The Guitar Weasel

Unfortunate for me that double bass strings can run to the price of a whole cheaper bass guitar! Over £200 is pretty common. Ordering them online you are generally at the mercy of whichever bunch of losers they pick as carriers.

For those who frequent Fretboard Forum I've also started a thread there under the same title - I really want to see if I can use google algorithms to draw EVRi into a dialogue or a statement on their performance - I may take a crack at my MP about this.

As a guitarist and also double bass player – and like lots of folks I use eBay for some purchases. I’m also ‘trade’ and own a guitar pickup winding company – so I have loads of experience with various courier companies. I had bad experiences with Hermes before it became EVRi , but as eBay pushes its partnership with EVRi, one can’t really avoid having this company used to send purchases from eBay sellers. I NEVER use EVRi for any personal selling on eBay or indeed in my capacity as a business owner: preferring Royal Mail or at a push DPD for my business parcels. I did however need a new set of double bass strings – and as anyone who plays double bass will know these are not cheap. I was delighted to find an ‘opened but not used’ set of quite hard to find strings on eBay and proceeded to order them. After longer than the estimated delivery time I got a notification from EVRi that my parcel had been delivered. Ironically I was doing Jury service at the time but my wife was home to collect any mail. Not unexpectedly for EVRi my parcel hadn’t been delivered when I returned from a difficult day in court – neither had the doorbell been rung – my wife was listening out for it. I was provided with a ‘proof of delivery’ photograph’ which actually only showed a hand holding my parcel held in front of my next door neighbours firmly closed front door! That – to my mind - is not any ‘proof of delivery. I visited my neighbour, and they had had no mail left with them that day. So we have a delivery driver at best not bothering to even try to deliver parcels correctly and ensure their safety, and at worst a criminal driver who is faking delivery pictures and keeping other folks goods. Now I realise these delivery drivers are under-paid, rushed and over worked, but it is for EVRi to sort its house out: pay drivers properly, ensure their honesty and competence, and deliver proper service for the money they get both for their service and from their lucrative deal with eBay. I realise that it’s not just EVRi, our whole courier industry is generally poor. The courier industry’s fast expansion and lack of proper recourse and regulation has turned the industry into the ‘Wild West’ where companies like EVRi can make huge profits while short changing both their customers and their employees. Will I get my money back for my strings? Who knows. What I will do is take this as a catalyst to approach others in my industry and get them to boycott couriers that don’t clean up their act. To possibly start a petition to the UK parliament to try and get tougher controls on these companies. To ensure they don’t try to hide behind chat bots and convoluted complaints procedures to escape their duties to give value and security in their services with respect to goods entrusted to them that we have paid for!. Please share this on social media if you can, this industry needs to be cleaned up.

I generally rewind anything up to 20 Rick bass pickups a year, from sixties to early to 2000s ... and my Rick inspired prototypes have taken elements from a mixture of eras, for example: the screw adjustable pole pieces combined with the more modern wind. The harder higher carbon steel screw poles give a different and more toppy character.

Having rewound a lot of Rick pickups I've found (by actually measuring the wire diameter) that contrary to what Rickenbacker have maintained, the 8k ones were wound with 43awg wire which roughly gives you 8000 turns. They now use finer 44awg wire ... and because of the higher resistance per foot of the finer gauge, the 8000 turns gives you 13.5k. Exactly the same power, because it's turns that equal volume, not resistance. The 44awg wire just gives you more mid punch.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Ricks: I'm primarily a guitar player ... so I've never had to live with one on a day to day basis for playing. My experience comes from playing one occasionally, and in spending 40 years repairing instruments and six years rewinding numerous Rick pickups. I adore the look, and the mid range growl and clang, but ergonomically as a player I couldn't use one all the time. The Issue I see over and over again are dead Rick pickups, ones that have mysteriously just stopped working. When I rewound my first Rick bass pickup I discovered the design fault that leads to failure. Dead centre of the image is a sawn off brass screw that is driven through the bobbin and .... The super delicate 44awg wire is soldered directly to that screw ... no insolation, no strain relief. If the screw gets loose ... which the original soldering can make it ... it twists and breaks the wire. The simple fix is a short insulated 'pig tail' that has the core wire soldered to that ... a kink is put in the wire to allow for a bit of movement ... and the whole shooting mach is taped before winding. Problem solved ... but why oh why can't Rickenbacker do something about it themselves?

That looks really cool.

Jason (Lollar) made a replacement 'horseshoe' pickup ... which Rickenbacker no longer make, and the patent had expired on ... yet he got busted. You can see why us pickup makers treat the company like a handgrenade with the pin out!

Yes but if a pickup maker like me says it (probably three times) mirror or no ... then the lawyers from the 'Company Which Must Not Be Named' come and jump all over him with hobnail boots.

That's on my 'to do' list 🙂

Then it's done exactly what I wanted it to do ... No doubt with a bit of creative EQ you could tip it either way, which makes for a good take on versatility. On a solid bass you might have more clang than thump, but considering there is no other body or neck design element in common with a ... er Californian bass, or a an equal pickup positioning ... I think I nailed the design brief 🙂

Yep, blues harmonica player here too 🙂

If you are at the Birmingham guitar show in February Bridgehouse ... bring it to our stand and demo it 🙂

Mudbucker covers are pretty much impossible to get ... I'd do a version if I could get those. Perhaps a custom made ebony cover or similar would do the job. I'm an engineer not a woodworker mind ...

Sadly no ... I started to be more of a guitar player than a bass player, so I sold it to the bass player of my band at the time ... he used it for years. It's still out there somewhere. It's easily recognisable: a fretless Thunderbird bass with a ebony board and a Model 1 DiMarzio Mudbucker in the neck position and a split P Bass in the bridge. Pretty unique.