Dark Star Pickups

[andy.]

Has anyone got any experience with them? What are they like?


I saw the bassist from the Mars Volta with them and they sound good!!!!

[GreeneKing]

I have one fitted to my Warmoth P bass with an ACG02 pre amp. They sound very distinctively old school - brilliant imo.

[Mikey R]

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='587968' date='Sep 2 2009, 09:04 PM']I have one fitted to my Warmoth P bass with an ACG02 pre amp. They sound very distinctively old school - brilliant imo.[/quote]

Peter, is that the korina bass? Do you have any recordings of it? At the Harrogate bash, I got so distracted by the Harlott I didnt really give it a proper listen!

[GreeneKing]

I don't but I will have a go.

Yes that's the one Mikey

[andy.]

Cool, would you recommend them? Do they sound good in different styles? How high are they to the strings?

The pic im looking at makes them look really high.

[url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v371/Hammon/Dark%20Star%20Basses/Juan3close.jpg"]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v371/Ham.../Juan3close.jpg[/url]

[EssentialTension]

Yes, warm old school sound with a wide frequency range, high output, and sensitivity to what you do with your fingers (or pick). I had two in a Dearmond Starfire which I miss a lot.

The Dark Star pickups are a re-engineering of the 1960s Hagstrom Bisonic pickups which were fitted to the original Guild Starfire (as used by Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane):



and were also used by Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead):



and Berry Gordy of the Allman Brothers Band had a Bisonic in a Fender Jazz known as the Tractor Bass:



Fred Hammon who did the re-engineering and named the pickups after the Grateful Dead track Dark Star has a website [url="http://www.hammoneng.com/"]here[/url].

The new Lakland [url="http://www.lakland.com/chisonics.htm"]Chisonic[/url] pickup attempts to create a similar sound with a different engineering approach.

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='andy.' post='588034' date='Sep 2 2009, 09:50 PM']Cool, would you recommend them? Do they sound good in different styles? How high are they to the strings?

The pic im looking at makes them look really high.

[url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v371/Hammon/Dark%20Star%20Basses/Juan3close.jpg"]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v371/Ham.../Juan3close.jpg[/url][/quote]
I would recommend them but they are not everyone's cup of tea.

They are high to the strings and commonly you will need to lower the pole pieces. They look like humbuckers but are actually single coils with massive magnets. What looks like a second row of pole pieces is actually screws which lift or lower the actual pole pieces. The magnets are strong enough that if the string is too close it will choke in the magnetic field.

[GreeneKing]

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='588037' date='Sep 2 2009, 09:53 PM']Yes, warm old school sound with a wide frequency range, high output, and sensitivity to what you do with your fingers (or pick).[/quote]

That is a very good description of the sound. I replaced my P pup with the Dark Star and didn't have any issue with height so they needn't cause a problem. The wide frequency range is very marked with the Low Pass filter compared to the Wizard Thumper it replaced.

Peter

[andy.]

So what kid of sound do they produce? Is it a P or J sound or something totally different?

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='andy.' post='588076' date='Sep 2 2009, 10:13 PM']So what kid of sound do they produce? Is it a P or J sound or something totally different?[/quote]
I'd say neither. But anyway it depends where in the bass they are fitted (i.e. neck or bridge) and how you play - because as I said they are very sensitive to what your fingers do.

Try searching Dark Star pickups at YouTube. There's quite a few and quite a variety of sounds.

[chris_b]

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='588037' date='Sep 2 2009, 09:53 PM']....and Berry Gordy of the Allman Brothers Band had a Bisonic in a Fender Jazz known as the Tractor Bass:....[/quote]
Berry Oakley ??

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='chris_b' post='588237' date='Sep 3 2009, 01:52 AM']Berry Oakley ??[/quote]
Correct. Of course Berry Gordy was Motown boss - haha My slip.

[ezbass]

[quote name='andy.' post='588076' date='Sep 2 2009, 10:13 PM']So what kid of sound do they produce? Is it a P or J sound or something totally different?[/quote]


[url="http://www.basstasters.com/pickups/"]Here[/url] are some samples of various p/ups including Dark Stars.

[Mikey R]

[quote name='Mikey R' post='587975' date='Sep 2 2009, 09:08 PM']Peter, is that the korina bass? Do you have any recordings of it? At the Harrogate bash, I got so distracted by the Harlott I didnt really give it a proper listen![/quote]

I think this is the one:

[GreeneKing]

[quote name='Mikey R' post='589683' date='Sep 4 2009, 02:18 PM']I think this is the one:

[/quote]

That's the baby

Warmoth 54P with a birdseye maple neck. Korina body tung oiled and neck Tru-oiled with a D tuner on Hipshot Ultralites and a Gotoh 201 bridge.

Presently strung with D'Addario's. ACG02 with one Low Pass and one High Pass filter and a volume. Alan (of ACG) helped me by doing the routing and providing me with a neat macassar ebony surround plate for the Dark Star.

It's a real workhorse and thanks go to Alan.

Edited September 4, 2009 by GreeneKing