Construction: 9/10: Lovingly hand-crafted.
Ease of installation: 9/10: pretty straightforward.
Ease of use: 9/10: The piezo gain & phase switches can be confusing, but the blend & volume knobs are simple enough! It's ultra-convenient!
Tone: 10/10: The magnetic/piezo blend is FANTASTIC!

The Biesele magnetic upright bass pickup is somewhat unique among the models I've seen. It includes an input for a piezo pickup, complete with a buffer and a mixer circuit. This is a very happening idea, having complete control of your signal, right at the end of the fingerboard.

Mine is an earlier unit, and it looks hand-built, probably because it is. This is a good thing. A "made in Malaysia" mass-produced gizmo would look pretty strange, right in the middle of an upright bass! The clamping mechanism works with machine screws and lock nuts, and can be adjusted just about every imaginable way. With the supplied (robertson) screwdriver you can tweak the unit to suit your bass, and leave it that way forver (or at least until you change basses). The clamping stages are tightened with thumbscrews for quick removal.

The Biesele can be adjusted to match almost any fingerboard.

Mr Biesele left nothing to chance. Each string has it's own separate pickup, and you can adjust the volume for each one with a little trimpot, accesible with a phillips screwdriver. Thus, the response can be matched from string to string on any bass. Cool.

Once installed, the Biesele accomodates your old piezo pickup with a special 1/4" to 1/8" adapter cable. Even with no magnetic signal dialed in, the Biesele is great to have as an onboard buffer. My Realist pickup sounds excellent with the active circuit, and it sure is nice to be able to have a volume knob in such easy reach.

Also in easy reach is the blend knob, and even just a dab of magnetic signal adds a nice solid punch to the sound. This extra punch comes in very handy on the rowdy bar gigs that are my bread and butter. Two switches control the piezo signal level and phase for optimum blending of signals.

With the mix knob on the center detent, the tone is really spectacular, like a gigantic fretless Hofner Beatle Bass played by Zeus. The 100% magnetic sound is also appealing, but it loses some of that acoustic growl that makes the middle setting so very potent. It sounds more like the best fretless P-bass you'll ever hear. On my bass, the mix knob usually roams between 100% acoustic and 50/50. (Note: for arco passages, the piezo pickup works much better.)

After almost 2 years of constant use, I've found the Biesele to be indispensible. Onstage, the magnetic signal is the perfect ingredient to help cut through the mix and get some electric bass punch for blues and R&B. In the old days, I was forever messing with outboard buffers & EQs & such. With the Biesele, the signal is so useful and flexible, I've found I'm able to run the bass directly through the house PA on all my steady weekly gigs. No more need to haul an amp and tweak EQ till I'm blue in the face. My upright has become a plug-'n-play dream. Convenient? Let me tell you the many ways!!

On a recording session with my plywood Kay, I used the Biesele set 75% piezo, and we quickly got the best upright bass sound in that studio's history. (I wouldn't want to put it up against a $7000 vintage tube mic, an isolation room and a dedicated PhD engineer, but for use in a small-time project studio with few good mics and even fewer isolation options, the Biesele really kicked butt. Apparently previous efforts with various solid wood basses & various pickups & medium caliber mics didn't measure up.)

At $400, the Biesele may be difficult for some to justify, but if you're playing upright full-time, it is so worth it for the sonic options and the convenience. The Biesele is available at Hammond Ashley.