I watched your video. I purchased the journeytek pick up system installed it exactly the way you had it on yours and it blew me away all the money I’ve spent on pickups trying to get that pure upright base sound and this is the one
Thanks again for providing this video. It got me on the right track now I can sell all my other pick ups on eBay.

For a more bassy sound, you should've positioned the KNA on the E-side of the bridge

KNA should not be installed on the G string side. I have no clue why they recommend that, it sounds good on the E side.

I have used the KNA DB-1 for 4-5 years. I've tried many pickups before that, and this is the first pickup every sound engineer is happy with. They all wonder what kind of pickup this is, because they want to recommend it to others.

Danke!

I tried lots of pickups, Fishman, Underwood, K&K, Schertler, David Gage Realist, David Gage clip-on, Barcus Berry... all of them, and the sound was awful. 15 years ago I started building my own pickups, and adapting them to my bass, with incredibly better results, for a price 100 times less. The underwood copy made by myself sounded much better than the original, so i decided to continue and experiment different kinds of pickups. But, the biggest problem is the impedance. A piezo pickup has an impedance of 5-10 Mohms, while a normal amplifier has an impedance 20-25 Kohms. Connecting a piezo to an input like that, is like short circuit the pickup. So i tried to build a preamplifier with high input impedance, and low output impedance. The result is a full range sound, with clear low frequencies, and all the range reproduced. I will never buy a commercial pickup again, mine is better even with the bow. A clear full natural sound.

Nice!

I use the KNA DB-1 and I like it. I was experimenting with it recently and when I attached it to the bridge under the G string (like you did)  it sounded like crap. I attached it to the bridge under the E string and it sounds much better, so that's where I left it ever since. No reason to change it. I took a pencil and marked the pickup where it fits under the wing on the bridge under the E string, so if it ever gets moved for some reason, I can put it right back where it was.

check out a magnetic pickup for doing rock gigs!

Funny - I agree that the Journey Instruments one wins this comparo, but I much prefer the first set up. The second sounds muffled and artificially bass heavy to me. (I know it is a bass after all, but I think I'd  rather boost low end on the flatter-sounding original location closer to the strings). I think you talked me into trying Journey's bass pickup: I have an arch-toped electric upright I've just refurbished and upgraded, and the Realist Copperhead it came with has disappeared on me in the process.....kinda liking what I'm hearing from your journeytek better anyway.

I often follow reviews of this type but the more I follow them, and I come across them, the more often I start to not trust them completely. I have been using the KNA for a while considering that the piezo electric pick ups are all identical and only the price changes, it is obvious that the positioning, the shape and the material in contact create enormous differences, so before expressing an opinion you should understand in which conditions it sounds better or worse. Personally I have tried many, but the kna is completely non-invasive for the instrument, I positioned it on the opposite side, that is, on the side of the lowest strings and cutting a lot of medium and high frequencies on an amp or a preamp, it does its job very well, and even better than others that have ruined my harmonic plate or the bridge. The quality price is excellent and it has no defects unless you expect the quality of a condenser microphone

Have you tryied the SRP pickups?

A Bieseli magnetic blended with a underwood great sound and no feedback and no this combination does not sound like a p bass,even the pickup that the bass cave liked would be inferior in a band setting it would never cut thru

No bridge-mounted pickup will ever capture the percussive acoustic sound of the double bass.  That sound radiates from the body.  The attack-decay envelope at the bridge is more akin to an electric bass.  This is a matter of physics and not opinion.  I use the Ehrlund body-mounted pickup.  Second only to a good microphone, IMO.  Hey, but if you like bridge-mounted pickups, go and enjoy!

From experience, the KNA is very sensitive to placement (which part of the sensor is in contact to the bridge). You should have experiment a bit more before raising conclusions. You can achieve really deep sound using this pickup.

Hi, good video! Unfortunately for us double bassists, all piezo pickup won't ever sound great (even the high end stuff sucks), but I assure you that the KNA doesn't sound bad like the one in your video, if installed correctly. I suggest you to try it on the E string side and experiment with the shims and position. You won't regret it. Cheers!

Why put the DB one on the G side.

I have the KNA and it sounds A LOT better than that. Yours sounds as if it was not properly installed on your bass (not enough pressure), or you simply received a defective unit.

This video clearly took a fair bit of effort on your part, but it's pretty useless because you're not testing fairly. What you've done is the equivalent of doing a microphone sound quality shootout by plugging them into the instrument input of a guitar amplifier. They're going to sound like wet sh*t, just like the pickups do in your video, because like the pickups, they are plugged into inappropriate resistance levels.

The effect that plugging into the wrong impedance levels is this: it creates a filtering effect that completely alters the frequency response. When a piezo pickup sounds "quacky" it's not because of the pickup, it's because of the input impedance of the thing that the pickup is plugged into. All sorts of peaks and valleys in the response will occur, and you'll get a lot of sonic "weirdness," as well as hotspots for feedback.

You should have consulted with someone who understands the importance of input impedance as to how it relates to using piezo pickups and amplification. I saw in your comment in response to someone else that you simply expect the pickup to be able to be judged fairly on its merits without the use of a buffering preamp. This is a laughably ignorant position. Next, perhaps you can test the performance of a gasoline-engined car after filling the tank with diesel fuel.

I'm disappointed that this video exists, simply because it maligns the sound quality of two very popular pickups, from no fault of the pickups themselves. And for people who don't already understand what I just wrote in the paragraphs above (like yourself, clearly), they may be turned away from a product that might otherwise work for them.

So, I would like your opinion, if you don't mind... I just recently convented a Cello into a Mini-Uprightbass... It is extremely fun to play, but sounds thin and quiet, for obvious reasons... So I want to put a pickup (That is why i'm fell into your video)... The question is... I should put a Bass Pickup, right? Not a Cello Pickup, I suppose... But I not sure either.

Also, I think I liked the sound of the Double Twin more than the guitar one you showed in the video... So I considering to buy it.