Magnetic pickups with wide flat (piezo-like) frequency response

[Lfalex v1.1]

6 hours ago, chyc said:

 

These are perhaps the answer I was expecting but didn't want to hear. I was hoping that technology was advancing enough that a conventionally shaped pickup could pass as a piezo these days (and I wasn't prepared to hack up the Streamer, that's why I'm asking for conventional pickups!) For what it's worth, I probably would have bought an Ibanez by now, but space is at a premium here and the upright bass is already already taking up a fair chunk of our living space. As for swapping, yeah I may be up for that, but I've been on the same two electrics (other is a fretted Sandberg in case you wonder) for over 10 years now and have grown somewhat attached.

Just to throw it in here, after some searching I've found an Ibanez with both magnetic pickups and their aerosilk piezo system: the Ibanez SRF700. If it's close to the SRH500 when on piezo that would be a killer versatile bass.

 

Thanks all for the very helpful replies.

 

Interesting set of compromises between the SRF700 and SRH500f; The former is neck through, has magnetic pickups and a more flexible EQ. I think the key to the SRH500f might well be the fact that it's semi-hollow.

It'd be interesting to try them out together.

[Aidan63]

have you looked at the many threads, especially on TalkBass about using something like a Zoom3 to get an acoustic bass sound from your instrument ? eg acoustic bass sounds thread

Edited April 14, 2021 by Aidan63
spelling

[chyc]

1 hour ago, Aidan63 said:

have you looked at the many threads, especially on TalkBass about using something like a Zoom3 to get an acoustic bass sound from your instrument ? eg acoustic bass sounds thread

Thanks. Is that not modelling which I don't like?  Modelling sounds quite fake (to my ears) in the upper register, and has poor tracking in the lower. Even at its best there's a lag, although it may be better now since I last tried.

[itu]

I've seen an article about impulse response bass (in noTreble, maybe?) but have not seen it for sale. Does it exist, have no idea.

[Passinwind]

On 13/04/2021 at 09:35, chyc said:

Agreed, an amp does go a long way, but my amps are about as good as I can get it and they still aren't good enough in my opinion. If I played a short passage on my bass and uploaded a clip, I'd be genuinely interested in how close people could get to an acoustic sound on EQ alone. Maybe I don't need to do anything more than twiddle knobs, but I've been twiddling a while now with no joy.

I've never heard of them, thanks! The words on their website talk a good game, but the clips they post aren't exactly helpful to me in making a decision. I'm not one for playing an entire piece using just harmonics, nor distortion.

I have a few older version  Q-Tuner (BL-4) clips on my Soundcloud with my Crescent Moon fretless, here's one: 

Some people on TB mentioned hearing it as piezo-like, but IME piezos and their associated electronics can sound as varied as mag pickups anyway really. And I should mention that the Q-Tuner designer would probably shoot me for using an onboard preamp (maybe especially a homemade one), but my game my rules.😎

 

 

[itu]

I have an old double coil Q-tuner in my no-adjustments-plain-output bass and it works well. I would not say it is like piezo. An ordinary pickup with limited top end. It looks good and I like the sound very much but magic it is not.

[Sambrook]

I have the Ibanez Portamento and the fretted Aerium (505SRH), both strung with Labella white nylons. The piezo tone is unbelievably good- rich and warm. Can't recommend the combination highly enough...

[MoonBassAlpha]

Nobody  has mentioned Lightwave yet?

[Lfalex v1.1]

17 minutes ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

Nobody  has mentioned Lightwave yet?

Don't think that'll be an easy retro-fit to a Warwick Streamer 😜

[Hellzero]

31 minutes ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

Nobody  has mentioned Lightwave yet?

But the system is interesting soundwise, of course.