Variax Bass Electronics in a Non Variax Bass

[BigRedX]

Brilliant! Thanks for taking the time to test this for me.

Just need to find a suitable pickup which can cope with 10.5, 11.5, and 13mm string spacing over 6 strings.

[ped]

Yes I think it would be per patch but quite easy to set up once you know how, and you can probably cut and paste the setting to make it a standard patch to then adjust further.

Good luck with Roland, they told me there would be absolutely no way tat the Wingbass would work with a GK pickup. I knew it would, because after all the VB99 thinks I'm just fretting a normal bass above the 12th fret, but it seems that anyone who was involved with the VB99 doesn't work there any more!

The Vguitar forums are great though, although sometimes I feel like I'm being drawn down a rabbit hole.

The fact that I've never tried making a two string synth and the rest clean just shows how massively flexible this unit can be - I've had mine probably 10 years now (about 20 if you could the previous model too) and I'm still finding new things to try and know that if I can hear a sound in my head, I can basically make it one way or another.

[ped]

Just now, BigRedX said:

Brilliant! Thanks for taking the time to test this for me.

Just need to find a suitable pickup which can cope with 10.5, 11.5, and 13mm string spacing over 6 strings.

The GK pickup uses bar shaped magnets so it will cope with any spacing I think.. there are tabs to switch to change the magnet placement a little but I think it would be OK. if not you could use piezo saddles. 

[ped]

Actually maybe not, 16mm might be the minimum.See page 8

http://midimanuals.com/manuals/roland/gk-3b/owners_manual/gk-3b_om.pdf

 

[NoirBass]

I think you’d have to use a GK3 pickup on a Bass VI. That would work fine with the SY-1000 though.

[therealting]

I love my Godins with synth pickups, my one annoyance is that the splitter is so expensive... £200 before import duty and taxes?!

[ped]

29 minutes ago, therealting said:

I love my Godins with synth pickups, my one annoyance is that the splitter is so expensive... £200 before import duty and taxes?!

What splitter? 

[therealting]

1 hour ago, ped said:

What splitter? 

To send GK signal to two devices. 

[ped]

4 minutes ago, therealting said:

To send GK signal to two devices. 

Ah ok. What two devices are you using? I’ve always been tempted with a Godin A4 SA but haven’t seen a fretless one which would be my preference

[therealting]

1 minute ago, ped said:

Ah ok. What two devices are you using? I’ve always been tempted with a Godin A4 SA but haven’t seen a fretless one which would be my preference

I use an OC20 for playing octaves one the bass strings of my Godin guitars, but would also like to try using my GR33 for pads. 

[Woodinblack]

11 hours ago, therealting said:

To send GK signal to two devices. 

you can just split the cable, or if you want to be fancy..

https://www.joness.com/gr300/UX-20.htm

[therealting]

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

you can just split the cable, or if you want to be fancy..

https://www.joness.com/gr300/UX-20.htm

I actually saw that yesterday! Going to look into it.

Splitting isn’t straightforward as there is some voltage being carried somewhere. May be doable, I haven’t looked into it deeply.

[BigRedX]

21 hours ago, ped said:

Actually maybe not, 16mm might be the minimum.See page 8

http://midimanuals.com/manuals/roland/gk-3b/owners_manual/gk-3b_om.pdf

 

20 hours ago, NoirBass said:

I think you’d have to use a GK3 pickup on a Bass VI. That would work fine with the SY-1000 though.

Are there string spacing specifications anywhere for the GK-3? I've scanned through the manual and there's nothing like the section in the GK-3B manual that Ped linked to. However it does say that the pickup must be no further than 20mm away from the witness point on the saddles, which rules out using it with the Burns Barracuda, unless I re-engineer part of the vibrato mechanism. The Eastwood looks more feasible, but until production models actually start shipping and I get mine, I won't know for sure. The alternative would be to use piezo saddles but I neither bass looks as though it uses standard types.

[Woodinblack]

They were a faff to find but yes, the GK-3 goes from 9mm to 12mm apparently.

Hang on... dumb blonde (what do you mean its grey, its platinum blonde!), I have a GK3, I will see if I can find it

Edited May 12, 2020 by Woodinblack

[BigRedX]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

They were a faff to find but yes, the GK-3 goes from 9mm to 12mm apparently.

