Spoombung

Anybody got any experience with [b]Delano pickups[/b]? I was looking this today: Blurb reads: "We took the development of our soapbar bass humbuckers another big step further by incorporating four separate coils. [i] The result is the same great bass tone of our SBC4 HE/S, plus options, options, and options. And they all make sense: do you want a P-bass™ type, cross coils in series pattern for that great old school vibe in your neck pickup, or inverse, like the old YAMAHA BB series™ just to give you an idea what is possible. With a pair of SBC4 HE/S-4 quad coil humbuckers properly placed, having the characters of all your favorite basses on hand in one instrument is not just a dream anymore. But that is just the beginning…."[/i] Anyone know a dealer in the UK?

[quote name='Bassmingo' post='621510' date='Oct 9 2009, 12:21 PM']he's got a prototype ready...[/quote] Sshhh... nothing to to do with Larrivee.....'mums the word'... etc

[quote name='Bass Culture' post='620107' date='Oct 7 2009, 11:28 PM']There's going to be more glamorous suggestions but I had a pair of Kent Armstrong humbuckers installed on a Les Evans custom of mine and they sounded immense. I had exactly the same HZ's on a second bass and they sounded nowhere as full and rounded. I think KA's are often overlooked because we generally assume there is a relationship between price and quality and therefore convince ourselves that something esoteric and preferably American is always going to be better than something half the price and 'British'.[/quote] The website says they're 100mm so they won't fit into the EMG 89mm space, unfortunately.

[quote name='philw' post='620061' date='Oct 7 2009, 10:47 PM']Oh no, hang on, he'd have never been seen dead in a jacket like that. Ironic or not.[/quote] No, he'd just be seen dead, full stop:

Bump for any more opinions. Anyone tried the EMG CS's...?

[quote name='philw' post='619853' date='Oct 7 2009, 06:44 PM']PS. I'd forgotten that Fender style body option Pete and Ian used to offer. It looks great, and suddenly I'm regretting that I didn't order mine that way all those years ago.[/quote] When I bought it in '84 it had the original body, you can see it here, ahem: Oh God, look at me; eighties style Erazerhead haircut, ironic Rockabilly jacket, heroes on the wall - Beefheart, Stravinsky, Wilhelm Reich, bits of my quirky pottery...... and my Wal bass. I had the new Fender body made in '94. I remember it cost me £200 which I thought was an absolute bargain - even after trading in the old body to the workshop. In fact I had several changes made to it over the 10 years; neck completely re-shaped (it's thinner than a Jazz), fretlines added and numerous setups and they never overcharged.

[quote name='BB2000' post='619863' date='Oct 7 2009, 07:03 PM']The Wal preamp isn't really that complicated. I reversed engineered the one on my wall one evening and built copies as spares.[/quote] I stand corrected!

[quote name='philw' post='619853' date='Oct 7 2009, 06:44 PM']Mat Larrrivee, of Larrivee Guitars fame popped up recently on the Yahoo Wal group asking US Wal owners if he could borrow a bass and Hey, I wonder if he'd do me a chambered, single-cut, headless Wal? I'd sever my own hands to own one like that....[/quote] More to the point, I think if they could sell the pickups and preamps separately they'd be millionaires in a couple of years. I agree with you; the woods and contruction are great but the pickups and preamp sound quite different from all the other basses.

[quote name='OldGit' post='613312' date='Sep 30 2009, 09:37 PM']W&T do some nice carved heels on their bolt ons .... [/quote] That's terrific.

[quote name='littleal' post='619502' date='Oct 7 2009, 12:50 PM']I didn't know that, So that must make your bass very unique & very rare & very nice too [/quote] I guess so. Other basses have come and gone but my Wal has stayed for 25 years.

