realist copperhead

[NickA]

I have a borrowed bass right now (1880s German, swell back, viol shape).  It's set up purely for jazz (spiros, low action, no bevel on the fingerboard) it came fitted with both a shadow and a realist pickup.  The shadow is really harsh and clacky ( the reason I stopped using my own shadow pickup), the copperhead has loads of warm bass but is very light on high frequencies.

 

I took it out for a gig and tho the copperhead sounded lovely it had no projection.  Ended up using my usual realist sound clamp .. still much darker than my own bass, but ok.

 

So it's a very warm sounding bass.... but are copperhead pickups usually so bassy?

 

I wondered if the idea is to use both pickups ( shadow and realist) through a mixer.  Is that "a thing"?  I'm sure plenty of people use just a copperhead tho.

[JoeEvans]

If it was much darker than expected with a pickup you know, then as you say it sounds like it's just a very dark bass.

In my very limited experience the matching of pickups and mics to basses is very much on a case by case (or rather bass by bass) basis - every instrument needs something different and it's a matter of trial and error.

You could try both though, could work well by the sound of it. Ideally you'd want to be able to EQ each pickup differently, to bring out their best characteristics, so maybe using a very small mixer with decent channel EQ, or an elaborate preamp of some sort, but that's another gear rabbit hole and it might be easier to try sone other mics and pickups.

[Beer of the Bass]

I've never had a Realist, but I hear people using them locally and they do seem to be dark sounding. There's a free improv night I go to where there are several bassists through the course of the evening, and hearing different bassists in the same room on the same night I really notice that. They're nice in a very lightly amplified jazz setting where the amp is reinforcement rather than the bulk of the sound, and also about the only simple piezo pickup where the arco sound is tolerable without a lot of EQ, so they have their uses.

[NickA]

12 hours ago, Beer of the Bass said:

only simple piezo pickup where the arco sound is tolerable without a lot of EQ, so they have their uses.

The realist sound clamp is also ok for Arco with a sufficiently hifi amp, I've used it on my cello too.  Needs a fair bit of experimentation with placement, weights and tension though.  I use a bit of bike inner tube twixt it and bridge to soften the sound too.

 

Bit disappointed in the copperhead, as trying it at home it sounded great; then playing in a band it lacked treble. 

 

Found a little mixer in my bits and bobs cupboard and blended the sound clamp with the copperhead ..and that sounded really good.... at home anyway.  But too much faff for me.

 

As said, matching to the bass really matters!

 

 

[knicknack]

One little copperhead trick that really helped me... a thin strip of gasket cork between it and the foot of the bridge. More consistent and a little more focused! The best tool was a HPF though, to really fine tune the lower frequencies. 

[tinyd]

I have a copperhead and I don't find it excessively bassy compared to other piezo pickups that I've tried. I think it can sound pretty good but I have to totally kill the mids on the amp that I'm using and then knock off the treble until the "microphonic" sounds from the strings, bridge etc are minimised.

[NickA]

Used it again this week, with just the pjb flight-case (no pb300) with the amps high mids and high EQ cranked up.  Sounded good from where I stood. I didn't bother fitting the sound clamp.

 

Hard to separate the different sound of the pickup from the different sound of this rental bass, but it's a mellow one and maybe not totally suited to a copperhead.  But the copperhead has a good tone with lots of fundamental and a nice high output.  Could be excellent on a brighter bass ( eg my own bass ).

 

 

[hubrad]

I really like mine, even having tried a shoeboxful (literally) of other pickups belonging to a friend.

The most natural sounding pickup I've tried so far (always open to suggestion, mind you..), and the only player I've spoken to who wasn't keen said it's so natural that if you have a dark sounding bass that's what you'll get  from the pickup.

Interestingly, when I first had my Copperhead on my previous bass I took that bass to a specialist luthier friend who advised putting the pickup under the treble foot rather than the Realist-advised bass foot, as it'd present less obstacle to the bass frequencies of the instrument. Dunno if it was just that or the new bridge and soundpost I had her fit, but the overall effect was great. I still go for treble side mounting to this day, and have had countless positive comments on my tone.