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Old 04-11-2007, 11:45 AM
Bob Branstetter Bob Branstetter is offline
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Join Date: 01-22-2007
Location: Stanley, KS (Kansas City)
Posts: 105
Bob Branstetter is on a distinguished road
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In my continuing search for the Holy Grail of pickups, I have tried both the K&K Bass Max and the RSII. Neither one of these sounded particularly good on my personal bass. The K&K sounded too much like a Fishman B100 and to me the RSII was only slightly better than the Underwood. The RSII is a good buy for $100, but it is not the end all that I've seen some write on the other bass forum. The guys at Upton came up with a good idea when they took a piezo element and fitted & glued it inside a piece of spruce. I think the coupling of the spruce to the maple of the bridge may be why it sounds better than some of the other cheaper pickups. I took one apart and discovered that the difference between the "R" side and the other is that there is more wood on one side than the other. I think it might be interesting to take an old Fishman B100 pickup and fit the elements inside blocks of spruce like the RSII and see how it sounds.

If there is one truth that I've discovered over the years about pickups, it is that there is no pickup that works well on all basses. Just because a pickup sounds good on my bass doesn't mean it is going to sound good on yours. I've had some basses where the David Gage Realist pickup sounds absolutely magnificent and others basses where it sounds terrible. The same thing has occurred with Schertlers and just about every pickup I've ever owned.

I'm currently using a Fishman Full Circle that I mix with an AMT S25B mic. I don't like the Full Circle alone, but it does mix well with the mic. I've never heard any pickup, with the possible exception of the Schertler Dyn-B, that really sounds like a mic. (Any time you see or hear someone saying that a particular piezo pickup sounds like a mic, ask them if they have ever actually used a mic on their bass.)
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