Thinking of ordering an ACG, bring me up to speed on pickups.

[Chris2112]

Evening all,

I have been thinking of ordering a new ACG bass (a Recurve singlecut 6 string like the one pictured at the bottom of my post). I owned the first Harlot Singlecut years ago and could quite fancy getting back into the club, only with a bass crafted to my preferred specification.

I know that the pickup choices range between the B series (wooden covers with engraved logo) or the MC series pickup, with those distinctive Ken Smith-esque bobbins on show. When I was last playing an ACG, the MC series did not exist and I have rather missed out on the distinction between the two pickups.

My old Harlot had the EQ01 preamp with two flicky switches that did little other than make the bass sound thinner and less pleasant. I recall a discussion with Alan when I had that bass where he had said he would probably stop fitting those switches because he didn't see much use in them. I apologise that I cannot recall what the function of those switches was. I see now that the EQ01 is now accompanied by the DFM preamp, but despite reading the blurb, I'm not convinced I entirely understand this new module. I gather that the low pass filter range has been reduced by an octave, which is supposed to give enhanced control of the mid frequencies and tame some of the high end. Whilst I was a massve fan of the preamp my bass had fitted, I did typically roll the brightest frequencies off slightly and make it a midrange burp machine, which is typically what I always do. I am one of these lads that likes to have the bridge pickup running exclusively.

Can anyone in the know suggest which of these pickup and EQ combos I would be best focusing my attention on? I really just want a serious midrange presence.

My speculative specification is as follows:

Recurve singlecut, 34" scale, quilted maple top over sycamore body, neck of maple with wenge or macassar ebony stringers, matching headstock veneer, x2 pickups, both positioned close to the bridge. Assymmetrical neck, ebony fretboard, no radius and 19mm spacing, with a thin front to back profile, black hardware.

Something sort of like this:

 

I have a few other things in mind, maybe a Status Stealth 6 string or similar, but I really liked the last ACG so they are fairly close to being what I want to focus in on. Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

 

 

[4000]

I’d be speaking to Alan, personally. 

[Chris2112]

I'd prefer to canvas the board first, before wasting a builder's time with a speculative inquiry. I'd be happy to hear thoughts from ACG owners on what they like and dislike, anything they would change when ordering in future. I quite well know what I like, but it never hurts to draw on a wider experience base. 

[BassBus]

For what you are talking about I'd go to Alan too. He's able to offer a lot more flexibility. 

I feel the same about the switches on my Finn. Never use them. They offer series/parallel/single coil. I like the fatter tone of the parallel so that's where they stay. 

If all you want is a fat mid why not think about a Uni Pre preamp. Not the filters of the EQ01 but plenty of sweep in the mid territory and control over set frequencies for treble and bass. 

IIRC the MC pickups are best paired with the filter preamp, as Wal do with theirs. The MC pickups are individual pickups per string.

[BassBunny]

+3 for speak to Alan. His pickups have evolved over the years and he would be the best person to advise on what each range of pickups can do. One of my ACG's is Alan's own bass that he used for testing everything from hardware to electronics. It has an overwound single coil pickup with a coil tap which is pretty awesome, so some degree of "tweakery"  may be possible.

[TheGreek]

20 hours ago, Chris2112 said:

I owned the first Harlot Singlecut years ago

This??

Edited August 12, 2019 by TheGreek

[Mastodon2]

33 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

This??

That's the one, I remember Chris playing it and had a bit of a noodle myself although I couldn't play bass at the time, I was still playing electric guitar. I seem to recall him playing "Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes" on it and it sounded great. It was one of my favourite basses amongst the great many he seemed to own in that period, I can't remember what he replaced it with. This would have been somewhere between 9 to 11 years ago now, I can't remember exactly. 

I still think its most aesthetically pleasing bass ever to come out of ACG. 

[TheGreek]

1 minute ago, Mastodon2 said:

I still think its most aesthetically pleasing bass ever to come out of ACG. 

For sure, "she's a beaut, Clark" but Alan has produced some real crackers...it would be like comparing Marilyn Monroe to Sophia Loren.

[ead]

I don't know if you're near me but I have a few variants that you would be most welcome to try.  None of the MC series though.

[ead]

41 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

...it would be like comparing Marilyn Monroe to Sophia Loren.

They both had nice pickups iirc.

[LukeFRC]

3 hours ago, Mastodon2 said:

I still think its most aesthetically pleasing bass ever to come out of ACG. 

Yes. Every time it came up for sale I wanted to buy it, but couldn’t ever decide if the fact it was a single cut would have meant I never gigged it. I’m super happy it’s got a good home with @The Greek

 

if if you are an exclusive bridge pickup man  @Chris2112 would bridge pup and piezo be a more interesting combo? 

[EMG456]

As others have said, Speak to Alan. I chose the MC pickups because of the sound - punchy and detailed but maybe not for everyone. They are active pickups too so there is no true passive setting for a bass with these pickups if that is an important thing for you.

