Rabbie

Good on ya! Great bass!!!!

Ha ha. Awesome! He actually keeps impeccable time when he's riding the bass around the yard (not so much when he stands still). Mental in a good way. If I try that I'm going straight to A & E. The guys are having an absolute ball, good for them. I bet there's a fair bit of mezcal involved...

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1434474515' post='2799985'] I've been lucky too, and with a loud band. But I have a KA mag as well as the Full Circle. I've never had to use it, but knowing it's there is mighty relaxing, I can tell you. [/quote] Similarly I have a "just in case" Rev Solo, Blast Cult bridge tension screw and plat pro that I have used in the past in ridiculously loud settings with zero feedback. That's about as safe as I can get with guts.

You are all totally right and I know I have been spoilt so far. Or maybe just really lucky. Maybe it's just down to the fact that my Chadwick is not feedback prone and my bands are not that loud, so I have never had to wrestle with impossible feedback situations. If I were in your shoes I would probably do the same.

Each to their own. I hear the audience argument, but people have ears. And the performance is a million times better when the musician enjoys it. I hated hearing my piezo sounding like an EB, hence my switch to contact mics and preamps. If the money dictated I need to take super loud gigs I'd definitely go for Blast Cult again.

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1434383783' post='2799089'] Am I understanding right that these have steel core ok for mag? [/quote] Correct. They have their own character. Pleasant enough IMO. About as gut-like as a Ford is Ferrari-like. Still a very usable sound.

Ehrlund---> Ehrlund pre----> AI amp-----> front of house. So far, thanks to the tone shaping of the AI and the phase switch of the Ehrlund preamp, I have been able to play anything from pubs to jazz venues to open air festivals. A couple major festivals this summer will be the ultimate tests, fingers crossed. Mag no good for me due to guts. Good luck to you though and please keep us posted on the results.

Look at Blast Cult p'ups if what you want is sheer volume without going mag, but you may be too hasty. I play with Ehrlund and Schertler and I play in a trio with guitar through valve amp and drummer (though very sympathetic musicians). Drums are noisy compared with a bass played entirely acoustically, but all you need is enough amplification for the band to hear you well on stage, then let the front of house do the rest. Low stage volume see us fine in any situation, from small club to big festival. If faced with feedback at sound check, I switch the phase and bob's your uncle. Just my 2p's worth. Not useful advice for psychobilly guys but may well work for you maybe.

Again each to their own and I understand the need for volume in a rockabilly setting. The Stray Cats had Lee Rocker driving the band hard with light steels and a mag pickup. Great player: YES! Great sound: YES! Natural sound of the bass: of course NOT! As you already said, it's a matter of getting over the issue off sounding "natural". Personally, I have tried every type of pickup, luckily not every brand... I have spent a lot of time and effort developing my sound, with a certain type of technique and gut strings. So that's the way I want to sound. It's not snobbery, it's just that it's the way I enjoy it. Pickups make me sound different form when I practice acoustically. As a result, I change my dynamics, I sound tentative, wimpy or just simply not right. There are loads of excellent bass guitar players everywhere: need AC/DC volume? Call one of them. i can't even bear the sound of steel strings on a bass, let alone the 80s sound of a mag pickup. That's why I made the choice to use Ehrlund or Schertler, definitely not because I'm loaded: in fact quite the opposite. Not an option for psychobilly of course, but independently on the genre, if you are lucky enough to have sympathetic musicians who have a human approach to stage volume, there is no limit to the size of audience you can play with these contact mics. As long as you pair them with their own preamp (with phase switch), you can just give the signal straight to FOH and it is A LOT less fiddly than any pickup which requires your own amp. Of course having your own amp gives you better control, but when you play festivals with little more than line check before gig, Ehrlund or Schertler + preamp + FOH work for me. You do have to trust the sound guys, but if you ask nicely they will do what you want: they want to hear good sounds just as much as you. That's my experience anyway. No doubt I may change my mind sometime.

With the exception that it will only work with steel strings or at least steel-containing strings.

^ This ^ (all of it). Also, never expect too much from a pickup, I tried oodles of them, foolishly. A lot of them will sound decent. A lot of them will allow you to gig well. None of them will sound just like your bass (especially at higher volumes), it's just one of those things.

Very best wishes to your wife BotB and best wishes to both you and bassace for a speedy return to form. I have no advice as I have never strayed away from playing for longer than a week, but I will be following this thread with interest and hoping that you both get back to swinging real soon.

Like a lot of people here, I have tried lots and lots of stuff over the years. I think that wheather or not you play live a lot you have already hit the nail on the head on the fundamental issue: whenever you play amplified, you don't sound like when you play acoustically. This is what tormented me for years, because as a double bass player, it is the acoustic, natural, percussive sound of the bass you seek, not a pseudo-electric hybrid which is ok just as long we don't feedback. Personally I say pants to those who suggest that when playing amplified you should let the amp do the work: the sound is in the fingers, the hands, of course the bass. Not in the pickup, not in the amp. After years of grief, I settled for the following: - forget super-high volume gigs: just play slab or eub if you want this. - forget pickups; I now am a total convert to Schertler Dyn-b or Ehrlund (I know the latter is actually a pickup but you know what I mean). I find that used with their own preamps, I can play festivals outdoors and venues indoors with no feedback. I either use a AI Ten2 or just the house PA. Most importantly, I can play like I play acoustically. The sound may not be exactly the same at higher volumes, but at least I don't change the dynamics, which in the DB world is everything. Of course that's just my personal experience at this point in time, far from being the absolute truth. However it may be helpful to somebody somewhere. PS - yes contact mics and their preamps are expensive, but think of the cash you save trying different pickups and amps....

Steve Tucker I have a roll of your tape in my bag, only used once as the days of 5 gigs a week are well over unfortunately. It is a great idea to have a tape specifically targeted to DB players so hats off to you. Coincidence is, my dad in law was playing a trad jazz cd the other day, he said he got it at a wedding from the band that was playing, somewhere in Devon, then took it back to Scotland. I asked who it was and he said "Steve Tucker band". Small world indeed.

Evahs are lovely strings. I'm a guts player but amongst steels, I find Evahs to be the more organic sounding (a rubbish statement since they are made of metal and plastic so there is nothing organic about them!). Incidentally, Pirastro is launching a new set of Evahs called " Evah Pirazzi Slap": they are G and D raw gut and A and E apparently a modified kind of Evah more slap friendly. Basically it sounds like it's nothing to do with a set of Evahs, but Pirastro folk must really struggle with names. As one of my basses has a set of Lenzner which is, if I remember well, nearly 3 years old, I'm taking one from the team and I ordered a set, apparently arriving in mid-June.

Good on you Henry. As for Schertler, they have a fabulous customer service, I have contacted them about my Dyn-b and they could not be more helpful. I did however contact the main office, in Switzerland I believe? Have you tried them?

The genz is well decent, the AI is a belter. Both great combos. I used to have the genz 3-10 and liked it, but it's really little more than a stage monitor if you play with people who plug in. Great for acoustic bands though. The AI ten2 is what I have now and I love it, although at times I just go straight in the PA with Ehrlund+preamp and I don't even bother taking it along.

Well done for thinking out the box and thanks for sharing.