Bass MIDI pickups

I know they all have their drawbacks right now, but does anyone know which ones are the "best"?

I've been looking at yamaha's... it's really hard to tell with these things.

did u used one before?

i never personally knew anybody play with a guitar/bass with a midi pickup and making something interesting out of it. honestly. if you want other sounds, why not just using fx? if you want to make midi-sequencing via playing yr bass, perhaps just buying a keyboard controller will be easier, more effective and cheap.

  ezeh said:

did u used one before?

i never personally knew anybody play with a guitar/bass with a midi pickup and making something interesting out of it. honestly. if you want other sounds, why not just using fx? if you want to make midi-sequencing via playing yr bass, perhaps just buying a keyboard controller will be easier, more effective and cheap.

dar.. there are plently of people that have done this interestingly/effectively. I think there is one that is obvious, but there are plenty of others as well, of which I can't remember the names of currently.

  chloroplast said:

  ezeh said:

did u used one before?

i never personally knew anybody play with a guitar/bass with a midi pickup and making something interesting out of it. honestly. if you want other sounds, why not just using fx? if you want to make midi-sequencing via playing yr bass, perhaps just buying a keyboard controller will be easier, more effective and cheap.

dar.. there are plently of people that have done this interestingly/effectively. I think there is one that is obvious, but there are plenty of others as well, of which I can't remember the names of currently.

yeah tommie jenkinson...

it´s not very normal anyways and i think is mostly useful if you´re a really good bass player. but anyways i will say first that u try it one in some way. they are expensive stuff...

Not sure what your budget is....but Conklin does custom MIDI installs on basses. And I'm pretty certain they recommend the Axon MIDI converter.

I had some other thoughts to share on this but I'm blanking on them right now. I'll check back when they return.

Peace

  Chimp Logic said:

Not sure what your budget is....but Conklin does custom MIDI installs on basses. And I'm pretty certain they recommend the Axon MIDI converter.

I had some other thoughts to share on this but I'm blanking on them right now. I'll check back when they return.

 

Peace

Thanks chimp logic. You don't happen to know whether the output of MIDI pickups are standard do you? Like, would the Roland MIDI pickups be able to go into this Axon MIDI converter? All sites trying to explain these things are woefully vague.

mmmmm... scratch that, it looks like it's a standard 13-pin interface.

But yeah that conklin looks fuckin sweet... too bad I already have two somewhat high-end basses and not that much money.

The Yamaha G50 uses the same technology that Axon uses.

The thing about MIDI and bass is the latency. With the piezo you get a slightly smaller latency, and with the AXON processing power you don't have to play so on top of the beat. But yeah, I know what you mean about not having the necessary budget for a custom job at this point.

What high enders you rocking?

(confession: at one point, I had 12 basses in my stable. Most of them HIGH end - 1 of them was a Conklin.)

Now I am down to just 2 basses. My Roscoe SKB3006 6 string and a KSD 4 string jazz. Sometimes I love just getting back to the bassics.

Ok. Nuff talk.

Peace

Well, they aren't as high end as yours...

I'ev got a couple Warwick Corvettes, 4 string fretless and a 6 string active. I'm very happy with both of them.

Yeah I know about the latency. And you're right the piezo seems to be the best offering in terms of tracking, but I don't have enough for one of those. Yamaha licensed the Blue Chip Technology from Axon, so I'm pretty confindent in going for that one.

I'm fully prepared for this whole thing to be somewhat of a side-use/maybe-not-all-that-functional in terms of music creation. I just think it would be damn fun to play with. :grin:

Hells yeah. I know what you mean about it being fun :grin:

I'd love to hook up proper on a system like this some day myself. I am no keyboard player, but I can make my way around a bass no prob. Ha ha. Would love to bust out some horn solos and the like using my 6 string technique instead of fuddling it all up on the keys.

Ah, to dream.....

Keep me posted on your setup. I'd love to know how it works for you. The Yamaha system looks tasty for sure. I'd love to have that hooked up on a Patitucci 6 string...