Recommendations sought: pick-up for an acoustic bass

Please put your pickup/wiring discussions in the Electronics section; and put discussions about repair issues, including fixing errors in new instruments, in the Repairs section.
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Doug Shaker
Posts: 278
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:21 pm
Location: Palo Alto, California

Recommendations sought: pick-up for an acoustic bass

Post by Doug Shaker »

I have a Fender acoustic bass guitar. It sounds great, but it is kind of quiet. It has some no-name piezo pickup, but the preamp has died.
I thought about taking it down to my local guitar store and having them replace the pickup, but then I thought, what the heck, I'm a luthier, I should do it myself.

So now I'm looking for recommendations for an acoustic bass guitar pickup system. Yes, I know about the Fishmans, but I'm hoping for something a bit less expensive.

Any ideas?

Doug Shaker
-Doug Shaker
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Bob Gramann
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Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:08 am
Location: Fredericksburg, VA
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Re: Recommendations sought: pick-up for an acoustic bass

Post by Bob Gramann »

The K&K acoustic bass pickup works pretty well. It’s simple. No electronics in the box. Couldn’t be easier.
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Peter Wilcox
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Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2012 1:31 am
Location: Northeastern California

Re: Recommendations sought: pick-up for an acoustic bass

Post by Peter Wilcox »

I put a JJB Prestige-330 with 20mm transducers into this archtop bass guitar. I have nothing similar pickup or guitar-wise to compare, but it seems to work OK into the bass amp input (adequate volume and tone control) with no external preamp. Online fora seem to say it's comparable to the K&K, and for $50 it works for me.
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