos allow one to be heard but do they truly represent the sound of a big f*** off acoustic chamber ?

 

No not really.So having just purchased the Krivo I’ve essentially saddled myself with a massive acoustic pbass sound.To conclude I’m not getting a silent yet to expensive. The Krivo will do for now it has solved so many problems but the nagging feeling of not hearing the full acoustic sound is buggin me 😆🙏🏽👋🏽

Why not get the EBS Stanley Clarke and a Realist and blend them?

 

This Will give you the best of both worlds and with independent HPFs you can tweak the tone and avoid feedback.

 

Appreciate this probably adds another few hundred quid onto your search for tone but perfection isn’t cheap!

[Beer of the Bass]

I feel like it's easy to overthink things with amplified sound. In situations with a drummer and backline amps, if the bass is reasonably balanced across the range, with enough clarity and body, and it's not feeding back, I try not to lose sleep over whether it's capturing all the acoustic characteristics of the instrument or not. At that point you're getting what you played across in a pleasant sounding way, and while chasing tone further could be worthwhile in the studio, I'm not entirely convinced that going down the multiple pickup and high end preamp rabbithole really makes you sound consistently better at the gig.

 

 

[Happy Jack]

5 minutes ago, Beer of the Bass said:

 I'm not entirely convinced that going down the multiple pickup and high end preamp rabbithole really makes you sound consistently better at the gig.

 

 

Agreed, but it does make each note sound way more expensive. 😉

[Burns-bass]

36 minutes ago, Beer of the Bass said:

I feel like it's easy to overthink things with amplified sound. In situations with a drummer and backline amps, if the bass is reasonably balanced across the range, with enough clarity and body, and it's not feeding back, I try not to lose sleep over whether it's capturing all the acoustic characteristics of the instrument or not. At that point you're getting what you played across in a pleasant sounding way, and while chasing tone further could be worthwhile in the studio, I'm not entirely convinced that going down the multiple pickup and high end preamp rabbithole really makes you sound consistently better at the gig.

 

 

I have all this stuff and it sounds terrible.

 

Seriously, though, I play amplified blues on one band and there’s really no need to have a very delicate piezo.

 

Worst gig I ever did was with a K&K Bassman pickup. Sounded awful and fed back all gig. 

[Beer of the Bass]

1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:

I have all this stuff and it sounds terrible.

 

Seriously, though, I play amplified blues on one band and there’s really no need to have a very delicate piezo.

 

Worst gig I ever did was with a K&K Bassman pickup. Sounded awful and fed back all gig. 

 

I've managed to get my piezo (a KNA DB1) working fairly robustly in loud settings somehow. I did a gig a while back through the house Orange 8x10" in a venue with notoriously heavy handed FOH volume, and with an HPF, phase switch and foam f-hole covers it went OK. It may just be some fluke of the bass/pickup combination, as other bridge wing pickups on the same bass have been more finicky, so I'm almost afraid to mess with it while it's working for me!

[Burns-bass]

3 minutes ago, Beer of the Bass said:

 

I've managed to get my piezo (a KNA DB1) working fairly robustly in loud settings somehow. I did a gig a while back through the house Orange 8x10" in a venue with notoriously heavy handed FOH volume, and with an HPF, phase switch and foam f-hole covers it went OK. It may just be some fluke of the bass/pickup combination, as other bridge wing pickups on the same bass have been more finicky, so I'm almost afraid to mess with it while it's working for me!

 

That echoes my experience too. A subtle movement of location made the bridge pickup not feedback. No idea why but why argue?

[Beedster]

2 hours ago, Beer of the Bass said:

I'm not entirely convinced that going down the multiple pickup and high end preamp rabbithole really makes you sound consistently better at the gig.

 

 

Basschat Yellow Card mate , one more and it's a Red 🤣

 

All joking aside, multiple pickups means that when you're at a (new) gig and one or other of them is either sounding shite or feeding back, you have the other, and a decent preamp allows you to balance the contribution of each to the overall sound both in terms of relative volume and tone. At the gig itself, 'high-end preamp' is an important idea in terms of functionality, perhaps less so in terms of tone.  I used to use three channels in order of preference 1) Mic 2) Piezo 3) Mag. For sure you can get away with 3) alone unless you're on guts, but 1) alone is always more satisfying and 2) always a little less so 

[frannie01]

5 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

5 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Hi yeah, I did consider that but I’ve had so many problems with impedance miss matches between pre amp, amp & piezo that I’ve decided to go down the Electro mag route.The levels are now all there but I really miss the mic ed up sound. I’ve also considered the tone Dexter as I find the technology as with the silent bass fascinating but will wait to see how that all transpires 👍🏽🙏🏽 
 

Why not get the EBS Stanley Clarke and a Realist and blend them?

 

This Will give you the best of both worlds and with independent HPFs you can tweak the tone and avoid feedback.

 

Appreciate this probably adds another few hundred quid onto your search for tone but perfection isn’t cheap!

 

5 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Why not get the EBS Stanley Clarke and a Realist and blend them?

 

This Will give you the best of both worlds and with independent HPFs you can tweak the tone and avoid feedback.

 

Appreciate this probably adds another few hundred quid onto your search for tone but perfection isn’t cheap!

Why not get the EBS Stanley Clarke and a Realist and blend them?

 

This Will give you the best of both worlds and with independent HPFs you can tweak the tone and avoid feedback.

 

Appreciate this probably adds another few hundred quid onto your search for tone but perfection isn’t cheap!

 

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

 

Basschat Yellow Card mate , one more and it's a Red 🤣

 

All joking aside, multiple pickups means that when you're at a (new) gig and one or other of them is either sounding shite or feeding back, you have the other, and a decent preamp allows you to balance the contribution of each to the overall sound both in terms of relative volume and tone. At the gig itself, 'high-end preamp' is an important idea in terms of functionality, perhaps less so in terms of tone.  I used to use three channels in order of preference 1) Mic 2) Piezo 3) Mag. For sure you can get away with 3) alone unless you're on guts, but 1) alone is always more satisfying and 2) always a little less so