Also the DFM pre gives you a plethora of options for shaping your mids - each filter sweeps down right through the mid range with variable "Q" boost but you've got an additional dedicated sweepable midrange boost as well. You can also internally set the pickup blend that feeds the midrange stack - ie bridge, neck or any mix of the two. 

As if that's not enough, the pullswitch on the neck pickup filter stack activates a presettable low mid boost and the one on the bridge pickup filter stack activates another presettable for high mids or Wal style pick attack.

I love filter preamps and I think this is probably the best one I have tried - simple to use live but hugely flexible and creative for recording.

[Chris2112]

7 hours ago, TheGreek said:

This??

Yes, I bought it from Greeneking in 2010 or 2011. IIRC, he was selling it to but another ACG. In the same fashion, I also got a sense of what I really wanted from an ACG with that bass and that informs my current thought process. 

@ead

I'm up in Northumberland, probably some distance away from you but not that far from ACG in Moffat. It's good to know to the luthier I am considering is only a short-ish drive away.

@EMG456

Thanks for the insight. It sounds as though there are a lot to get to grips with in that circuit and surely the chance to produce lots of great tones too. I will have to write to Alan direct and discuss this further, I think. 

[TheGreek]

If this was headless I think I'd never buy another bass ever...I owned a ACG headless but it was unbelievably heavy.

Alan builds so many nice basses that it must be near impossible to order one new - which timber?? Colour impregnated or natural?? which body style?? Single cut or not?? Headless or not???

A true example of being spoilt for choice.

[eude]

How did I miss this thread before now?!
I own a fair few ACG basses and have played many many more, so hopefully I can give you some of my impressions of the bits you're asking about.

Righto, pickups.
The regular ACG pickups, the B Series ones are hand wound by Aaron Armstrong, and come in several flavours these days and in 3 casing sizes. There's the original FB which is a sidewinder humbucking pickup which gives a nice modern jazz bass vibe, with more midrange and a bit of natural compression to the notes.
There's the RFB pickups, which are more like a Musicman pickups, with the magnets side by side, giving a more ballsy tone.
These can both be augmented with the switches you mention, to give you access to series, single coil and parallel modes. I appreciate that the series mode always sounds better, as it's bigger, but there's subtleties and nuances to the other two modes which are worth exploring too.
There's the SB, single coil pickups, which come in a '70s style' now too, which are very much Jazz Bass style pickups, and finally the PB, Precision Bass style pickups, which can also be reversed for a more modern take.
All of the above can be tuned to a certain degree by using different magnet types and having things underwound or overwound too, as these are hand made to order it's no huge hardship.

MC Series pickups are a very different animal!
As @EMG456 stated, they are punchy and detailed, very detailed. My experience of them is that they pick up every single thing on the bass every subtlety come across in quite a hifi manner, you basically get EVERYTHING you play and every note regardless of position or string sounds even and balanced throughout the entirety of the bass. If you've got the budget I would go for the MC pups as it just gives you more to work with, unless you're looking for more of a vintage tone vibe.

The preamps.
The original EQ01, which you've had experience of, had a wider sweep than the DFM, but now the filter sweeps are the same on both preamps.
The main differentiator now is that the DFM has a different stack for the treble control, which is basically a sweepable treble/mid boost which is easier to use than the high pass filter on the EQ01, but obviously less flexible.

I've had, and still have some basses with Uni-pre's and ACG filter preamps, and if you're a set it and stick guy, and you really like to go for that burpy midrange on the back pickup, I would stick with the filter preamp, probably the DFM, dialling in that kind of tone is an absolute breeze with that set up, and technically, you could still have a different tone set up with the other filter on your 'spare' pickup to blend in or switch to entirely for a different sound on the fly, something you can only do when you have separate controls per pickup.

I really like the spec you've come up with, but I'd be careful weight wise as a Sycamore body might be a little heavy.
You thinking bolt-on or set neck?

Hope that helps and that you made it to the end of my post!

Cheers,
Eude

[Chris2112]

Hi Eude, 

It must surely be a set neck for me. I was really wanting to emulate the cool rear facing on my old 4 string (see TheGreek's post above). I always thought that was a bass that looked better from the back than it did from the front. The body wood I am not yet settled on but that flamed sycamore just blew me away. The top must be quilted maple with a really bright, golden appearance. That just sings of boutique quality to me. I fully expect it will make for a heavy bass, being a six string. Unless a Yamaha John Patitucci model falls into my path, I can't think of anything else that would so readily tick the boxes for me.

It sounds as though the top spec electronics are the ones I would be best off choosing. I had fully expected that my specification would have put me in 'Uber' territory anyway. 

I had chosen a spec on a fretless Skelf model a few years ago, but ended up buying a house instead. Having just spent a tremendous amount on getting an extension built, I should have just commissioned the bass! 😂

[EMG456]

4 minutes ago, Chris2112 said:

I had chosen a spec on a fretless Skelf model a few years ago, but ended up buying a house instead. 

Reckon Alan must have given me a real bargain then. 😂