Upright bass pickup question.

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

babyhead

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 12, 2004
Messages
476
Location
Loas Angeles
I am in the planning phase of constructing a magnetic pickup assembly to my upright bass, but before I get to deep, I wanted to pose my idea to the minds of this forum. This is what I am thinking of doing:

http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=Bass&categoryid=28&catalogid=119

I have 2 EMG-40J pickups that I would like to mount side by side at the end of the fingerboard. These specific pickups have a // configuration and will cover each string equally. I would then combine the 2 pickups in parallel to the output. No tone or volume.

With the pickups now close together and the string aperture 90 deg relative to the pickup's design, I'm thinking I may run into some problems.

Will I now have phase issues with the middle strings?

Will the string passing through the length instead of the width of the pickup translate the waveform correctly?

I have had a P bass pickup on an upright before and it was amazing except that you could never get the poles to sit under the strings correctly. The D string sucked. If this works, you might feel the air move. :twisted:

Thanks-
:guinness:
 
Phase is not an issue here, your problem will be the middle strings will not sit as close to the pickup as the outer two. They will not affect the magnetic field as much as the outer strings that will be nice and close. You could try a pickup with adjustable poles and put longer screws in the middle two poles to get the height. Turning the pickup 90 degrees is no problem, if you do not mind buying 4 pickups for this. You may just want to contact one of the many pickup makes out there like Lindy Fralin or Jason Lollar and tell them what you want to do. They can probably wind you something up that will do a much better job in the end.

adam
 
I am calling Fralin tomorrow and asking him if he can wind a P bass pickup in 1/4s instead of half. I could then stagger the elements to get the spacing right. Oh boy.
 
He can just make a bobbin with the propper spacing and wind from there. He does not use injection molded plastic bobbins like the big guys so it is no problem for him to make it for what ever string spacing needed. Also ask him about raising the poles for the center strings higher to make up for the increased string height.

adam
 
What materials are used in the construction of strings for this instrument?
Is it consistent from string to string?

Gut or rope core may not have enough magnetic material to provide a good tone. Steel core would of course be better.
 
http://www.gollihur.com/kkbass/schaller.html is this more in line with what you want. I have an electric upright that is stalled due to not being able to
figure out the electronics. I want magnetic coil and piezo just haven't found all the right parts.
 
I am using Tomastik Sprirocores so the string has the material I need. I spoke with Lindy Fralin at length about what I am looking for and he has a pickup that he built for himself, not unlike the pickup in the link. It's not DIY, but it will hopefully serve my needs.
 
Good to hear all went well, Lindy is a helpful man and seems to always be willing to sit on the phone untill everything is sorted out.

The materials in the core of an upright bass string should not be much of an issue. There is alot of metal wrapped (spring steel?) around that non-metallic core. You will probably end up with less output on the high strings, but you can remedy that by tilting the pickup abit, or raising the poles abit if possible.

adam
 
[quote author="da_ardvark"]I can't help to think that a simple transducer type pickup might not do a better job.

But thats just me :twisted:[/quote]

youd also get the acoustics of the instrument too - which i dont think youd get from a magnetic pickup

although i'm sure I'm wrong somewhere - i quite often am.

Cheers

Rochey
 
I can't help to think that a simple transducer type pickup might not do a better job.

But thats just me

Better job? thats an opinion, transducers, piezos, meagnetic, non of them sound like an acoustic instrument, upright bass needs a couple nice mics on it. But I doubt that is the sound he is going for. He tried P Bass pickup and liked the sound, and I am sure he knows what the instrument sounds like unplugged.

youd also get the acoustics of the instrument too - which i dont think youd get from a magnetic pickup

although i'm sure I'm wrong somewhere - i quite often am.

You get the acoustic with a magnetic pickup if the pickup is microphonic enough.

adam
 
I have a piezo in the bridge that sounds amazing with a very high Z input. It is simply too live when I need to get it up to compete with drums and electric guitar through an SVT. I also have pedals that will work much better with a magnetic pickup and both signals will be used... Bowed upright with a magnetic pickup can really test a PA.
:guinness:
 

Latest posts

Back
Top