Phase I SD basslines 5 strings owners, please help

[BassBastard]

I've been having some troubles with a set of SD pickups I bought from ebay. The B and G string sound much weaker in output and someone suggested me that I tested the pickups with an allen key to see where the magnet was. I did that and the same thing with the old MEC pickups I had. On the MEC the allen got a pull on the entire lenght of the pickup but on the SD I only started to feel the magnet between the B and E strings (and between the G and A strings). It almost looks like it's a 4 string magnet in a 5 string housing. Could any of you that own these pickups do that test so that I know if mine's are defective? Thanks

[luknfur]

Don't do 5's and don't have the pup but I'd wager the pup is fine. Go to the SD site and look to see if they list the string spacing for the pup or email them. But basically you already have the info you need - if you're going to use those pups you'll need to bring the strings in to where the mags can read them.

[BruceWane]

Are the pickups active or passive?

[BassBastard]

Originally Posted by luknfur

Don't do 5's and don't have the pup but I'd wager the pup is fine. Go to the SD site and look to see if they list the string spacing for the pup or email them. But basically you already have the info you need - if you're going to use those pups you'll need to bring the strings in to where the mags can read them.

The magnet should be bigger according to the information on the site. I should feel the magnet pull the allen key quite close to the bolts that secure the pickup in its place but instead it only starts to pull between the B and E string. It's no use to send mails to SD, I've sent a few and got no answer whatsoever.

According to the SD website, Phase I are active pickups.

[BruceWane]

Originally Posted by BassBastard

According to the SD website, Phase I are active pickups.

Yes - but are the pickups you have active? They should have 3 wires - white, red, and bare.

The thing is, ASB Phase I's don't come in a four string version at all, and the magnet layout on the ASB 5 is very wide.....wide enough to accomodate string spacing of ~3.5"/89mm between the b and g strings. Much wider than any 5 I've ever seen. So I suspect that you might have recieved passive soapbars instead, like these. The passive soapbars have white, black, and bare wires - no red....and they do come in a 4 string version that's got a fairly narrow magnet layout.

[DavidRavenMoon]

Originally Posted by BassBastard

The magnet should be bigger according to the information on the site. I should feel the magnet pull the allen key quite close to the bolts that secure the pickup in its place but instead it only starts to pull between the B and E string. It's no use to send mails to SD, I've sent a few and got no answer whatsoever.

According to the SD website, Phase I are active pickups.

The size of the magnet has nothing to do with how wide the pickup senses. The pole pieces do. They use a split coil design with blade poles. These have two magnets, one for each coil.

Are your outside strings within 3.45" (87.63 mm)? (not 3.5)



Also... you have them hooked to a battery, right?

[BassBastard]

Thank you very much for the replys. Yes, both of them have a red wire comming out so I guess they're active. The outside strings on my bass are under 3.1'. I asked the guy I paid to install them if he had them connected to the batery and he said he had. I'll try to know more about it!