Attention Lane Poor Seekers! Especially Modulus Flea bass owners!

WarriorJoe7 · #1 04-30-2008, 03:43 PM

I know a guy Adam Charette from APC repair in Rhode Island, who used to work for Lane Poor when he made pickups. I have known him for a few years and have bought some Lane Poor pickups from his stash (his stash is now empty.) Chris Weil (Angus) has also dealt with him directly and someone on here (I think abluesbassist) had a 6 string built by him. All around great guy as anyone who has dealt with him will say. He does alot of repair and fretwork on both guitars and basses in eastern RI/ southern MA.

Well he has rereleased an sonically exact copy of the Lane Poor MM4 pickup, humbucker version. I know because I have serial number 1 in my hands and I tested it against an actual LP pickup. I can provide clips if someone can provide a place to put them. The clips are both pickups installed in a 1997 Modulus Flea bass with all the electronics bypassed (straight to cable.) The APC pickup is very close (maybe even slightly more focused) and it retains all the character of the original. I would not be able to tell them apart without being told.

At the moment there is no circle logo on the pickup just a blank face. It is epoxy sealed like the LPs with the same type of wires coming out of it. Essentially it is the same pickup sonically and visually minus the logo.

I am pretty sure that there is going to end up being a waiting list because these are handmade. So go to www.guitardr.com and call him or send him an email.

http://www.guitardr.com/contactus.html

http://www.guitardr.com

I just spoke to him today so it's official!

On another note, he has produced for me a copy of the LP precision pickup but I will not be testing it until finals are done (2 weeks.) He does make a very good very quiet jazz bass set loosely based on Lane's however he decided to change the design because the Lane Poor Jazz pickups were notoriously low output. About the Js he also said that the failure rate was very high when making the originals, because they were trying to fit too much into a tight space. So he changed it.

5ers aren't in the works yet AFAIK because he doesn't have a source for covers without polepiece holes, but I think we are working on that (I helped him find the MM4 covers.) I didn't talk to him about soapbar sizes. I am fairly sure that he would work with you if you found blank covers (of any kind) without holes, and you can order those covers in a reasonable quantity (not in the thousands of covers.)

Take care,
Joe

WarriorJoe7 · #2 04-30-2008, 03:57 PM

Oh yeah you guys need to check but I believe the Flea 5 string actually uses an MM4 string pickup. If this is true then the APC MM4 would work for it!

SuperDuck · #3 04-30-2008, 03:59 PM

If you want to send me those clips I can host them for a while. I can get them up later tonight when I get home.

WarriorJoe7 · #4 04-30-2008, 04:01 PM

get me an email addy and I'll send them... I will get pics of pickups and links of clips up here as soon as I can...

Updated: OK so let me explain something about my playing and my setup to record these.

My playing: I have probably the brightest tone of anyone I know because I don't have much meat on my fingers. You can read a little bit about why I sound so bright here http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showth...ny#post1365647 It's like I am playing with bone and fingernails. I only mention it because these sound clips are gonna sound thin to some of you, but it's only because of my hands. These 2 clips are only meant to be compared to one another to see if they are similiar, not to represent the tone you would get in your own bass. I did make sure to play over the same part of the strings for both pickups for consistency (Just off to the neck side of the pickup an inch or so.) I also played the same stuff and most of the lines I play use all 4 strings. My playing was a bit off the day i recorded so forgive that. I tend to play sloppily when i am tired.

My setup: A 1997 Flea bass with the graphite neck. I completely bypassed the electronics and went straight to the cable on both pickups. When I changed the pickups I measured the distance the pickup sat from the strings on both the E and G side and made sure they were the same for both setups. I of course kept the same strings and played the same lines. The 2 recordings are about half an hour apart and I was trying to keep everything the same for both setups. I ran the bass into a Sansamp PBDDI without any of the tone controls engaged (basically I was just using it as a DI.) Then I went into Soundblaster Extigy (used to be very highly regarded for single or 2 track recording) then into the program Audacity on my windows laptop. I decided to save them in WAV format as MP3 is useless for something like this.

If there are any other questions feel free to ask. Thank you Michael for hosting these.