[quote name='Bassmingo' post='619511' date='Oct 7 2009, 12:59 PM']this. although theres a poster over on talkbass who's currently reverse engineering a wall pickup/preamp so he can build his own version. you'll be seeing wal soundalikes soon.....[/quote] I'm not sure that's the case. That guy has been working on it for ages now and still hasn't even got a working model. There's a lot of mouth but not much trouser going on in that Talkbass thread. The thing to remember is the Wal pickup works in a perfect symbiotic relationship with it's preamp. Both are ingenious and devilishly complicated to reverse engineer because of their complexity.

[quote name='littleal' post='619455' date='Oct 7 2009, 12:13 PM']Thats an odd shape for a wal?? Lovely bass though[/quote] Wal used to offer a Fender body option. I was one of the few people who took it up.

PS. I've just realised that Paul Herman fellow is the one who discovered the sycamore [i]in a skip[/i] in [i]Leeds[/i]...that's the sycamore that sports the front and back of my bass!

[quote name='Kev' post='619120' date='Oct 6 2009, 10:50 PM']With all due respect, if a basic website puts you off buying a wal, i don't think you should be spending thousands of pounds on a bass.[/quote] I was being facitious!

[quote name='Gwilym' post='619245' date='Oct 7 2009, 02:24 AM']+1 EMG 40DC pups will give you bark... The Hz are their budget line? I played a Cort/Elrick once with the Hz pups - nowhere near as good the real thing.[/quote] Okay, I've got the DC's on a short list, then. Anyone got Barts on the their bass...or something else?

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='619066' date='Oct 6 2009, 09:56 PM']You may as well CC all this lot too - [url="http://www.pldproductions.com/portfolio.htm"]http://www.pldproductions.com/portfolio.htm[/url][/quote] Oh, I can't help it now, you've got me going. The Wal website looks like some sort of Ikea/Habitat generic abomination made by a team of 6th formers on a Dreamweaver course. There's tiny little pictures that you click on ... only to bring up more tiny pictures. Their website puts me off ordering a new Wal even more than the actual price.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='619056' date='Oct 6 2009, 09:36 PM']www.pldproductions.com must be raking it in too! Every customer has the same template website but with different content. Now that's a production line!![/quote] Ah, I was going to launch into a blistering, crushing, criticism of their rather nasty, lifeless, antiseptic, generic looking website .. but I will resist.

Y'see? All my nagging about their non-existent website ("my ten year old could do that" etc) paid off. Spoombung made it happen.

[quote name='nash' post='619014' date='Oct 6 2009, 09:03 PM']what about real EMG's?[/quote] What about 'em?

I've got a little tired of the sound of the neck pickup on my custom Iceni bass. It's an EMG Hz (chosen by myself). After having the bass for a few months now, I find the pickup has a slightly synthetic top end (reminiscent of a cheap piezo) and quite a heavy bottom end. I'm looking for something that 'barks' a bit and has more bite (to complete the canine analogies) and catches harmonics easily. I'm used to a Wal pickups, afterall. It [i]has[/i] to fit the EMG footprint which is 89mm and individual pole pieces are out the question due to the narrow string spacing. People have mentioned Bartolinis and suchlike but I thought I'd check out Basschatters opinions first...!

Hang on the quarter tone for as long as you can and delay the transition and it'll sound fantastic (after all it's not difficult to improve a Dido song ). Violinists play quarter tones and slurs for a living; check out Dave Swarbick, for instance.

Here we go again....

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='604776' date='Sep 21 2009, 05:52 PM']I have a "3"; [/quote] DROOOOOOOL.........

[quote name='Mike' post='597426' date='Sep 13 2009, 03:38 PM']Agreed, have you heard the bass, drums and vox mix of "Snowbound" from Kamikiriad with WB on bass? Superb![/quote] Absolutely. I think [i]Kamakiriad[/i] has some of the best basslines I've ever heard. '[i]Florida Room[/i]' is exceptional.

Yeah he's fussy and pedantic to the max, but I always thought that Walter Becker ( the Dan guitarist and writing partner for those that don't know) is one of the finest bassists (and best kept secrets) around. Great melodic, dynamic playing with lots of space and economy.