I bought a Glasser Carbon Fiber violin, Love the fiddle! But kept bumping its control knobs out of tone and volume, and the battery would die with no warning….Removed all that and installed a Realist under bridge pickup and added a foot volume control. I love the action of the Realist and no batteries needed! I am buying a second one for my Alvarez fiddle. I highly recommend the Realist!!

I am using it on my carbon fiber violin and got rid of the original built in battery powered electric unit that came with the violin....it was costing me a fortune on batteries and unpredictable. I also kept bumping the volume control on the original while playing, all of a sudden I had no sound...this was my problem solver indeed.

PROS: 1. The best sounding pickup when amplified. Better than LR Baggs bridge pickup and the KNA removable pickup. Very smooth, not as harsh sounding like most other pickups. 2. With the Realist I do not use any EQ on my ppdalboard where previously I had to use a 10-band EQ to knock out some lows (typically 250Hz) and some highs. Now I can just roll off the lows and highs a touch at the board. 3. The clamp for the 1/4 jack is smaller, sets vertically, and can be clamped anywhere on the fiddle. I have mine on the lower bass bout at the bee sting which compresses at the corner block, not the typical pickup location against the top where the clamp can dampen the vibration of the top.

CONS: 1. Since the pickup band sits below the bridge, you should lower the bridge a touch with a bit more on the bass side since the pickup is a bit thicker on that end. 2. The pickup is not removable. 3. this pickup, like any other pickup, will reduce the volume and the tone a bit; however, I find the resulting tone to be very pleasing--smooth, less harsh, fewer highs.

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