ATK305 second pickup options?

[Jamie_Funk]

Originally Posted by steve_rolfeca

Ever since my time in an Italian wedding band in the late '70's/early 80's, I've had an irrational horror of slapping. So the placement of the neck pickup isn't an issue for me.

But it does kill the bass for slap- the front edge of the pickup is about a 1/4" from the truss rod adjuster...

Ha ha ha...loved the Italian Wedding story today Steve - don't fear the thumb!

J

[dug dog]

All I can see right now is an old Italian lady lightly slapping my cheeks and telling me I need to eat!

[dug dog]

I'm hungry.

[steve_rolfeca]

Originally Posted by dug dog

All I can see right now is an old Italian lady lightly slapping my cheeks and telling me I need to eat!

The food was amazing- as a large showband, we were so expensive that we only got hired for large, high-end weddings. I'd never eaten catered food that good, or seen portions that large: Antipasto plates that were a meal in themselves, steaks that would melt in your mouth, slices of Black Forest cake the size of Maine...

But you paid the price when it was time to start playing again. That period was Disco's peak, at least in the Toronto Italian community. 3 1/2 years of playing Funkytown and YMCA, and I don't even dance. Endlessly popping octaves while camped on one chord got so boring, that I actually bought an ARP Odyssey synth and a fancy stand.

At least that way, I could play rubbish bass lines and sip a ginger ale at the same time...

[steve_rolfeca]

Originally Posted by dug dog

I saw the pix you posted earlier, but do you have any that show the entire body?

(BTW, I really need to stop reading this forum! )

Here's a picture of Beth, a new intern at church, playing the two-pickup ATK.

Sorry about the poor picture quality- she had both p'ups engaged, and the room was movin'!

[steve_rolfeca]

Latest updates:

One of the issues with twin ATK pickups, is that Ibanez doesn't offer a neck version, with lower output. This means that the neck pickup is going to be considerably louder than the bridge p'up. IME, this is the opposite of what most bassists are looking for. They either want the two pickups balanced, or a slight volume increase when they kick in the bridge.

Anyway, after setting up a new black sparkle ATK305 for my church, I came away with some new ideas about pickup height adjustments. I now have the neck pickup sunk almost level with the top. This doesn't appear to have hurt the signal from the neck pickup, which is still plenty hot, and has improved the sound when both pickups are on.

I am now definitely ready to try a variable blend between the pickups.

I normally favor a V/V wiring harness on two-pickup basses, but I still want to isolate the character switch from the second pickup (with passive wiring, both pickups "see" the filter), so I'm definitely going to try out the EMG ABC active buffered blend pot.

Further updates once I have the sixty bucks in hand...

[Justin Tuskey]

looks great Steve, pretty natural looking actually. I want some isolated clips though! I want a "Beth playing an ATK" in my life smart girl

[Kenova]

WOW WOW WOW!!!!!

[steve_rolfeca]

Ouch. Canadian street prices are usually pretty close to U.S. these days, but you still get the occasional exception.

In this case, Long & McQuade is quoting CDN$85, plus taxes, for a $50-ish EMG ABC-SOL balance control. And, of course, EMG has an exclusivity agreement with their U.S. dealers. No cross-border sales...

It seems kind of against the low-budget nature of this project, to use a $90 balance control with the stock ATK electronics.

Sooo, back to Allparts for an $8 passive blend. If I find the blended tones useful, but the volume loss in the centre position bugs me, THEN we'll see about ponying up the big bucks.

+1 for the huddled masses, and -1 for the greedy middlemen. EMG loses another customer...

[steve_rolfeca]

Couldn't get an Allparts blend pot, apparently backordered with no due date. So, I put a cheap blend pot in there. Tweaked the pickup heights as well, to get a closer blend between the neck pickup (VERY hot) and the bridge pickup (not so hot).

It sounded good, especially with the neck pickup dialed up just enough to provide some extra thunder, without losing all the grind from the bridge pickup.

Unfortunately, the pot only lasted a couple of days, and had a pretty uneven blend curve.

So, I finally ponied up for an EMG active blend. Will hopefully wire it up this weekend, and report back...

[steve_rolfeca]

I finally found the time to install the EMG-ABC-SOL active balance control this afternoon.

I placed the new hole for the volume control further forward, directly above the bass EQ knob. The balance control is mounted in the original hole for the volume control. I used to have trouble finding the volume control because it was so far back, so it's all good.

The ABC comes with three black plastic knobs with brass inserts. I decided to use them for the EQ, and re-use one of the leftover OEM dome knobs for the balance control. Looks OK with the black pickguard, and makes a better visual distinction between the level controls and the EQ.

I had to lower the neck pickup some more to get a good balance, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. I currently have the neck pickup fixed in humbucking mode, and don't plan to change it. It gives a deep, round sound with a very strong, balanced B string, and just enough zing on top to give it character. It's a real swampy, deep bass sound- think John Paul Jones playing Dazed and Confused on Zep 1.

