Double Bass New Realist Active Docking Station

#2
Interesting and really elegant, but at that price you can buy good preamp. Heck, Gollihur sells the Headway EDM-1 H.E. for $195, which I would consider to be much much better option. The EDM is tiny, probably not all that much bigger than the docking station.

And of course there are Fdeck's designs, which are a fraction of the price and include additional useful features.
 
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#6
I guess if I traveled extensively and wanted a really minimal setup "plug and play" using only the bass and "amp de jour" it's a
simple setup. It solves the reaching back to the amp for volume control, that's a pretty nifty feature. I have an alternative in the Grace
Felix that can sit on the floor, but the difference in price between the Realist Active Docking Station and a Grace Felix is a lot.
 
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#9
Some of us live in cities in which personal vehicles are not nessasary. I'm in Bangkok and the trains, subways and cabs are convenient and affordable. House amps are often present in the places I play in regularly. So the less crap I need to stuff into my bass bag the better. Since I rarely need to mess with EQ to get a good sound a device such as this Super Docking Station sounds like a winner to me! So.. Calling Mark Gollihur or anyone at Gage's shop!
Will the battery free charging system run on 220 volts? And can you tell all of us please, what is the impedance of of the buffering function of this device?
 
#10
bassically_eli said:
The advantage of the buffer will largely depend on what's next in the signal chain. Having the buffer on board will allow one to plug into a low impedance input after that without issues.
Click to expand...
If it is constructed well the next thing after the initial buffer is the volume pot.
Without the buffer the volume pot has a rather low resistance/impedance and that makes the impedance of volume pot snd amp together lower than the volume pot alone. That was also the reason why I wrote after the first version (without the buffer) came out that I cannot recommend it because the impedance of the pot is too low for a passive piezo pickup.
But prices need to be reasonable…
 
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#11
DoubleMIDI said:
If it is constructed well the next thing after the initial buffer is the volume pot.
Click to expand...
I just assumed this to be the case. I would be shocked if it is not. My point wasn't about the circuit inside the Super Docking Station though, I was just saying that one (presumably) won't have to worry about the impedance of whatever pedal, amp, preamps, mixing board, etc. that they might want to plug into after the SDS.
DoubleMIDI said:
Without the buffer the volume pot has a rather low resistance/impedance and that makes the impedance of volume pot snd amp together lower than the volume pot alone. That was also the reason why I wrote after the first version (without the buffer) came out that I cannot recommend it because the impedance of the pot is too low for a passive piezo pickup.
Click to expand...
Did you ever reverse engineer the original? Is it really just a volume pot with the standard voltage divider wiring? I always wondered if there was more to it; I thought maybe it was some kind of combination of voltage divider, tone circuit, and/or rheostat. I'm not sure how that would work, but I have used a simple capacitor as a piezo signal pad before, so I figure a traditional passive tone circuit should function about like a volume knob with a piezo pickup.
 
#12
bassically_eli said:
I just assumed this to be the case. I would be shocked if it is not. My point wasn't about the circuit inside the Super Docking Station though, I was just saying that one (presumably) won't have to worry about the impedance of whatever pedal, amp, preamps, mixing board, etc. that they might want to plug into after the SDS.

Did you ever reverse engineer the original? Is it really just a volume pot with the standard voltage divider wiring? I always wondered if there was more to it; I thought maybe it was some kind of combination of voltage divider, tone circuit, and/or rheostat. I'm not sure how that would work, but I have used a simple capacitor as a piezo signal pad before, so I figure a traditional passive tone circuit should function about like a volume knob with a piezo pickup.
Click to expand...
No, I haven‘t reversed engineered one. But as far as I have seen and was told there is only a volume pot and a switch to disable the pot in the circuit at max volume inside.
 
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#13
TroyK said:
I think part of the appeal of Realist pickups is that they are perhaps the best plug-and-play-into-any-amp options. Seems like a solution in search of a problem.

Then again, what do I know?
Click to expand...

My lifeline pick up works better with my bass and amp without a preamp, and I’ve even been using the lower impedance input on my AI head. There seems to be something in the electronics of that pick up that compensates for the typical nastiness of an impedance mismatch. It’s a very dark sounding pick up which is nice in a vacuum, but sometimes it’s a little harder to cut through without turning up, and then I’m usually dialing down lows anyways. And my bass is a pretty bright juzek without a big bottom end.

