I'm a guitarist Jim, not a bassist!

[ShannonH]

Soo, I'm making a bridge Jazz bass pickup for a friend, and was going to wind it to the upper 7's low 8's, with alnico magnets. Silly question of the day: Do I use 42 awg? I would imagine so , but this is a new venture for me. Thanks

Shannon

[automan]

I've taken DS's advice and started winding the neck with 42 and the bridge with 43. You can really dial in that jaco finger funk tone with 43 on the bridge.

[David Schwab]

I did a rewind of some KSD 5 string Jazz pickups recently. I actually used 42 on the bridge, but that was because I was more-or-less copying a Marcus Miller set. I did do the neck with 42 heavy build though.

Find out what kind of tone he wants. He he likes the burpy bridge tone, than 43 works great. If he likes less mids, use 42.

[automan]

I think the ksd should have been 43 on both. IIRC, thats what Ken does.

[David Schwab]

I think the ksd should have been 43 on both. IIRC, thats what Ken does.

The owner said they didn't sound good and he wanted something different. This was one of these things were I asked him what he wanted and he said "something better"! Well that tells me a lot.

So from talking to him I found out he likes Marcus Miller's tone, so I kind of copied the Fender MM pickups, with my own twists. He was very happy with the results. He especially liked the bridge pickup. I didn't actually get to hear them properly, because he left me with the pickups, but without the bass! But I did test them to see that they worked.

These were cheap Asian things with way too much wax on them. They had a very even machine wound pattern.

The neck pickup was also broken, but the bridge read 7.91K, so I don't think it was 43. It was wound pretty full. I wound the new bridge to 9K and the new neck was 7.4K.

Kent Armstrong makes Ken's regular pickups. (see below)

[automan]

I didn't know Kent made his pickups. Did Mike Pope design the pickups and the preamp or just the preamp? In that first pic, did there used to be another magnet like the small one on the top on the mirror side or is it off balance like that by design? Could you tell what kind of magnets they are in person?

Also, they appear to be epoxied from the pic. I take it they arent since you rewound them. Do you have any pics of the inside without wire?

[David Schwab]

I didn't know Kent made his pickups. Did Mike Pope design the pickups and the preamp or just the preamp? In that first pic, did there used to be another magnet like the small one on the top on the mirror side or is it off balance like that by design? Could you tell what kind of magnets they are in person?

Also, they appear to be epoxied from the pic. I take it they arent since you rewound them. Do you have any pics of the inside without wire?

The pickups I rewound were 5 string Jazz Bass pickups from an Asian made KSD Jazz bass. They had alnico poles. The pickups in the photo are from a Smith six string.

Smith's preamp is made by Haz Labs here in NJ. Haz Labs also makes the preamps for Spector, Stienberger and NS Designs.

HAZ Labs - steinberger world

I've not heard anything about Pope designing the preamp. Haz is run by Henry Zajac who worked at Musictronics which made the Mu-Tron.

I was given the bass to make a new nut and replace the Haz/Smith preamp with an Aguilar OBP-3. While I had the bass I checked out the pickups and took photos.

They are indeed molded in epoxy, like all of Armstrong's pickups. The magnets were ceramic, and both pickups used two magnets like that. Armstrong winds coils with no bobbins and they always have the connections made with those bent metal tabs, as seen in the photo below. Each coil read 6.6K, and they were wired in parallel.

[Stan H]

Find out what kind of tone he wants. He he likes the burpy bridge tone, than 43 works great. If he likes less mids, use 42.

Hi David, I have a quick question and am hoping that I am not hijacking. When winding say a Jazz set using 43 for the bridge, do you normally wind to resistance or turns count?

Thanks!

[David Schwab]

Hi David, I have a quick question and am hoping that I am not hijacking. When winding say a Jazz set using 43 for the bridge, do you normally wind to resistance or turns count?

Thanks!

Turns. But I also wind the bridge pickup a little hotter than the neck.

But I always go by turns. I check the DC resistance, and for my standard pickup models, I know what they should read, so that's just to look for shorts and stuff.

[David King]

I only wind to turns count, DCR isn't too meaningful to the sound though there may be some adjustments necessary to the count if you are trying to recreate the sound of 42 (which you aren't if you are looking for "burp").