8-coil pickup done and tested

[David Schwab]

Thanks for the tips once again. How about the blades? Of course the best way to find out the differences in sound is to try the pickup with steel blades on top of the magnet rows. Anything special I should look for in the steel used on the blades?
Marko

The real Wal pickup doesn't have blades, but has two steel keeper bars that the poles are threaded into. Then they have a couple of ceramic magnets charging those.

But you can stick a blade on the top if you want. The old Bartolini Hi-A pickups were made that way.

Just get some low carbon steel... like 1010, 1018, etc.

[ERB]

Just ouf of my garage, my first ever bass pickup.

I potted the coils this morning, soldered the thing together and put Alnico 5 magnet rods on to their places. I taped it to my bass on to Music Man pickup position and recorded some sound samples of it (straight to Boss MicroBR, no effects or tone shaping). Please excuse the poor playing as the setup was all but player friendly.
Maihinnousu - Lataa - MPU - omamikki
When I compared the sound to the EMG I have on the bass this one was way, way clearer sounding than EMG. I have to say that I'm more than satisfied how this pickup turned out. There is quite a lot of noise coming out too, but there was no shielding on the pickup or the wires.
Please comment the sound, how do you like it? I'm going to make Anderton Super tone control and use it as a tone control for this pickup.
Marko

Very cool and interesting project. You successfully built your own. They sound clear and crisp according to the sound bite. Have you ran it through an amp and moved some air yet? It would be interesting to know how your bass sits in the mix.

[Marko Ursin]

Very cool and interesting project. You successfully built your own. They sound clear and crisp according to the sound bite. Have you ran it through an amp and moved some air yet? It would be interesting to know how your bass sits in the mix.

Thanks for your comments. I haven't tested the pickup in real life yet. Yesterday I finished one pickup, it has MM closed cover and it's cast in pu cast resin. Hopefully I can test it today.
Marko

[LtKojak]

Thanks for your comments. I haven't tested the pickup in real life yet. Yesterday I finished one pickup, it has MM closed cover and it's cast in pu cast resin. Hopefully I can test it today.
Marko

I've just heard the sample. You did very well indeed, it sounds great to my ears!

When are you going to make a similar p'up for a 5 and/or 6 stringer?

I'm actually quite curious about hearing how such a design will cope with that low B, specially if the scale is 34"...

[fieldwrangler]

I've just heard the sample. You did very well indeed, it sounds great to my ears!

When are you going to make a similar p'up for a 5 and/or 6 stringer?

I'm actually quite curious about hearing how such a design will cope with that low B, specially if the scale is 34"...

In the mid-eighties I was working with Ken Parker in New York. At that time, 5 & 6 string basses were just becoming "must-haves" for working bassists, but the existing instruments were verrrry heavy. So Ken developed his technique of wrapping light wood in carbon fiber/epoxy around light wood to make stiff but light necks (this was about a decade before Parker Guitars was founded).

The pickups I came up with for these six-string basses ended up being single bobbins for each string (around an inch deep and maybe 3/4" in diameter) with 1/4" Alnico rods in the center. This gave us some room to optimize for the individual strings, and it worked pretty well.

I would think that with two coils per string a pickup could potentially have even more capability for dealing with the somewhat hairy overtones on them low "B" strings...

Bob Palmieri

[David Schwab]

I'm actually quite curious about hearing how such a design will cope with that low B, specially if the scale is 34"...

The only issue I find with low B strings is the strings, not the pickups. But some bass pickups are over wound to get a solid low E and it's too muddy with the low B. I get a great low B from my basses with D'Addario XLs.

Bob, I had the pleasure of meeting Ken back in '95 at the A.S.I.A. Symposium in PA. He was giving a lecture on the Fly, and I hung out with him and talked for over an hour afterwards. He was a real nice guy. I told him that the Fly was an inside-out archtop, with the top and back plates moved to the middle. and the empty space on the outside. He liked that analogy.