You may need to right click on these links and hit "save target as..." The LP.wav is the lane poor. The apclp.wav file is the APC.

http://michaelhermes.com/songs/apcpu.wav
http://michaelhermes.com/songs/lp.wav

Remember that these are only meant to be compared to each other, not to judge the tone. I probably should have a friend play through these.

FunkyMonkCP · #5 04-30-2008, 04:33 PM

I am excited to hear the clips! If these pickups are what you say they are, I may have to order a few and keep them for future Flea basses I may buy.

MoonDoggy · #6 04-30-2008, 04:58 PM

GREAT BE THE DAY!!!

Thanks Joe for being a part of the return of the greatest bass pickups ever made!!!

Please keep the TB community posted on the progress as these become more 'mass-produced' (not implying any sort of cheapness with that word).

Thanks

Dan

WarriorJoe7 · #7 04-30-2008, 05:44 PM

yeah i think they will all be handbuilt

Surprise Panda! · #8 04-30-2008, 06:46 PM

SWEET!!

peekypoo · #9 04-30-2008, 06:54 PM

Adam's bass building ,and repair skills are incredible also..

He lives 5 minutes away from me , "He is a one stand up guy!!!"

Paul Ferreira,

:bass ist:

12bass · #10 04-30-2008, 06:58 PM

IMO, the Lane Poor wide aperture model has the best tone of the Lane Poor models, although I haven't heard the narrow apertures. So, I hope APC will make the wide aperture type as well. The HBs were too focused in the low midrange for my taste, although still surprisingly clear up top for a humbucker. The wides seem to be flatter across the spectrum. My sense is that the narrows are clear sounding, but perhaps a bit thin compared to the wides.....

KCOBLE · #11 04-30-2008, 08:09 PM

I'll also vouch for Adam as a standup guy. I actually bought the last of his LP stash last year (after much web-searching); one set for my new Sei Millennium 7-string (Demeter Circuit) I collected just this month in London, and another set for a future 5-string. Both sets were WA and sound fabulous. At the time I bought them I was also strongly encouraging Adam to pick up where Lane left off. It's great to hear he's taking the plunge!

Dr. Cheese · #12 04-30-2008, 09:37 PM

I would be interested in a five string version.

cosmicevan · #13 04-30-2008, 10:08 PM

this is fantastic news!

Rapisme · #14 04-30-2008, 10:20 PM

O.k. guys.. One better,.

Adam is the man,. I've met him thru the internet,. And he's just killer. So killer in fact that I have the Jazz proto types of what LP's could've been. I'm very lucky to have met him,. Unlike Warrior, I'm not the expert on LP's sound and dynamics and as per Adam WJ is the true LP guru. Believe what he says.

I've been trying to get this man on the map. He's a real talent, artist and creator. He's helped me fulfil my vision of what a bass pickup is suppose to do. Focus, Definition, Articulation, Power, sensitivity and finesse.

Keep you eyes and ears open b&g's because APC will be the pick up of choice for true disconcerting Bassist's.

WarriorJoe7 · #15 04-30-2008, 10:46 PM

Thanks Ralph...

yeah Ralph (Rapisme) has the new version of jazz pickups. I do not, but probably sometime this summer I will have a set to try out. I may do a comparison but as much as I know they aren't supposed to be true copies. They are however improvements on the old design. The MM and P pickup are supposed to be true to the originals and I can tell you that the MMs are very true. I will be able to comment on the precision pickup in a few weeks.

WarriorJoe7 · #16 04-30-2008, 11:12 PM

Soundclips are up in post #4 above. I may eventually ask luknfur to do a comparison on these and do a write-up since he has documented stuff so well in the past (see Dr Dimento's pickup experiments)

12bass · #17 04-30-2008, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarriorJoe7

Soundclips are up.

Link?

WarriorJoe7 · #18 05-01-2008, 12:31 AM

Soundclips are up in post #4 above.

Mental Octopus · #19 05-01-2008, 12:59 AM

wow this is great news. I live about 20 mins away from him and he's done some work on my basses. I remember a year or so ago I was talking with him about LP pickups and how he wanted to start making them again soon. Glad to hear he's doing it.

I may have to get me a pair of jazz pickups for my Spector...be interested to hear how those sound.

arbitrary · #20 05-01-2008, 01:05 AM

I think I just found me a repair/mod guy for when I move back to the Boston area with the wife this summer.

Thanks!