Magnetic Upright Bass Pickup Can You Bow With it?

[@topsecret1837]

It also just occurred to me that if you have a magnetic pickup in place of a piezo pickup on a cello, that would simplify building electric cellos by removing the need for a pickup under the bridge. Adjusting the height over the pickup would then be a matter of, albeit through more traditional or by modern means, changing the height and profile of the bridge’s curvature.

[@topsecret1837]

You could also have a ‘Hot Rails’ style humbucker where the windings go around a set of rails. Underneath, the rails curve in parallel to the strings.

[@topsecret1837]

I would be willing to buy a cello one! It’s been many years of looking on the market for me to find one that could fit to something like a NS electric or standard. Obviously with NS cellos you’ve got a different fingerboard profile and up to 6 strings, so there’s a bit more to think about with the potential of finally adapting it to the instrument. Too many cellists have been held back by a piezo pickup in a live setting; so seeing how it can sound would be great.

[@MxchiefMxker]

Dude your passion is contagious

[@timsway]

thanks man!

[@westkossuth]

Man, sounds absolutely MONSTROUS with the synth pedal!

[@DavidRodrigues-wi9fd]

That's incredible how good the upright sounds with the effects pedals! You've pulled the best of both worlds together; this is going to be huge in the music world!

[@famitory]

in addition to or instead of a cello version, you might consider selling individual poles. then folks can make their own block and mount using simple hand tools, or even put them into other stringed insturments not in the violin family.

[@famitory]

as for the blend box, the unfortunate truth is that piezos are sensitive little guys who really need to see MASSIVE input impedance in order to deliver their full sound. pretty much any little bit of series current flow just eats their output spectrum for breakfast. the only way to really make them blend well with a magnetic without introducing active components is using a low-Z pickup and running the two together into a microphone preamp at the output over an XLR cable.

[@timsway]

oh yea, just adding a preamp to the mix would solve a lot of the problems, which I'm not opposed to. Just trying to offer "simple" and cost effective solutions, too. I could see a future where I sell these individually, for multi string/odd instrument, maybe develop the connections a little for no-solder...

[@ChurchOfTheHolyMho]

Pretty cool idea! Sounds great... I don't recall playing a contrabass since college and only then with French bow. I haven't tried a German bow. This almost makes me want to go to one of those stores that rents to HS students and pick one up for a few months again. Good video. Good luck with those pickup sales!

[@timsway]

I took a few German style lessons about 15 years ago, never got the hang of it but was good enough to use it on a few recordings for real simple passages (semi pro and pro). However it is NOT like riding a bike! lol.

[@ChurchOfTheHolyMho]

@@timsway Oh definitely! Downbowing at the frog end on those low strings was generating some nice tones. I'm just imagining the mechanics of how all that works. Sounds fun! Have fun! :)

[@sgsax]

Still dig the trash bass, and still blown away by how good this pickup sounds. And it's a bit wild to hear those crunchy sounds from an upright bass. 🤘 Keep rockin amd thanks for sharing!

[@HarryFoster]

love that you’re posting all this! I use a krivo currently but am very interested in these for my next tour

[@johanneswerner1140]

small thing: it would be grand if you would link the videos in the description as well, not only in the cards. Using a browser those cards just don't appear. Other than that: you are a brilliant guy, and the stuff you do is inspiring. "Alle Menschen werden Brüder!"

[@ultracello]

Yes, please a magnetic cello pickup!

[@ChristofferNelsonG]

Ah, Tim. You're so awesome!

[@codelicious6590]

I love it! Im not a bassman but I have been getting into designing and building guitar pickups so now I have something wired into all my acoustics, I have found that neodymiums deliver a broader bass response from an electromagnetic pickup. The neodymiums seem at this time in my experimenting also to require less windings to get good sound also. I love dinking around with this stuff and its so fun to see how all the minutia of a guitar pickup can affect the sound.

[@glennhynes5263]

Brilliant Tim. Sounds amazing with a touch of compression. Quite honestly, you do some wonderful work.👍

[@timsway]

Thanks!

[@bradrehn1007]

Thanks much for your creative passion and out of the box innovations. Impressive sounds, indeed!

[@nickstorring]

re: the cello version… YES PLEASE!

[@MattFriedrichs]

Not a musician but still loving it. Pickups for pinball machines? Also, somewhere over the rainbow? Unfair tug at the heartstrings.

[@timsway]

believe it or not, all the wire i use inside my guitar builds is reclaimed from old pinball machines. there are miles of the stuff in those!

[@ErickC]

Truthfully, if Gibson had designed the PAF with copper cylinders and ceramic magnets, then people would be talking about how cheap and trashy pickups with Alnico bar magnets sound and getting out into the weeds about whether or not the bar magnet setup fails to introduce the eddy currents so necessary for proper tone. I think these seem to sound and work great!

[@erickleefeld4883]

Telecaster bridge pickups have a copper-plated steel baseplate. A Strat pickup does not have that baseplate, which is part of why they sound different. Obviously they both sound like an electric guitar, and the differences aren’t too drastic, but they are both useful sounds.

