Hi Eric, there is another, my preferred taken from John Butler of John Butler trio.
We ran the acoustic into the Marshall acoustic amp AS50D and the magnetic pickup the the Crate Electric guitar amp GTX65. If you were not in the room you would be convined there were two players. Advantages for the bass I dont know, perhaps someone else could give you more options. It means only drilling one hole. @eric.kiser
Jamie
1 Like
@eric.kiser Eric what about this style? The dimensions are there, itās for a Hofner Violin bass.
Jamie
1 Like
Iām not worried about drilling holes in this bass. Iām all onboard for turning it into a FrankenBass if I can get the sounds I want out of it.
My choice for this application would be a nice fat sounding humbucker.
Iāve had cheap pickups and expensive pickups and generally, the more expensive pickups have given cleaner, clearer, more robust sound. I am willing to accept that my perception on this has a lot to do with my ignorance of what goes into the technical side of making a pickup āgoodā.
$29.99 Hofner style Mini Humbucker
$89.00 Seymour Duncan Hot Rails Humbucker Strat Pickup
Is it safe to assume the Seymour Duncan will be better?
Will I need to add a piece of metal on the inside under the bridge to ground the pickups to?
1 Like
@eric.kiser this is a standard twin rail humbucker lots of space in the 4" sound hole.
I think it may need a back cover for feedback but @Korrigan might know. Just my thought.
Jamie
2 Likes
so I can talk about an idea I had : buy a (not too expensive) acoustic bass and add a real electric bass circuitry. probably a PB51 pickup placed in the same position than on a real PB, with integrated volume and tone knobs. it would just require some holes ā¦ and it would sound more or less like a āthinline Precision Bassā plugged. no more problem with the low output level.
2 Likes
two very different pickups. the Hot Rails has a high output level, itās primary made for distorsion with a guitar. and itās a pretty good pickup for this, by the way.
2 Likes
@terb I like that a lot
Jamie
2 Likes
me too @Jamietashi 
maybe one day !
2 Likes
Since completely blocking the soundhole will seriously muffle the acoustic volume and tone, I wouldnāt worry about feedback unless you discover itās a problem. You still want to enjoy it as an acoustic from time to time, right?
3 Likes
Close the soundhole and cut two F-holes TFIC
Jamie
1 Like
Continuing to compile ways to get a real tube sound in a box without a full tube amp Iāll put the list here so far . .
1 Like
Preamp pedals with tubes in them is a neat subgenre. I love preamps in general and this is a cute little corner of that world.
Another interesting genre would be hybrid amp heads for people that still want an amp. Gallien-Krueger Fusion S heads, for example - tube preamp, class D power amp.
2 Likes
That one is only 5 pounds. If I didnāt already have a power stage I think Iād strongly consider this type of configuration. The GK has it all too: aux in, headphone out, FX loop. Itās easily a bargain for the cost of a pedal and amp together.
2 Likes
Yeah they look and sound awesome!
Doing something like this would be my preference but I donāt know enough to just do it. I need to create a base line to work from. I ordered one of these to use as a starting point.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NeoDHum--fishman-neo-d-humbucking-acoustic-pickup
It was supposed to arrive today but a porch pirate got it. I contacted Amazon and they said they would have another one out to me by Friday. Iāll try to do a report on it next week.
Has anyone else used one of these?
2 Likes
Ouch, sounds like you need some of those boxes that blow up when they pick them up and try to run.
1 Like
@eric.kiser - is that the normal acoustic guitar pickup? I have an old old version of the Fishman Rare Earth. It was KILLER. I was going to sell it recently, but when I went to test it (I had since had a different on-board acoustic guitar pickup installed) it was all fuzzy and crackly and wasnāt sellable.
Great pickup. Served me well for 2 decades. Great sound, and one million times better than any acoustic piezo pickup ever. The sound of piezo pickups has been a millstone around the necks of acoustic guitar players for a long long time. Not a fan of it on basses either, personally.
Best of luck with the experiment!
2 Likes
@Gio Thanks. Iām trying not to get my hopes up too much.
From what Iāve read, they had one they marketed specifically for bass but they donāt make it anymore. Or it was just the same pickup and they got rid of the bass specific marketing.
The one Iām getting is the passive version of the Rare Earth pickup which I think came out more recently than yours as a more budget friendly version.
Iām guessing this is the more recent version of yoursā¦
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RareEarthHum--fishman-rare-earth-humbucking-magnetic-soundhole-acoustic-pickup
If it is, can you say how long the batteries lasted?
Also, some people seem to think there was magic dust in the older ones that made them sound better. If you can get it working you might be able to get something for it.
1 Like
Hail @eric.kiser! The pickup I have is passive. Maybe itās not a Rare Earth? Its from the early 2000s. Never had batteries.
I got the magic dust vibe when I put it on Craigās List.
Instead of instant spam bot offers, I got instant real offers.
Iāll never fix it.
No interest, no tools, no time.
2 Likes
@eric.kiser Iām not exactly sure what you are going for. One thing to consider would be using a mic to catch the acoustic overtones. This requires that you have enough of a quiet space for recording or enough gain before feedback if live. If you are relying on the pickup for the main part of the tone, depending on the band and the stage, you may be able to pick up the acoustic overtones and mix them in using a mic technique . . .
https://www.dpamicrophones.com/mic-university/how-to-mic-a-double-bass
1 Like