Unusual Old Bass Pickup

[xxxchange]

Hey, try playing bass and singing lead! Guitarist can do it easily because they can strum a chord and hold it! Or just stop playing.

If the bass player stopped playing during a song everyone would stop and look to see what happened! Same with the drummer.

No big deal, I'm a bassist and I find it perfectly natural to play the bass and sing at the same time. It's all a matter of how well your mind is set to counterpoint, the idea of paying attention to more than one line simultaneously.

The standard has declined a lot since the times of Johann Sebastian Bach, where he sat at the organ and improvised 2, 3, 4 parts fugue. Yes, improvising in multi-strands. And he was not the only one capable of it. At that time to get a job as organist, you needed to be able to improvise a fugue.

Bach did also, by the way, improvise on his violin while accompanying himself with the organ pedals. Quite a musician. I would gladly exchange all that has been recorded since the 1950s for just one recording of Bach.

What you really need to try nowadays is to sing while playing the syncopated figures of the Cuban tres guitar, or Puerto Rican cuatro, that not only never stop, but also have a lot of melodic independency. That is a wonder, and yet some people get around it...

[David Schwab]

No big deal, I'm a bassist and I find it perfectly natural to play the bass and sing at the same time. It's all a matter of how well your mind is set to counterpoint, the idea of paying attention to more than one line simultaneously.

The standard has declined a lot since the times of Johann Sebastian Bach, where he sat at the organ and improvised 2, 3, 4 parts fugue. Yes, improvising in multi-strands. And he was not the only one capable of it. At that time to get a job as organist, you needed to be able to improvise a fugue.

Bach did also, by the way, improvise on his violin while accompanying himself with the organ pedals. Quite a musician. I would gladly exchange all that has been recorded since the 1950s for just one recording of Bach.

What you really need to try nowadays is to sing while playing the syncopated figures of the Cuban tres guitar, or Puerto Rican cuatro, that not only never stop, but also have a lot of melodic independency. That is a wonder, and yet some people get around it...

Yes, I'm a bassist and sing also. You have to fully learn each part first.

I'm a big Bach fan. I used to like to play his two part inventions on bass. Fun stuff.

I've always said that Bach would have been a bass player if he was around today.

[Sock Puppet]

That Verithin (1971 Hofner Verithin Bass Guitar) might be the same pickup but I think I see a stamped logo on each side of the slot. The other two have screw poles under the strings, above the slot so definitely a different animal.

Thanks David.

I thought the screws could be just reflections but my eyes are worn.

The radius on the chromed part is still wrong though...

I just had the thought of dismantling it and the stanley knife went through like a knife through butter - seems the solder doesn't stick to the chrome.

I'll get the camera out and create a gallery.

Cheers,

Rob.

BTW Stealth, I take it it was your turn to make the bed

[Sock Puppet]

I haven't used the gallery option here before but this shoud work:

http://music-electronics-forum.com/users/647-albums60/

Surprised me that the bobbin is nowhere near full with at least a 4mm gap - also, no wax potting.

Cheers,

S.

Also - the elastic band hold the magnets in place around the bottom of the blade, no glue.

[Berman]

This is a german-built Basspickup.
It#s probaly from the end of the sixties / beginning of the seventies.

Look ath this page, they sell NOS pickups of this kind.
Musikkeller ||*einzelteile

I, myself own such a pickup and mine looks very simular to yours, exept it has two outpup chords for the different coils built into it.

Greetings
Hermann

[David Schwab]

Look ath this page, they sell NOS pickups of this kind.
Musikkeller ||*einzelteile

Musikkeller ||*Bass

[Stealth]

BTW Stealth, I take it it was your turn to make the bed

Nope, this was photo'd by a previous owner who handed the bass over to me for free. And yes, it was his turn to clean up so the bass had to go somewhere.

[Sock Puppet]

I, myself own such a pickup and mine looks very simular to yours, exept it has two outpup chords for the different coils built into it.

Greetings
Hermann

Thanks so much Hermann, a Hoyer pickup it's got to be.

I now wonder if the pickup with two leads is in fact a tapped single coil and not a humbucker as stated on the Musikkeller page - I cannot understand how you could make a humbucking single rail pickup.

Cheers,

Rob.

[Stealth]

I now wonder if the pickup with two leads is in fact a tapped single coil and not a humbucker as stated on the Musikkeller page - I cannot understand how you could make a humbucking single rail pickup.

Stacked coils spring to mind as a solution.

[Sock Puppet]

Stacked coils spring to mind as a solution.

Nay, too early, design doesn't allow it.

That pickup checklist in your sig got my attention - I've no idea what you had in mind but magnets that are too powerful will act as anchor points when the string vibrates, causing wolf tones.

Here's an idea. Can you specify (I'm sure you could if you were rich) the magnetic charge on a NdFeB magnet when you order from a manufacturer?

i.e. make them much weaker?

Bang goes another idea... You heard it here on "The Music Electronics Forum" first if anyone asks.

Cheers,

Rob.

[David Schwab]

That pickup checklist in your sig got my attention - I've no idea what you had in mind but magnets that are too powerful will act as anchor points when the string vibrates, causing wolf tones.

It doesn't happen in the context of a pickup with rails and a strong neo. Not on bass anyway. I've been using neo magnets in bass humbuckers with two blades, and I can just about touch the pickup to the strings with no wolf tones... and I was expecting them.

I use two magnets with these ratings:

Dimensions: 1" x 1/4" x 1/4" thick
Material: NdFeB, Grade N42
Pull Force, Case 1: 13.15 lbs
Pull Force, Case 2: 21.44 lbs
Surface Field: 4871 Gauss
Max Operating Temp: 176ºF (80ºC)
Brmax: 13,200 Gauss
BHmax: 42 MGOe

Here's an idea. Can you specify (I'm sure you could if you were rich) the magnetic charge on a NdFeB magnet when you order from a manufacturer?

i.e. make them much weaker?

You can order one of several grades, but I don't think you can get a weaker magnet. You have to play around with magnet sizes and pole designs.

[David Schwab]

I cannot understand how you could make a humbucking single rail pickup.

It would have to be a stack or a sidewinder.

[Sock Puppet]

Still too fast.

Maybe you're not who you say you are.. Neo.

[Stealth]

Nay, too early, design doesn't allow it.

That pickup checklist in your sig got my attention - I've no idea what you had in mind but magnets that are too powerful will act as anchor points when the string vibrates, causing wolf tones.

Here's an idea. Can you specify (I'm sure you could if you were rich) the magnetic charge on a NdFeB magnet when you order from a manufacturer?

I follow in David's footsteps along with his explanations and experiences here and on TB - I'm planning on using N35 grade NeFeBs so it should be plenty strong for a pickup, yet weak enough so as not to dampen the strings. I know of the problem you mention (usually happens as stratitis), but then again - I am aiming primarily at basses and the lightest string the pickup might affect will be a .030 (the high C on my Sixer).

[David Schwab]

This looks like the same pickup. So I guess Höfner did use them.