Pickup choice

[hillbilly deluxe]

I have an Italia,modulus,it plays great,but sounds VERY weak,and i want to use it.What pickup would fit in the space after the lipsticks are removed without too much cutting about ? I was thinking about a MM-type, I do'nt mind having a new scratchplate made,and im not bothered about the colour of the pickup that goes in,ie,it does'nt need to be chrome,as i intend to cover it with a P-style chrome rest,it already has a P-style bridge cover.

Edited March 24, 2011 by hillbilly deluxe

[zero9]

Status graphite make replacement MM style pickups as do others (Bartolini, EMG).

If you're looking for a high output passive pickup I could recommend a DiMarzio Model One DP120 or Villex MM style.

Wil

[Mr. Foxen]

Sure that much coil and magnet should sound beefy. Maaybe try a bunch of strat pickups instead? KEnt armstrong lipsticks are a bit expensive for that many, but should be others about. Are there interesting wiring options that could beef up the sound?

[hillbilly deluxe]

Im not sure about the wiring options,pre-amp maybe ?
The MM style pickup would need to be placed in this pic,would that be too far back ? an extra pickup could be fitted further forward to balance things out.
Thanks for the hints.

Edited November 14, 2009 by hillbilly deluxe

[hillbilly deluxe]

Bump.Sorry.

[hillbilly deluxe]

I took the pickup out of the Jim Deacon MM that i have,cut a hole in the Italia so that it would fit.Luckily ? the Italia body is made up of 2 seperate pieces,back and front,which screw together,so i only had to cut the top half of the body and soldered the connections up.This left me with an odd shaped hole where the 4 lipstick pickups used to live,so i cut a 3" square out of a mother of toilet seat Jazz scratchplate that i got in the local guitar shop,drilled a hole and screwed it onto the existing scratchplate.This will do until i get a new scratchplate made up.
It also got a couple of gold knobs instead of the original "strat" type,just to bling it up a bit.
Result...............1 unusual P shaped bass which plays great but sounded thin and weak,and now sounds much louder and punchy.

Next project.........Jim Deacon MM to get 2 or 3 lipstick pickups,or a replacement MM style

[EmaTheMirror]

Since you're talking about an "Italia", I'd like to quote the name of a great Italian pickup and electronics (onboard preamps) maker, AKA Piero Terracina, haha! ... I have a pair of "custom" built J stile pickups made by him, he's the kind of person who has a great international curriculum, you can easily ask him for the best option depending on your needs (he replies to emails within 10/15 minutes), he seals his magnets in epoxy and if required routes your existing custom size covers and rebiulds your pickups.

this is his site:

[url="http://www.magneticspickups.com/eng/"]http://www.magneticspickups.com/eng/[/url]

Edited February 1, 2010 by EmaTheMirror

[Lfalex v1.1]

I;m not normally an aesthete, but I liked the look of the original, multi-lipstick look. I'd have investigated the possibility of having them re-wound a bit "hotter". I believe Wizard and Armstrong will do such things. Sorry I didn't get in earlier....

[hillbilly deluxe]

That would have been the best option,but cost prohibitive as it's not my main or even backup bass.

[hillbilly deluxe]

Well,i looked at it for a bit (13 months) and whipped the tools out,it now looks like this.
1 precision scratchplate,1 Epiphone EB-0 pickup,1 Wilkinson soapbar pickup,1 Precision pickup cover later,and TA-DA.

[hillbilly deluxe]

I had 3 white Strat knobs,now i've only got two.................bugger.

[watchman]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1174996' date='Mar 24 2011, 06:56 PM']Well,i looked at it for a bit (13 months) and whipped the tools out,it now looks like this.
1 precision scratchplate,1 Epiphone EB-0 pickup,1 Wilkinson soapbar pickup,1 Precision pickup cover later,and TA-DA.[/quote]

That looks really cool, and as though it might sound like my sort of thing. Not a fan of the chrome covers, but then that's why they're simple to add and remove...

[hillbilly deluxe]

The bridge cover came as standard on the bass,the Precision cover is there to cover the couple of mm gaps around the EB-0 pickup until i can get a new one cut.The bass does sound thunderous,like a really fat Precision.