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Dirt cheap mag pickup


Mugz.wood
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Hi, I've been trying to find a magnetic pickup for my DB and cant find anything for less than £100 which is half the price of my DB. so if anyone could point me in the direction of a cheap one or an alternative like using an electric bass pickup instead it would be greatly appreciated, thanks :)

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[quote name='Mugz.wood' post='1297500' date='Jul 8 2011, 06:32 PM']Hi, I've been trying to find a magnetic pickup for my DB and cant find anything for less than £100 which is half the price of my DB. so if anyone could point me in the direction of a cheap one or an alternative like using an electric bass pickup instead it would be greatly appreciated, thanks :)[/quote]

Schaller mag pups come up 2nd hand here pretty cheap. You can use a P bass pup, if you can find a way of fixing them to the end of the board.
Someone on here may even have something you could try, sadly I don't.
All the best,
John

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[quote name='Mugz.wood' post='1297540' date='Jul 8 2011, 07:14 PM']thanks John, 2nd hand schaller would be nice, i haven't found a cheap one yet though, fingers crossed. why a precession pickup because of the twin coil?[/quote]

Not sure about that, others here may know. I think one of the advantages is that you can angle the pups to follow the curve of the board....roughly.

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[quote name='oldslapper' post='1297555' date='Jul 8 2011, 07:26 PM']Not sure about that, others here may know. I think one of the advantages is that you can angle the pups to follow the curve of the board....roughly.[/quote]

Absolutely correct. Make up a rectangular plywood board, same width as fingerboard and about 6" long. Screw PB pickup on one end. Cable tie to fingerboard with two ties - non damaging attachment. Adjust PB pickup heights, solder jack socket somewhere and enjoy. Cheap bar magnet types (so no pole alignment problems) are available on the bay.

Alternatively wait until a Schaller appears here. Many thanks to oldslapper for mine :)

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[quote name='3below' post='1297577' date='Jul 8 2011, 07:47 PM']Cheap bar magnet types (so no pole alignment problems)

Forgot about that bit, blade type also.

Alternatively wait until a Schaller appears here. Many thanks to oldslapper for mine :)[/quote]

A pleasure sir! :)

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thanks 3below, about £8 for a set of PB pickups on "the bay" i think i will give it a try, i noticed ur from mid wales can u recommend someone who can setup my bass im from the Ceridigion/Carmarthenshire area or know sumeone who teaches? thanks

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The plywood base (9mm?) could have some angled wood wedges glued/screwed on to support the PB pickups at the correct angle. Cable tie and ply base idea came about because I do not want to put screw holes in my pristine ebony fingerboard. (if you want a possible diagram, pm me)

If you had an electric bass, guitar, mandolin etc I would highly recommend Tony Revell, Montgomery, in Mid Wales. If anyone can suggest / recommend a luthier for DB setups in Mid / West Wales or West Mids I would like to know.

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Later thought - lessons in our part of the world, no idea, self taught electric bass player 40 years, DB player (beginner) 17 years. Someone on the forum suggested this [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rufus-Reid-Evolving-Bassist-DVD-Reid/dp/B0000X02OQ"]Rufus Reid - the evolving bass player[/url] . I found it is a really good buy, I had been doing it wrong for many years, it has improved my physical technique beyond belief (sounds like an email scam).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Velcro can be used too. (sticky back) and the plate the pickups are mounted to could be a piece of aluminium sheet - that way it'll bend to the fingerboard contour and effectively allow you to adjust the pickup height by bending... Might save you a lot of sanding/planing bits of ply!

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[quote name='fonzoooroo' post='1312718' date='Jul 22 2011, 01:48 PM']Velcro can be used too. (sticky back) and the plate the pickups are mounted to could be a piece of aluminium sheet - that way it'll bend to the fingerboard contour and effectively allow you to adjust the pickup height by bending... Might save you a lot of sanding/planing bits of ply![/quote]

Definitely this.
Make an inverted "T" with the cross piece as wide as your Fingerboard, heavy duty velcro will keep it in place and is easy to remove if you need to work on it.
Bend the crosspiece to the desired shape to match your board,and gently file the edges so you don`t cut yourself!
I`d paint it black to make it less visible and use small sized nuts and bolts to fix the pick ups on, you can even use some foam between the pickups and the Ali to make the pickup heights adjustable.
If you fix your socket to an "L shaped piece of Ali, you can screw rivet or glue that to the Vertical part so it`s hidden behind the fingerboard.
MM

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