• From: North Carolina
  • Registered: 2007-02-08
  • Posts: 1,914

Topic: Sound hole pick up for acoustic bass?

This is probably a stupid question but will a soundhole pickup for a 6 string acoustic work well for an acoustic bass? A friend has a dean playmate bass the acoustics aren't that bad but the electronics it came with are trash. I was going to recommend to him possibly a soundhole pickup but wanted to make sure it would work properly before I made a fool of myself...lol Thanks!

[b][color=#FF0000]If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something.
[/color][/b]         [b]Peace of mind. That's my piece of mind...[/b]

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  • Kahuna
  • Kahuna
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2006-07-12
  • Posts: 290

Re: Sound hole pick up for acoustic bass?

I'm thinking, from the durability perspective, that a bridge pickup would be a better idea than a sound hole pick up.  Just my two cents.

Guitarpix wrote:

This is probably a stupid question but will a soundhole pickup for a 6 string acoustic work well for an acoustic bass? A friend has a dean playmate bass the acoustics aren't that bad but the electronics it came with are trash. I was going to recommend to him possibly a soundhole pickup but wanted to make sure it would work properly before I made a fool of myself...lol Thanks!

  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 2,662

Re: Sound hole pick up for acoustic bass?

Guitarpix wrote:

This is probably a stupid question but will a soundhole pickup for a 6 string acoustic work well for an acoustic bass? A friend has a dean playmate bass the acoustics aren't that bad but the electronics it came with are trash. I was going to recommend to him possibly a soundhole pickup but wanted to make sure it would work properly before I made a fool of myself...lol Thanks!

It will work, it won't sound very good but it will produce sound. The volume you'll need to attain with your amp will most likely be a feedback nightmare too. As Kahuna said, a bridge pick-up will be more effective in reproducing the true acoustic sound of the instrument. The in-hole pick-up will only reproduce the sound of the strings, the bridge pick-up will incorporate the string and body sound. Much fuller sound............

Give everything but up.