Schaller magnetic DB pickup

[Nigel Sleaford]

Just picked up an old magnetic pickup from eBay, and attached it to my Zeller bass, out of interest, and some nostalgia for the Framus Triumph I had years ago. Anyway, the G string output was much louder than the others. Output overall quite low. Removing the G pole balanced things up. So I ordered a bunch of 7mm diameter neodymium magnets, 2mm thickness, and tried carefully adding them to the poles. Result, louder overall output, balance achieved with the G pole back in place. Happy. Guess what, it sounds like a fretless bass! I’ll superglue the magnets on eventually, once I’ve played it through an amp, although I’ve done this mainly to record with. Total cost £30.

[bassace]

Well done. I’ve got a Schaller on my Kolstein travel bass and it works very well, just as good as some higher priced mags. But to get even volume across the strings the poles vary from full in on the E to full out on the G.

Stingray Pete, of this parish, is a Schaller user.

[Nigel Sleaford]

I tried all the in and out variations, and found that beyond a certain point the poles rattled. With the extra magnets I don’t have to go to either extreme.

[TPJ]

How about a pic of what you've done

 

[Nigel Sleaford]

From the front, unchanged. On the second photo you can just make out the shiny discs on the back of the poles. 

[Nigel Sleaford]

That’s an Underwood on the bridge btw. I messed around last night playing the magnetic pickup through a Zoom A3, using their double bass ‘modelling’. Sounded very usable.