[@ThDirtyCurfDrummer]

What? No 'Mr. Krinkle' by Primus? Lol! I'm glad you're selling well on these pickups, Tim. They sound great. You should consider doing something like this for acoustic guitars and basses, too.

[@timsway]

I do put magnetic pickups on my acoustic guitars and basses and I sell a surface mount for acoustics called the Dump Diver, but there is room for improvement on it.

[@ThDirtyCurfDrummer]

@@timsway I know about the Dump Diver. But isn't the Dump Diver built quite differently from this pickup?

[@matthewf1979]

I would recommend the Radial Twin City ABY pedal for someone wanting to mix two pickup types. It's buffered so the impedance mixing issues won't be there. I'm sure there's an active ABY pedal with a DI out somewhere on the market, but I haven't used one. The Twin City into a DI box would work great. Also, a blade style pickup would work with bass and cello. It would look cool with a folder copper shield over it too.

[@timsway]

One of the ideas I was pursuing was folded copper, like the alumitone by lace!

[@johngrant5749]

Some great sounds there Tim 👍

[@josephzummo9685]

Great sound. These are going to go fast. Kind of reminded me of the Framus electric upright sound but smoother.

[@TRtribal]

Dude - a magnetic cello pickup would be awesome.

[@KaycieCarryl22654]

How about an octave box/ harmonizer? That would be fun for your bass.

[@themaskedgrappler]

Great stuff, sounds really good

[@erickleefeld4883]

A good inventor/innovator wants to get their product out to the public, not simply to fulfill some specific tasks, but so people out there can do things with it that they hadn’t even thought of.

[@timsway]

And to help me learn and improve it! The days of secret labs are over. I do all my creating in real time, here on YT :)

[@erickleefeld4883]

@@timsway Just one zany thought I had, looking at how big the bass pickup is compared to the string spacing on a cello: Is there enough room on a cello (and this might vary between manufacturers) to slant your pickup so each pole piece is underneath one string? It looks like it would be a tight fit, and either the C or A strings would end up with the pickup all the way down near the bridge.

[@timsway]

@@erickleefeld4883 as build now, no way :(

[@cabaYT]

Porfavor, porfavor tienes que hacer las de cello 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

Now you have to make a sustainer version, maybe.

[@ultracello]

Btw: not sure how it would affect magnetic pickups, but the Wilson Buffer One (with its 10 meg ohm input impedance) works wonder on all my piezo pickups.

[@guitfidle]

That's so awesome! Love you man 😁

[@timsway]

Oh, that sounds like someone on pain meds talking! LOL!

[@garagemonkeysan]

So cool.❤❤❤

[@Rebar77_real]

Sounds great! Need to sneak a powered subwoofer inside the bass next. Haha!

[@theJonnymac]

I think you should make the cello, I have a cousin that would take one.

[@cmdrerniepaul]

Stand Up and take a Bow!

[@Anon-mk4ms]

Have you thought about using a blade style pickup?

[@timsway]

yes, but for many reasons (mostly manufacturing/cost) I opted against it. However if I do make a cello version, I would probably do that.

[@I.O.M.]

Arco distortion for the win 🤘

[@timsway]

In the right hands it crushes. (not mine!)

[@othervinny]

Here's an idea that I've had, but I have no way to actualize: what if the magnet in a pickup was an electromagnet, meaning the power of the magnetic field is controlled by an electric current from a battery? Say you had a potentiometer hooked up to a battery supplying current to your electromagnet - would that act like a volume knob for the pickup?

[@timsway]

that's above my paygrade but sounds like a fun experiment!

[@Gatherersmusic]

Double bass sabbath ❤❤🤘🤘😄

[@ChadBruyns-qt4bq]

can you make a version for cello

[@timsway]

watch the video. it is discussed

[@Tom_TheCherryBlossomStudio]

Wow! The delay & compression….s w e e t !

[@billstolz9587]

What overdrive pedal are you using that sounds awesome 😮

[@timsway]

homemade by a fan/friend. I feel horrible I can't remember his name right now!

[@marcusadamson532]

Active pre amp

[@cabaYT]

Creo que esta solución te podría interesar para hacer las de cello o otra vercion de contrabajo, es un cambio de paradigma, en ves de hubicar las Pickup de forma horizontal, las ubica de manera horizontal y entre las cuerdas, tal vez así capture mejor el sonido con arco kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJ_YkJ2heLJroJIsi=HCerCYDioRCBmxZ9 (Y perdón por la insistencia pero tienes que hacer las de cello seria fantástico)

[@wolfoframa]

What strings are you using?

[@timsway]

I use corelli 370s. Any string with a ferrous metal core will work. where they are listed for sale at NewPerspectivesMusic.com I include a list of known popular brands that work and the ones that won't (not all, but a lot). If you're not sure, just hold a magnet to your strings and see if it tries to stick.

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

Why not make a 5 string Version for 5 string Double Bass?

[@timsway]

I can for custom orders, for sure!

[@FunsongsMusicByPeterRahill]

9th view starting, 5th LIKE posted... "Hey, Mr. Bassman..."

[@ZOOTSUITBEATNICK1]

🤓👍🌟

[@SSRT_JubyDuby8742]

Like deployed 👍