Blartfactor10

It’s a 56 S9 Paul.

What Paul said^^^^ People will tell you its your pre-amp, soundpost, EQ, Set up...Bla! Bla!.. but playing with a loud drummer and guitarist on small stages will always become a problem for Upright Bass, F-hole covers help a lot. Make your own. I used a masking tape template over F-holes, pencil rub the outline, cut the outline and stick it to some gardeners Foam Kneeling Pads. then using a scroll saw cut out the outline. Cheap and it works.

These look a lot like Jarger's

Would a Cordes Lambert D+G not get you anywhere near Rabbie? Im on Guts at the minute, (Lenzer) paired with and A+E from the Pirastro Evah Slap set. It works well on my bass. I tried the Cordes A and G with this set up and keep going back to the Guts but in all honesty there isn't much difference in it tone wise. (depending on how picky you are) Feel wise well thats another thing. I'm keeping them though, just in case, but I know they work if I need them.

All Piezo wing pickups like the J Tone are pretty "microphonic" more so than a guitar type transducer. So yes, if you touch it or flick it with your finger you will get a thump or crack coming out of the speaker. The secret with this type of P/up is the fitting of it in the wing, too tight or slack and your instrument will feed back. Once the pickup is fitted correctly you shouldn't notice any clicks or thumps, if you do you get clicks when your not playing you could have a faulty Piezo. The J Tone's are pretty unbreakable P/ups though and IMO are about the best for the price.

Fantastic! Aluminium Upright Basses are warm, punchy and easy to amplify, so apart from the killer looks its going to be a tone monster as well. A good investment I'd say, no matter how many brownie points its going cost you.

What TPJ said, ...I use an FDeck and I'm in the process of getting someone to build a two channel FDeck so as I can mix two signals from my bass into one unit. I've used a Plat pro...A KnK, ..Baggs gig-pro and a Behringer mixer all with decent results but the FDeck just gets the sound of my bass but pushes the signal into my amp without any faffing on with EQ, (It has one volume and one Tone HPF..... High Pass Filter??) It has to be the easiest of all the pre's out there to use, and one of the best sounding (IMO of course) Its a bit like the Greenboy of Pre's, you can down load the plans and DIY or get a builder to make one.

Its a Full Size bass, I started with what I had lying around, Inno's, Roto's, Jagar's, they all sounded ok to my ears, but Clarky, of this parish was selling an Evah Pirazzi A&E so I twined them with a Lenzer D&G. I'm happy for now The First clip is The Evah's the second clip is a set of Super silvers. So in my experience string choice isn't all that different from a ply, for pizz and slap anyway.

Restoration of a Pfretzschner Bass, Its NOT for sale.

I wouldn't leave the house without an Fdeck, finest pre going IMO

What Rabb said, although if your not that bothered about getting a “True” DB tone you could fit a second soundpost next to the bass bar, this will eliminate quite a bit of feedback. Go Greenboy if you can afford them, you won’t be disappointed.

Go for a Fearless F212 by Tricky Audio, if you want headroom, pair it with a power amp, those things eat Watts so a 2k power amp wouldn't be a bad choice. I hardly use my F212 since I got the smaller F112. This cab paired with my GK RB1001 is enough to hear over a noisy drummer and if the room requires just bleed a little through the FOH PA.

J-Tone, all the way, a great pickup, it should be selling for much more. As with all Piezo Transducers a good fit in the wing slot matters, its really easy to file/sand too much wood away. Take time to open up the wing slot with sandpaper taped to a steel rule, the fit should be tight so as it stays in place but not so tight as you cant move it. A pre amp will make a transducer sound much better, loads on the market, some with bells and whistles but I'm happy using my simple FDECK. https://sites.google.com/site/hpftechllc/home/hpf-pre

I have one on My carved bass, The FDeck will sort out most issues with this type of Pickup and still leave you with enough volume so as you don't have to resort to stuffing the bass with Rags, foam, Concrete etc.

I've used a Behringer mixer similar to this http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Behringer-Xenyx-1202FX-Mixer/2A5 This will get you in the ballpark mixing both mike and pickup combinations, its small, portable has phantom power for a decent mike and the EQ sounds good. I've run this straight into My GK RB1001 head and used it with a power amp both with good results.

My ten bobs worth........I'm presuming that you don't want loads of gubbins hanging from your Tail-piece, everything back at the amp. Have you thought about buying a cheap small mixing desk? I have used mine to blend Microphone, Piezo, and Clicky to good effect. You just have to listen out for overloading the amps input (Gain staging) It gives you a lot more scope EQ wise than most blenders and you can pick a second hand one up for next to nowt. And before I use the dreaded B word let me tell you that this works. ..........Behringer Xenyx 1202 Mixer. There!

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/j-tone-electronique?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 Contact the guy at Jtone, he will wire one up for you. great pickups at a realistic price.

I'm a "Run it at the Amp" sort of bloke. I do hate to have stuff hanging off of my tailpiece, I run a few different setups but non on the bass itself. Having said that I've recently fitted a bridge to someones bass and he wanted me to fit his pickups and pre amp. This thing is made for fitting to the tailpiece and whats more, its sounds really good even if your not a rockabilly player. I'm tempted! https://www.thomann.de/gb/shadow_sh_rb_pro_rockabilly_system.htm

Forget about the Mic option, you wont get good results unless you spend a fortune, and only then if you have good Pre amps, backline PA, knowledge of placement etc. The JTone is the best pickup in its price bracket (Better than some costing four times as much) at this price you can afford to keep one in your bag for a spare. It will need some adjustment to your bridge but nothing that you can't achieve on your kitchen bench with basic tools. If you can afford a pre amp as well, these piezo pickups will perform much better. Another alternative to a pre amp would be a bass EQ pedal (Boss GEB7) this can help with dialing out troublesome frequencies that can lead to feedback at higher volumes.