[fieldwrangler]

The only issue I find with low B strings is the strings, not the pickups. But some bass pickups are over wound to get a solid low E and it's too muddy with the low B. I get a great low B from my basses with D'Addario XLs.

Bob, I had the pleasure of meeting Ken back in '95 at the A.S.I.A. Symposium in PA. He was giving a lecture on the Fly, and I hung out with him and talked for over an hour afterwards. He was a real nice guy. I told him that the Fly was an inside-out archtop, with the top and back plates moved to the middle. and the empty space on the outside. He liked that analogy.

David:

Yeah... the strings are the things but we did what we could.

Also, Ken used to describe those Fly guitars as being just the top of the archtop with no sides or back; your description adds another dimension (almost literally...)

These days Ken is, in fact, back to doing his Real Thing, which is making very interesting fully acoustic lightweight archtops again (I think the website is kenparkerarchtops.com). We talked last month about me making a mag for these; my first reaction was that the feedback issue would be kindof a big deal (they're REALLY lively!)

Later, I decided that a mag could be a cool thing for recording, so I'll likely crank out some prototypes this summer.

Bob Palmieri

[David Schwab]

David:

Yeah... the strings are the things but we did what we could.

Well the pickups do help. The multiple coils give a clearer tone.

Ken is making some real nice looking instruments these days.

[Tele-Bob]

Sounds terrific. Very focused and articulate but warm at the same time.

[Marko Ursin]

I tested the pickup with amp yesterday. Output is just as strong as the active EMG the bass has. The difference between these two pickups was not so clear thru amp, but it was still there, especially the clarity of the 8-coil was clearly heard. EMG was a bit stronger (and not so clear) on the lows, but with little bass boost on the amp I could dial similar, clearer low end to the 8-coil. I also played with the Anderton Super Tone Control and that really gave a huge amount of sound shaping. Looks like I'm going to make a bass with one 8-coil pickup and Super Tone Control on the pedal board.
Marko

[David Schwab]

I also played with the Anderton Super Tone Control and that really gave a huge amount of sound shaping. Looks like I'm going to make a bass with one 8-coil pickup and Super Tone Control on the pedal board.
Marko

I love that thing! I used to have one of those in a box that sat on top of my amp. Now I'm making an on board dual low pass filter preamp.

[David King]

David and Marko,
What is the Anderton circuit using for amplification stages? Is it jFET based op-amp, discrete transistors or...? A lot of his designs go back to the 70's.

I found a recent schematic, and see it's based on the LM324 / 2902 which seems to harken back to 1975 though I'm sure the specs have been tightened up many times since then. Latest revisions to the spec sheets are from about 2005.

[David Schwab]

David and Marko,
What is the Anderton circuit using for amplification stages? Is it jFET based op-amp, discrete transistors or...? A lot of his designs go back to the 70's.

Op amps. And more precisely obsolete op amps (RC4136). He always used op amps.



This is the second version of the circuit. The original had switches instead of pots for blending the filter outputs.

[Marko Ursin]

Op amps. And more precisely obsolete op amps (RC4136). He always used op amps.



This is the second version of the circuit.

That's the schematic my Super Tone Control is made of. I've been toying with an idea of making an onboard version of it. The board could be easily made smaller and two 9V batteries would work as power supply. Only thing is that I don't like batteries on my bass. I guess I'll go with the floor unit.
Marko

[David Schwab]

Only thing is that I don't like batteries on my bass. I guess I'll go with the floor unit.
Marko

There are certain advantages to having a preamp in the bass instead of after the controls and instrument cable.

I've been using basses with batteries in them since 1977, and I have never had a battery go dead on me during a gig, or any other time for that matter. When I change my strings, I change, or least check, my batteries (unless it's a bass with flatwound strings... those I don't change). I've broken bass strings on a gig, but never had a battery die!

But I had one of these in an external enclosure and that worked well too.