Japanese "Mudbuckers!"

[pharaohamps]

Just bought a super-sweet bass on the classifieds with some interesting pickups and I thought I'd share with those interested.

The bass is a Matsumoko-made Ventura Ripper copy. Ripper copies are pretty rare, and this one is pretty faithful copy. It's been modded but the woodwork and the pickups are still original.



(It's the natural finish one...)

The pickups are "mudbuckers," rather than the Bill Lawrence designed Ripper pickups on the Gibson. The Ripper pups are sidewinders with compact coils and have a very solid tone, more P bass than what you might expect from a Gibson. The Ventura's "mudbuckers" don't sound ANYTHING like Gibson pickups. I'd say they're much more Rickenbacker-sounding than anything, which seems odd to me. I tried adjusting the polepieces to balance the two pickups and they won't turn.

Here's why:



They're single-coils! No wonder it sounds like a Rick. The pickups are mounted inside the covers, and the four screws on the covers raise and lower the pickups in the cavities, with the baseplates screwed into the body. The polepieces are glued / epoxied into the keeper bar. Pretty basic pickup hiding in a well-engineered shell, but they sound great. The Ventura copy plays like a Ripper but sounds like a Rick. Awesome.

[Jefenator]

Score! TFS!

[Stealth]

Wow, huge single-coils. That's awesome.

[Ric5]

Those pickups have mudbucker covers but the insides look a lot different.

[Ric5]

Is there a source to get some of those pickups without buying the bass?

All of the pickups that I have seen on the internet that have those covers usually have a fat dual coil pickup underneath.

[RED J]

Hmmmm?? Clangbangers ?

[pharaohamps]

Originally Posted by RED J

Hmmmm?? Clangbangers ?

Perfect. Clangbangers it is.

[SGD Lutherie]

Those pickups are made by Maxon.

[pharaohamps]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

Those pickups are made by Maxon.

Awesome. I wish I had more of them.

BTW now that I have you here, what's the best source for a replacement Ripper choke / inductor? Curtis Novak makes an exact copy but it's $50 and will require a bracket. My Ripper copy has been rewired like a Les Paul and I don't care for it, I'd rather have the rotary and the treble / mid / volume control setup.

Any idea what the L and DCR of the stock choke are? Will the Kent Armstrong "Tone Choke" work as a replacement? It's spec'd at 1.5Hy but I don't see a spec for DCR. I can scale the C so that the Z is the same as the stock one if I know all the numbers.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by pharaohamps

Awesome. I wish I had more of them.

It's a very simple pickup, and would be easy to recreate. It's just a single coil with that bent steel in the middle, a ceramic magnet on the bottom and some pole screws.

I could make you a copy of that easily. I'd just need to examine the original and take some measurements and readings.

BTW, Maxon is the same company that produced the Tube Screamer for Ibanez, and made a lot of pickups for Ibanez, Univox, etc. They made the pickups in the Univox Hi-Flyer that everyone seems to like.

BTW now that I have you here, what's the best source for a replacement Ripper choke / inductor? Curtis Novak makes an exact copy but it's $50 and will require a bracket. My Ripper copy has been rewired like a Les Paul and I don't care for it, I'd rather have the rotary and the treble / mid / volume control setup.

Any idea what the L and DCR of the stock choke are? Will the Kent Armstrong "Tone Choke" work as a replacement? It's spec'd at 1.5Hy but I don't see a spec for DCR. I can scale the C so that the Z is the same as the stock one if I know all the numbers.

I actually have the specs for the Ripper choke. Each coil is about 1.9k and was wound with 42 AWG wire. I've been meaning to wind one up to try out using the bobbins I'm using for the Wal clone I'm working on. I could wind one up for you.

The kent Armstrong coil might work. I haven't checked one of them out yet. I suspect Bill Lawrence's Q filter is similar as well, since he designed the one in the Ripper and L6-S.

[pharaohamps]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

I actually have the specs for the Ripper choke. Each coil is about 1.9k and was wound with 42 AWG wire. I've been meaning to wind one up to try out using the bobbins I'm using for the Wal clone I'm working on. I could wind one up for you.

The kent Armstrong coil might work. I haven't checked one of them out yet. I suspect Bill Lawrence's Q filter is similar as well, since he designed the one in the Ripper and L6-S.

Didn't know about the Lawrence Q-filter, thanks for that. Looks like the Ripper choke might be two of them in parallel, and the modern-day Bass Q Filter is 3 Hy, so that makes sense to me. I believe that you can just hook the Q-filter to a pot and it has the C already connected internally, pretty slick. For $24 it's not a bad deal.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by pharaohamps

Didn't know about the Lawrence Q-filter, thanks for that. Looks like the Ripper choke might be two of them in parallel, and the modern-day Bass Q Filter is 3 Hy, so that makes sense to me. I believe that you can just hook the Q-filter to a pot and it has the C already connected internally, pretty slick. For $24 it's not a bad deal.

Yes, I think the Q filter has a cap in it, but he also shows schematics to add a cap. He used to also have the L filter, which had no cap.

Both the Q filter and the Ripper choke have two coils to make them humbucking.

I had a Q filter back int he 80s in my Fender Mustang guitar with two L-250s. Bill makes nice sounding stuff.

Kent Armstrong also has a similar choke out now too. You can get those at WD Music. Interestingly Kent and his dad dan learned to make pickups from Bill. Larry DiMarzio too. hey all worked in Dan's guitar shop in NYC.