The underwood pickup that I still have (but rarely use) absolutely needs an impedance matching preamp, sounds awful without one.
 
#14
A high-pass-filter will fix all or most of that. I agree that Gage does a great job of making pickups that aren't as needy as other (arguably more hi-fi) pickups.

Endlesssolo said:
My lifeline pick up works better with my bass and amp without a preamp, and I’ve even been using the lower impedance input on my AI head. There seems to be something in the electronics of that pick up that compensates for the typical nastiness of an impedance mismatch. It’s a very dark sounding pick up which is nice in a vacuum, but sometimes it’s a little harder to cut through without turning up, and then I’m usually dialing down lows anyways. And my bass is a pretty bright juzek without a big bottom end.

The underwood pickup that I still have (but rarely use) absolutely needs an impedance matching preamp, sounds awful without one.
Click to expand...
 
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#16
I received my Super Docking Station today! Bought direct from David Gage's and shipped here to me in Thailand. I've not had a chance to gig test it yet but here's a quick first impression..
It seems very well made. It's in a metal housing that looks like it's built to last. Very simple installation. Judy Gage included a charger that accepts all voltages including the 220 volts in common use here. It only takes 60 seconds to put a full 12 hours playing time worth of juice in it. Not a battery but a super capacitor. I'm not sure how exactly these things work but they do. It's a simple one knob affair. Pulls out for the buffering function. No information provided as to what the impedance is but it does make my Realist Lifeline sound fuller and more clear. But doesn't sound quite the same as the other 10 Megaohm preamps I am familiar with. My strictly uneducated guess it that it probably closer to 5 Megaohms. I like this for Realists. Both my former Copperhead and current Lifeline sounded almost too dark and "creamy" when run at 10 Megaohms. This thing seems to maintain a "woodier" quality. It's subtile but I like it! First gig test is Thursday this week. No amp, just plugging into a mixing board into whatever the house PA might be. I'll have buffering, volume control and won't be burdened with a heavier seperate pre amp and the extra cable. I travel light. And this thing ought to be just enough to punch the ticket! Further news after the gig.
 
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#17
I took it to work tonight. A jazz guitarist, drummer and young lady were on board for the gig as well. I plugged staight into the mixing board and got a good sound. It's very nice to have the handy volume knob within easy reach on my tailpiece. It was even nicer to just unpack one cord and just plug and play! EQ? I didn't miss it at all. Another gig is coming up Monday. The house amp there is a dog. An older Fender Rumble 150 combo with a 15 inch speaker. This isn't the Rumble series that you hear about these days. This is the original Rumble series that has the goofy lettering and was only suitable for teenaged garage bands. It's not the worse sounding rig in the world for electric bass but really isn't suited for upright. The limiter is always on and the EQ points aren't very useful for upright. I don't know what impedance it sees but all the pickups I've tried with it, Lifeline, Copperhead, Underwood and Wilson sound like crap. My work around has been to use my Raven Labs PBM plugged into it's affects return to bypass this amps front end. I get a nice sound by this method but it's meant bringing the preamp and two cords. My bass bag's pouch gets pretty swollen by the time I stuff a fat book of music and spare strings in there. So it's a real pleasure not to be so heavily laden while I'm rolling thru the meanstreets of Bangkok at night!
 
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#19
Mike Carr said:
This device works exactly as intended, providing impedance buffering, volume control and mounts easily. If these functions are all you require then the Super Docking Station is a fine choice. It's working out quite nicely for me.
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Is there a big difference in volume from the passive to the active setting on yours? I just got one and it seems like the volume is just about the same with the knob pulled up in active mode. There’s a little more clarity and top end. I’m using it with a Fishman Full Circle. Was expecting the active mode to be louder
 
#20
The difference is the high impedance input that gives a clearer signal. But the low current due to the high impedance needs to be amplified so the signal does not breakdown by a lower amp impedance. Therefor active electronic is needed. But the JFETs needed to do that only amplify the current and at best keep the voltage swing as it comes in.

And we don’t want voltage amplification, that might distort the amps input stage but a strong signal that can be loaded by a low amp input impedance.

Amplification can happen at the voltage (louder) or at the current (stronger), so you had the wrong kind assumed.
 
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