I've played upright bass for over 30 years now. Times flies when you're having fun or rushing an up tune. I have been through a fair amount of pickups in this time.
Uprights are hard to amplify. It's so big and its natural tone is so rich that it's really difficult to reproduce that beautiful sound. Sometimes the natural sound is not really what's needed. My favorite way to play is with no amps. Just natural acoustic sound with no alternating current at 60 cycles. Switch the lights off. That being said, I almost always have to use an amp with some sort of pickup on my 40s Juzek bass. I am just going to go through my pickup history as well as I can remember.
My 1st pickup was a stick on Bacus Berry. It pretty much sucked. You used this sort of bluish putty to stick the pickup on your bridge. This was 1976 when I got my first upright. A plywood from Chuck Levin's music in Wheaten Maryland. I was playing at Kings Dominion in Ashland VA that summer and went up there and bought my bass for 600 dollars. It was new and a pretty good bass.
The next pickup was a Polytone. It was this big brass thing that had a pointed end that adjusted with a screw wheel between the legs of the bridge. hmmm... sounds erotic or something. This pickup was ok but kind of sucked too. I think this was in 81 or something.
Next, I finally got an UNDERWOOD. This was the newest stuff and it really was good.
Good is a relative term in upright bass pickups. It sucked less. I got it in 82 or so and it just broke two weeks ago 2008. I was using it again after not using it for almost 15 years.
In this time I got my bass that I use today. I won it in an insurance settlement.
I had this bass, a 30's Juzek, that I found in a shop for cheap. It was cool and I was getting it fixed up a little at a time. It got destroyed in a car crash. I was coming home from a gig at the Stouffers Hotel in Winston-Salem. The other car ran a flashing red light and totaled my car and bass. I got three stitches in My head where the bass tuning key hit me. I had a Chevette and the neck poked into the front seat. Bang smack. It wasn't my fault and told the insurance people to either get me a 30's Juzek or give me x amount of money. I finally got the money and went to David Gage's shop in NYC and got a bass that will be good for me till the Angel of Mercy comes and takes me away.
I used the Underwood for about 10 years maybe less. I used an MXR micro amp with it and it was pretty good. I used it with a Polytone Minibrute for years. Then I got a GK MB150 from Sam Moss. That rig with the Micro Amp sounded really good.
I moved to a GK head with some number and an SWR Goliath Jr 2/10 with a horn speaker. A loud rig. In this time I also bought and sold a Fishman pickup. It came out and was the newest bestest shit. It didn't work on my bass worth a darn.
In 88 or 89 I got a Schertler Pickup. It was great for me at this time. It was really loud and had a pretty good sound. I used this till it broke around 2000. It had these microphonic transducers that had a pre-amp to power it. There were these little cork things that wedged in the bridge. I got another Schertler but it wasn't the same.
Then I got a Realist in 02 and used it for a couple of years. Then I went back to the Underwood and it just crapped out. Now I have this Upton thing which I will replace soon or go back to the Realist. The Upton is a 1-inch or so square piece of wood that goes in the bridge wing. It has a strong sound. The quest for tone continues.
