Little-Jake electric bassoon pickup
The Little-Jake is a high quality, hand-built pickup for the bassoon. Designed to work with your existing “Telex” hardware (Model-H also available), the Little-Jake sounds incredibly natural with warm and full bass response. Works extremely well with guitar effects and amps. Available NOW from Forrests in a bundle with a preamp especially designed for use with the Little-Jake. You may also use the L.R. Baggs GigPro for a preamp. The connector and circuitry are made of the highest quality parts, including a 1/4″ audio plug by Neutrik – a leader in quality audio components. The three foot cable is very lightweight, flexible and just the right length to go to the preamp clipped to your belt, avoiding any danger of accidentally pulling the pickup out of the bocal adapter.
To get the most out of your Little-Jake, treat it like “active pickups” from a bass guitar. If you don’t know what that means, the guys at your local guitar shop will. On some amps you might find the bass response a little too strong, so you can try trimming the bass level and boosting the mids and highs for a brighter tone. Here’s my EQ pedal setting for use with my Fender Bassman 150 amplifier, you could also simply use the EQ settings on your amp to achieve an appropriate sound:
13 Comments
Hey Trent,
What has been your experience with this pickup? Is this what you use?
You have a feed for this blog so I can get it in my reader?
Let’s say that this has been a learning experience! Designing something like this takes a lot of experimentation, trial and error and a bit of luck, especially for someone with no formal electrical training.
But yes, this is what I use all the time. I feel it’s a much more natural sound, more controllable and way better with effects than the Telex. Paul Hanson and Michael Rabinowitz agree with me.
I’ll look into an RSS feed, I assumed that was included in the blog by default but I must be wrong.
I guess here’s the RSS feed info page:
http://trentjacobs.wordpress.com/feed/?feed=rss2
I’ve never done RSS, so you’re on your own from that point on.
Hey Trent, I’m writing trivia questions for a trivia night, and would like to ask which instrument in a woodwind quintet has the most holes in it. I assume the answer is the bassoon… but I’d like to be sure. I’ve seached the internet and can’t confirm. Can you? How many holes are in your bassoon?
Thanks!
Stella, I can tell you it is the bassoon even without counting! But I did count for you and other than the hole you cover with your mouth there are 31 holes in my bassoon (that includes the bell). For comparison, a flute has 17 holes (not counting the hole you blow over). My guess is that oboe and clarinet both have less than 20 and the horn only has the one!
That’s what I figured, but I wanted to be sure. I found 17 on the flute, 19 on the oboe and 23 on the clarinet…. but I have to admit I assumed there were three on a french horn.
Thanks for your time!
The valves on a horn aren’t holes that open to the outside world. No matter what, as long as the instrument stays put together, the only hole that sound comes out of for any brass instrument is the bell. That’s one of the reasons why they’re so easy to mic – just stick a mic right in front of the bell. Doesn’t work so well for woodwinds, especially the bassoon! Hence the bocal pickup design concept at the top of this page.
Hi Trent, your audio sample seems to be broken – do you have a new link to it?
Also, any updates on when this’ll be available from Forrest’s?
Dave, you’re right. Sorry about the broken audio, I don’t know what happened there, but the file is indeed gone. I don’t have the original anymore, so I’ll have to make a new demo. In the meantime you can check out some of the things in my blog posts, especially the “Little Loop” youtube video.
Anyway, Forrests just placed their order, so expect it to be in their catalog next month!
Hi Trent. I’m a sax player in search of a pressure transducer pickup for my horn, and this seems to be just that. I’ve got a great bell mouted mic for the natural tone, but am looking for something to run through effects to a guitar amp without alot of feedback. Natural tone is not an issue. A couple of questions… 1) is this a pressure transducer? 2)any idea if this would work for a soprano sax on the neck?
thanks!!! John
John, this is not a pressure transducer. The conception for this pickup was based on the woodwind FRAP, which is a pressure transducer, and I tried multiple things out when designing this, but found that the pressure transducers that would be economical were incredibly noisy. They added a great amount of hiss and white noise to the audio signal. Technically they worked, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin attempting to clean up the sound.
That being said, there is no reason why this wouldn’t work on a soprano sax neck that’s been modified. I’d suggest getting a “Model H” if you do go this route, as the interface would be much more secure for you. This would also make your modified neck compatible with a FRAP if you ever find one (good luck with that). There’s another microphone maker in California that has designed something for this same interface as well – but that will have a street value of nearly $1000 so I don’t know if you want to go that far!
Finally, if you use this with a Sax I would recommend using a preamp with a gain control, as I expect the louder dynamic of a saxophone would need to be tamed in a different way than the preamp that’s being sold with this from Forrests handles that. The LR Baggs Gigpro would be perfect for you in that regard.
Hi Trent. I just received my Little Jake pickup from Forrests, and I have a couple of questions for you. Could I contact you via e-mail? I can’f seem to find an address anywhere on your site.
Hi Jake,
Wanted to say I got the updated version of the Little Jake with the pre-amp and
used it for the first time with The
Charles Mingus Orchestra gig in NYC last monday.
The new lip allows it to fit snugly on the
mount (which was originally designed for the telex).
The engineer at the gig found a great balance between the pick-up and the AMT
mic and I have never been more pleased with the quality of sound.
I wanted to thank you for your success in
designing a great pick-up. I will continue to use it and recommend it bassoonist that want to electrify.
It made more sense for me to keep it on the bocal all the time rather than detaching it. I wrap the wire
neatly around the bocal and put in carefully into a felt lined padded bocal sheath that came with the new case I use.
Until I use it for a couple of years I won’t be able to comment on how durable it is but it certainly the best out there.
Michael Rabinowitz