Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I purchased this pickup to replace a Gage Realist on a carved bass. Of course, any review of a pickup is very subjective--the combination of bass and strings all affect the sound, and the various pickups never sound the same on two basses.
To compare the two:
The Realist has a deep sound, the bass frequencies are very pronounced, and blossoms (slow attack.) The Full-Circle lacks the deepness, but has much more attack making it more percussive and precise. A pre-amp with an EQ is very necessary to get the lower frequencies out of this pickup.
The Full-Circle sounds about as bad as the BP-100 does when played arco (lacking fundamental frequencies, and the sound of the bow ~7k+ hz) the mid frequencies around 1-2k hz are extremely pronounced, and in my opinion, it sounds pretty terrible (listen to some of Ron Carter's arco work from the 70's and 80's to get an idea of the sound I'm talking about.) The realist sounds *exactly* like the bass does when played arco acoustically.
The Realist works great on most amps without a pre-amp. The full-circle absolutely needs a pre-amp that provides impedance matching.
The Realist is in contact with the top surface of the bass (which explains the slower attack and deeper sound,) but this makes it very susceptible to feedback (especially on a carved bass,) the full-circle is much much better (being contained in the adjuster wheel.) Neither of these pickups are a good choice for extremely loud environments (look at some of K&K's offerings, I have successfully used those playing rock gigs with subwoofers on the house PA.)
Playing in higher positions the full circle sounds crisp and accurately reproduces the sound of the bass; whereas the slow attack of the realist made playing up high a little more vague and muddy.
So, despite the fact that I won't be playing arco on this pickup it is pretty good. With the right pre-amp you can get the fundamental frequencies to pop back out, and the faster more-precise attack makes it easier to hear the bass in an ensemble. Either pickup is great.
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