bloke_zero

2nd worst website I've seen this year - that you can't link to a page just the frame - thanks for the link though! Suddenly thinking about this for a build...

Back in the day they made the Cutlass with a modulus graphite neck: https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/cool-and-classic-basses-music-man-cutlass-bass-573243

Interesting - so Peavey bought the MIDI/fret system - I wonder what stopped production in 92?

Thats what I was thinking - though you'd need the wiring diagram to be sure - might be parallel! There are passive treble and bass circuit - there is one on the G&L L2000 - to be fair that doesn't really look like it though - again hard to know without seeing the cap values.

I had a loan of one of those in the 90's - amazing sounding things - the filter options were pretty basic but you're right - the raw tone was nuts. Really clever 'instant tracking' because it was the sound from the pickup, just wave shaped. I think the idea is that there is more clarity as there is less crosstalk between strings but without having played with one I can't verify. I was wondering about exactly that question here: Where there are a couple of 8 coil MM pickups listed.

Only while their top end hearing is intact - after a few years they'll be mooching around after round sounding P-basses like everyone else.

The only rational thing to do is keep the stingray and build up something boutique with this herrick pickup, with the rout a cm or so closer to the neck - I estimate it'd only cost 2 or 3 K to get something really bumping! (Or maybe thats what i'd do if I had the money).

I guess it's like a halfway between high mass and old school L-shape. There are things to be said for both - arguably with a lower mass bridge more of the string resonance will be transferred to the body shortening the sustain but making the bass feel more live and changing the tone. Or something like that! People have very strong views on it as you'd expect 🤷‍♂️

Great article - cleared up a lot of stuff for me, especially star grounding - I kept looking for the grounding jumpers between the pots before reading the text about a shielded pickguard providing the ground connection. I didn't realise that adding ground jumpers could increase noise!

Maybe! I just went on an emotional rollercoaster going passive to active, not liking active and going back to passive and then back to active on a stingray build. I did it becasue the voicing of the MM pickup is, because of it's position close to the bridge, always going to be a bit bass light. Switching from the PU from series to parallel wiring made it work with the preamp much better (stingrays are normally parallel). One of the things that Rautia guys reference is emphasised mids and a nasal quality (great marketing!) so that top end clarity (that I love with the passive sound) came at a cost of somethig I had to EQ pretty radically when recording - which is a no for me.

I see what you're saying: https://www.rautiaguitars.net/multi-coil-bass-pickups.html# Same tip - there is an openness to the sound I like - prefer the parallel to series on them. Nice demo on that page.

I'm considering building up a passive bass with a MM pickup and, sparked by someone necro-ing a Wal thread on here I went and revisted: https://www.herrickpickups.com/products/split-8-coil-mm-humbucker/ I was looking to get an idea of the tone but didn't find too much except for these 2: Which are pretty tantalising - just wondered if anyone had some direct experience they could share!

Seems like he's using it to trigger a synth at about 5:12

Need to know more! Let us know how the tracking works after calibration... I'm particularly interested in the note articulation like bend or tremelo. Looks awesome - I like that they have partnered with Warmoth for the bodies.

A mate of mine swears that if it isn't an alder p-bass with nitro finish it isn't worth a look.

I think hooky means on the sound! If you encase a vibrating mass in plastic then the plastic (poly) will have a large effect on the tonality of the mass as opposed to say nitro or wax or oil. There are a lot of questions about how much wood affects the tone as opposed to pickups, electronics and strings, but as rational beings I think we'd agree that all these things play a part.

John East Pre is really nice and drop in. Sounds great - very expensive. Or this - super cheap if you solder: https://www.musikding.de/Classic-Bass-Preamp-Preamp-kit The gy that designed it gives an interesting rundown of the process: here is a weird google translation! https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fandyszeugs.wordpress.com%2Fmusicman-stingray-classic-preamp%2F Pickups are legion! I got a Nordstrand MM 4.4 - sounds really good to me. I planned to have a lot of switching options but in the end am just running it parallel - old school style. It's worth checking that if you're going for a sound-a-like the impedence is right as otherwise the interaction between the pickup and the preamp might not work well (if you check the german article I linked there are some remarks in the comments) I'd upgrade the pickup first as it's really good to know what the passive sound is first.

I've used them a lot in the past on modular synth builds - they are good and cheap. Sometimes you get hit with additional import charges and sometimes not - I used to get their deliveries at work and it drove goods-in crazy 🙂

Got to love Dr Bonkers - amazing range of speaker IR's - never thought that you could load into a pedal - we live in age of wonders!

Worth trying Farnell? I find it really hard to keep track of ebay sellers and end up buying 12 things from 12 sellers at £1.50 each (plus postage of course - the kicker!)

This chat just made me re-install the John East I'd previously removed. It's the 3-Band. I took it out because I didn't like what it did to the top end and clarity having been used to the straight pickup through a passive treble and bass circuit (ala G&L L-2000). Subsequently I got a MM Cutlass (the new one not the old one) and was finding it much easier to record with - I was having to do a lot of eq-ing to get the right sound on my stingray-like. Upshot? Sounds great! Reading your 'The Mule' build diary (awesome!) I see the MM pickup position is naturally a bit bass lite and Leo moved it a bit for the L1500 which described exactly the problem I was having. So I scrapped the PTB circuit and parallel/series switch that I never used and put in the John East and immediately felt the relief that comes with more bass. I've not used it in anger but so far it's working well at 18V with Nordstrand MM4.4 in parallel.

Just built the Omnilooper: https://schalltechnik04.de/en/instructions/omnilooper Mainly to try with various oldschool envelope follower pedals - very nice with the mutron clone - phase shift required! The impedence button makes a big difference too. Really useful for integrating those pedals that remove all the body. The only problem I'm having, which I've noticed in some of his other designs, is that it can stop passing signal when the power supply fluctuates - e.g. a cable gets unseated and then comes back straightaway - the light is on but the circuit doesn't work until you turn it off and on again, which can be confusing on stage with bad power! That and although it is satisfying to have it was a bit build by numbers getting the whole kit from Julian - but the thought of trying to drill the little button holes so the caps didn't stick gave me the heebie jeebies!