Getting the Most Out of Your RevSolo Pickup
Hey everyone! I wanted to address some of the feedback we’ve been seeing about the Revolution Solo pickup, particularly the discussions happening over in the Double Bass HQ Facebook group. First off, thank you all for sharing your experiences, both positive and negative. Your constructive feedback helps us understand how these pickups are performing in the real world.
I’ve read through the comments, and I’ll be honest: the RevSolo can be finicky to install correctly. When someone says it sounds worse than a Fishman BP-100, I can tell you with confidence that it’s not installed properly. So let me walk you through my process for getting this pickup to sound its absolute best.
Start With Your Bass
Before we even talk about pickup placement, you need to address the foundation. Your bass has to be set up evenly, and you need to love how it sounds acoustically. Stand in a corner, play through your range, and listen carefully. If you’ve got any weird resonances or wolf tones, the RevSolo is going to amplify those and potentially increase their resonance. This pickup is incredibly accurate and transparent, revealing both the good and the bad of your instrument.
Similarly, check how your bass sounds with the bow. The RevSolo will capture all that detail, including the bite from your strings.
Finding the Sweet Spot
Here’s where I’m going to frustrate you a bit: when it comes to placement, I can only tell you that you need to find “the right spot.” On my bass, it’s centered and sounds great. The pickup needs to be fairly tight but still movable, and you really want to be in the middle of the piezo for the best presence and accuracy. Move it even slightly off-center, and you’ll lose that transparent quality we’re after.
Once you find that perfect location, here’s a pro tip: use a pencil to mark one corner. This way, if you’re taking your bass in and out of your gig bag and the pickup shifts, you can quickly get back to that sweet spot.
When you’re absolutely confident in your placement and sound, consider adding a tiny drop of super glue to one corner. I’m not talking about permanently bonding it to your bass, just enough to prevent it from shifting with minor cord bumps. You’ll still be able to remove it if needed, and if you ever need the foot resurfaced, we can do that for about $35.
EQ Approach: Forget What You Know
This is critical: if you’re using the same EQ settings you’d use for an electric bass or other piezo transducers like the Full Circle, throw them out the window. Start completely fresh.
I begin with my amp dead flat, no EQ adjustments at all. From there, I typically add just a slight boost to the bass, maybe around 1-2 o’clock on the dial. That’s it. The sound is already rich and accurate without much manipulation.
Cranking the highs all the way up gives you excessive pop and finger noise with a nasal quality. Maxing out the mids creates an echo-y, potentially feedback-prone mess. The beauty of this pickup is in its natural, transparent reproduction of your bass’s true sound. Let that shine through.
Remember, your amp’s EQ responds differently depending on the amount of signal you’re feeding it. As you adjust volume, you may need to readjust your EQ slightly.
The Right Equipment Matters
Your amplifier is a huge part of the equation. If you’re running through an amp that’s not well-suited for upright bass, you might conclude the pickup is useless when really it’s an equipment mismatch. The RevSolo’s transparency means it needs a quality amp that can accurately reproduce the full range of your bass.
When the RevSolo Might Not Be Right for You
Let me be completely honest: if your bass has an uneven setup, a few issues, or you’re playing through a mid- to low-level amplifier, the RevSolo might not be my first recommendation for you.
In those situations, the Fishman Full Circle is going to give you very predictable, consistent, solid sound regardless of quirks in your bass. It’s almost like it turns your bass into an electric upright sound.
The Realist Lifeline is another good option, especially if you like your bass’s sound but need something more forgiving. It’s adjustable, so you can spin it around to modify its sensitivity.
The Bottom Line
The RevSolo requires three things to really shine: a well-set-up bass that sounds great acoustically, proper placement of the pickup itself, and a quality amplifier. When you get all three of these elements working together, you’ll have a hard time finding anything short of a microphone (which isn’t practical for most gigging situations) that sounds this good.
This isn’t about claiming everything we make is the best. It’s about understanding that this particular pickup is designed for players who love their acoustic sound and want to amplify it as transparently as possible. If that’s you, and you’re willing to take the time to dial it in properly, the RevSolo can deliver exceptional results.
I hope this breakdown helps you get the most out of your pickup. If you’re still having issues, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help you sound superb!
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