Hang on... dumb blonde (what do you mean its grey, its platinum blonde!), I have a GK3, I will see if I can find it

Thanks!

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Thanks!

Turns out I have a GK-2A, which is here

So I would say that the bridge spacing of that is 53.5mm? 

As the bass VI has mustang spacing (I think?) of 56mm, I would say this would be pretty well spot on

[BigRedX]

11 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Turns out I have a GK-2A, which is here

So I would say that the bridge spacing of that is 53.5mm? 

As the bass VI has mustang spacing (I think?) of 56mm, I would say this would be pretty well spot on

Thanks very much for that. 

The problem for me is that I'm hoping to use this with the Eastwood copy of the Shergold Bass VI (when it arrives some time next month) and that has a reported string spacing of 65mm which falls between the maximum of the GK-3 and the minimum of the GK-3B.

The alternatives: The Squier Bass VI would be OK if it didn't have such a skinny neck (it's actually narrower than any of my guitars which makes it a bit of a struggle for me when fitted with bass VI strings), and the Burns Barracuda would need the vibrato mechanism re-engineering to allow the pickup to placed close enough to the saddles.

I think ultimately I may need to look at piezo saddles if I can find some that will fit the instruments I want to use it with.

[Woodinblack]

14 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I think ultimately I may need to look at piezo saddles if I can find some that will fit the instruments I want to use it with.

Indeed - or take one of the GKs apart and remount the poles a bit further apart.

As I said earlier, I have a friend that likes taking these things apart, here is something he wrote down about it

https://chriskingblog.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

[BigRedX]

3 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Indeed - or take one of the GKs apart and remount the poles a bit further apart.

As I said earlier, I have a friend that likes taking these things apart, here is something he wrote down about it

https://chriskingblog.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

Thanks for posting that. As I had suspected that looks way too fiddly for me to be messing with.

[ped]

4 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Indeed - or take one of the GKs apart and remount the poles a bit further apart.

As I said earlier, I have a friend that likes taking these things apart, here is something he wrote down about it

https://chriskingblog.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

I think Gary Willis also took a GK3B apart to get rid of the ends he didn't need 

https://garywillis.com/ask-willis-gk-3b-minimized/

 

[BigRedX]

5 minutes ago, ped said:

I think Gary Willis also took a GK3B apart to get rid of the ends he didn't need 

https://garywillis.com/ask-willis-gk-3b-minimized/

For the Eastwood, I would need to take the whole pickup apart to move each magnet/coil assembly further apart. That's just too much hassle.

According to the Boss SY1000 manual there are several manufacturers of suitable piezo systems, so maybe one of them will be able to produce the saddles I need.

[ped]

40 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

For the Eastwood, I would need to take the whole pickup apart to move each magnet/coil assembly further apart. That's just too much hassle.

According to the Boss SY1000 manual there are several manufacturers of suitable piezo systems, so maybe one of them will be able to produce the saddles I need.

Yeah I think that's best - however I bet someone on the Guitar forum will be able to do the work for you.

Are you going to install the internal kit, or have the 'brain' on the bass instead? Maybe a good idea to begin with. It's nice being able to choose what parts you want when you do the internal install, so you can have an assignable knob which you can set to do whatever you like on the unit (reverb level, A/B pan, synth shape, tone, drive level, EQ curve, whatever you can think of) and the buttons which can also be set to turn effects on and off and everything else or simply set to scroll up and down through patches.

[BigRedX]

I'm going to look into the various options.

However nothing is definite until I get my hands on the Eastwood and I know which of the 3 Bass VIs suits me best.

Also as a long time user of multi-effects I tend to do everything via footswitch controllers, so I don't really need any controls on the bass, and in fact prefer not to have them.

[ped]

5 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I'm going to look into the various options.

However nothing is definite until I get my hands on the Eastwood and I know which of the 3 Bass VIs suits me best.

Also as a long time user of multi-effects I tend to do everything via footswitch controllers, so I don't really need any controls on the bass, and in fact prefer not to have them.

In which case you can install the kit and just not add the knob and buttons to the main board in the bass. I don't install the LED or the mix switch.

[EMG456]

This sort of installation keeps it out of the way and lets you see what you need or don't need without permanently disfiguring the instrument.