Solo'd, it's not a sound that I would use personally, but both pickups full is pretty interesting. A strong, pure sound that still packs a lot of growl, but has more fundamental than the bridge pickup by itself, particularly on the B string. The EMG ABC is a treat. The tapers are well-chosen- the action is very progressive, without the flat spot in the middle that bugs me with passive blend pots. There is an audible difference as you continue to rotate the pot past center, almost all the way to the end of the track.

Also, the ABC control seems to be acting as a buffer. There's a little more clarity, and less of the "bass under a blanket" sound that I noted with the stock electronics. Other than that, I don't hear any tonal changes, and the EQ sounds just as musical as ever.

Definitely a worthwhile project, if you can find another ATK pickup for a reasonable price, and have the skills to do a pickup rout.

The only downside to this project for me, was that it confirmed how much I hate cutting pickguards. No more for me- next time I have a project like this, I'll send out to the experts for a new pickguard.

Oh, and it didn't happen without pictures:





UPDATE:

I picked up a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 last week. I have been running it nearly flat, which means bass backed off to 9 o'clock, 600Hz mids at 2 o'clock, and treble backed off to about 10 o'clock.

In honor of the new pickup, I just set everything at noon, solo'd the neck pickup, and gave 'er. We are talking serious low end, deep as all get out, but still tight and controlled. The punch is absolutely RIDICULOUS. Anyway, got to go put the siding back on my house!

[Jamie_Funk]

Originally Posted by steve_rolfeca

I finally found the time to install the EMG-ABC-SOL active balance control this afternoon.

I placed the new hole for the volume control further forward, directly above the bass EQ knob. The balance control is mounted in the original hole for the volume control. I used to have trouble finding the volume control because it was so far back, so it's all good.

The ABC comes with three black plastic knobs with brass inserts. I decided to use them for the EQ, and re-use one of the leftover OEM dome knobs for the balance control. Looks OK with the black pickguard, and makes a better visual distinction between the level controls and the EQ.

I had to lower the neck pickup some more to get a good balance, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. I currently have the neck pickup fixed in humbucking mode, and don't plan to change it. It gives a deep, round sound with a very strong, balanced B string, and just enough zing on top to give it character. It's a real swampy, deep bass sound- think John Paul Jones playing Dazed and Confused on Zep 1.

Solo'd, it's not a sound that I would use personally, but both pickups full is pretty interesting. A strong, pure sound that still packs a lot of growl, but has more fundamental than the bridge pickup by itself, particularly on the B string. The EMG ABC is a treat. The tapers are well-chosen- the action is very progressive, without the flat spot in the middle that bugs me with passive blend pots. There is an audible difference as you continue to rotate the pot past center, almost all the way to the end of the track.

Also, the ABC control seems to be acting as a buffer. There's a little more clarity, and less of the "bass under a blanket" sound that I noted with the stock electronics. Other than that, I don't hear any tonal changes, and the EQ sounds just as musical as ever.

Definitely a worthwhile project, if you can find another ATK pickup for a reasonable price, and have the skills to do a pickup rout.

The only downside to this project for me, was that it confirmed how much I hate cutting pickguards. No more for me- next time I have a project like this, I'll send out to the experts for a new pickguard.

UPDATE:

I picked up a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 last week. I have been running it nearly flat, which means bass backed off to 9 o'clock, 600Hz mids at 2 o'clock, and treble backed off to about 10 o'clock.

In honor of the new pickup, I just set everything at noon, solo'd the neck pickup, and gave 'er. We are talking serious low end, deep as all get out, but still tight and controlled. The punch is absolutely RIDICULOUS. Anyway, got to go put the siding back on my house!

Awesome - can't wait to try it out soon

And I guarantee that ABC blend is acting as a buffer/impedance lowering device.

J

[steve_rolfeca]

Originally Posted by Jamie_Funk

... I guarantee that ABC blend is acting as a buffer/impedance lowering device.

Yeah, I'm just surprised at the magnitude of the difference. After all, when I started out, the pickup was already being buffered by the OEM preamp. It's like the ABC is buffering the buffer...

[Funk Factor]

Cool project, Steve ... looks good too!!
Now where's that ATK pickup I have layin' around

[steve_rolfeca]

Wow. This whole project was pretty much born out of boredom, but I actually found myself really enjoying blending the two pickups this morning. Bigger tones with more fundamental, but with lots of ATK growl and zing still available on demand.

I guess this is what people get from the H/H config on Music Man basses...

[Doublebasstim]

Can you show more photos of the bass, this is what I have been dreaming to do!

[Doublebasstim]

The 2 toogles, they both function the same for each pick up? So now you can the same three settings like the bridge pick up?

Also does anybody have an ATK pick up, I want to do this?

[steve_rolfeca]

Originally Posted by Doublebasstim

The 2 toogles, they both function the same for each pick up? So now you can the same three settings like the bridge pick up?

Actually, the second toggle was a mute switch for a while, but it isn't doing anything at the moment. I should at least try a single-coil setting, I suppose...

[Doublebasstim]

Is it possible to have both pickups work the same way (like the bridge position pickup)
with both toogles giving you 3 setings? Wow the combonations you can have !

[geribassist]

Could you post some samples of how the two-pickup configuration sounds like? I'm really interested.