The tone is very good, it does ever so slightly mute the acoustic tone of the violin though. The Realist is a little more feedback prone than the Baggs or Schatten type pickups. The realist does put out a strong signal...
I have used the Baggs and Schatten and the Realist.. Mostly I find the Realist to be the most acoustic sounding of these, but in my opinion there are more acoustic sounding options which I would prefere to the Realist.. what about C-ducer or Pick up the world or Kurmann?
I only replied just now because I put my nose to the grindstone and did as much research as I could on the C-Ducer, Pick Up the World, Kurmann, and Realist.
I dislike sticking anything onto the body of my antique instrument, so the C-Ducer is out of the question. The PUTW pickup's carpenter jack is too unwieldy for my tastes, plus it's only attached to just one of the bridge's feet. The Kurmann, though acoustically the most tempting of all my choices, needs to be installed by a professional -a hassle for me at this time -and requires a preamp, which I dislike.
I went for the Realist because it's the most compact and easily removable solution for me right now.
This isn't an endorsement of the Realist, of course. I'd tell anyone who's interested to do their own research and pick what's best for them :-)