Bill Bartolini on his pickup design

azzyrazzy · #1 06-28-2008, 06:25 PM

Thought it would be nice to have the Bartolini article from the Ibanez site here on TB for reference, should Ibanez remove it from their site. Enjoy ! (http://ibanez.com/features/btb_bartolini_feature)

Quote:

Bill Bartolini and Ibanez’s top engineers took two years to develop the fantastic MK-2 bass pickups and it’s a partnership that has pleased everyone, especially new BTB owners!

My relationship with Ibanez began in 1995 when they requested some samples. Ibanez started using our products on some models in 1996. In 1998 the (former Ibanez president) and I had a meeting at the Frankfurt Messe and I agreed to work with Ibanez on the Gary Willis Bass project. After sending Gary many samples he approved the pickup and the electronics for his signature instrument.

Since then, we have supplied Ibanez with many bass pickups and various electronics. Before this time, in the earliest years of our history, there was far more emphasis on neck-through construction and enhanced lows and low-mids. In the mid 90's the emphasis shifted to bolt-on construction with more mid and treble emphasis.

We always try to satisfy as many bass players and builders as we can, so we developed designs to satisfy the new requirements and tastes. Most builders were satisfied with an approximately equal tonality from bridge and neck pickups. The neck pickups were always a little brighter with slightly less output than the bridge pickups. But some builders and players preferred putting neck pickups at the bridge and bridge pickups at the neck intentionally. Ibanez was the first to ask for much deeper tone from the neck pickup while retaining a bright tone for the bridge.

When Ibanez asked for special pickups exclusively for Ibanez BTB series, they also asked me to try to blend the older enhanced lows and low mids with the newer, brighter tone in a narrower soapbar design. Could we go beyond what had been achieved in this direction?

The process of designing the final product is always a little bit like making a good salad: there are many ingredients, their characteristics are learned over many years and the final result depends on the mix. Our quad-coil design can yield many other tonalities but, in this case, the desired result was the deepest Deep Neck tone that balanced well with a Bright Bridge tone and retained this tonal balance with the Ibanez designed 4-, 5- and 6-string basses. After several tests and improvements, we reached our goal with the MK-2. Enjoy the wide tonal range!

bigd4207 · #2 06-29-2008, 07:41 AM

and here it will lie till the end of time, too bad we can't post videos, I can't even find some of the sterling ball vids I used to watch, this stuff needs to be saved. they ought to make an archive for all the pioneers so to speak such as leo, jaco, enwistitle, bill bart, john east, etc.

DavidRavenMoon · #3 06-29-2008, 04:55 PM

You can find some old web stuff at archive.org

For instance, here's all the Bartolini web site changes going back to 1998!

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.bartolini.net

I have one of the very first Bartolini Hi-A pickups from 1976 or '77. I bought it new direct from Bill. He even called me up to ask me a question! This was way before email and the internet of course.

I also have several old Bart catalogs from the 70's. When I get a chance I'll scan them.

Here's my old Hi-A 2C that was in the bridge position of my 1973 Ric 4001.

bigd4207 · #4 07-02-2008, 07:40 AM

wow, that's one old pup

bigd4207 · #5 07-02-2008, 07:42 AM

know where to find the sterling ball bongo and anniv. stingray videos by any chance?

DavidRavenMoon · #6 07-02-2008, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigd4207

wow, that's one old pup

It had to be one of the first humbuckers he made. He actually looked my number up via directory assistance and called me on the phone with a question... this was for the bridge pickup on a Ric, so he got a mounting bracket and installed it, and had my send mine to him.

This was all before email and the internet of course.

You don't get service like that anymore!

johnk_10 · #7 07-02-2008, 03:46 PM

That Hi-A is the same pickup that Bernie Rico used in the first prototype Mockingbird bass that I designed for BC Rich in December of 1975. I always thought that they sounded great. it also has massive prototype solid chrome-plated-brass "BadAss" bridge on it before Leo Quan revised the design to a smaller profile type.