Pickup recommendations for my Turner Ren mod

[jibreel]

Ok

I installed a 5 string custom precision pickup in one of my Turner Renaissance basses. It uses a D-TAR Elcipse preamp to blend the precion and piezo pickups. Although it sounds fine, I actually do not want the precision sound. What other mag pickup would you recommend? I do want a fat organic sound and I would like it to be hum free and ideally, it would be large so as to ease the cosmetic transition.

general example of the sound I want:
there is an mp3 here http://www.bassline-bass.de/english/WorpAcoustic.php

Thanks much

[luknfur]

Not your typical thread.

What I’d recommend is to contact Rick. Nobody’s more capable of telling you what it would take to pull that tone from that bass.

Basically sounds like a fretless solidbody mag tone to me with an URB click to the attack.

Lot of stuff that seems strange to me here. From that clip being reminiscent of Jimmy Buffett‘s Take Another Road to what looks like a fretless/fretted, nylon/steel, mid/bridge pup, effectively acoustic/solidbody comparison. If so, that’s a LOT of atypical contradiction to cop a tone. Probably too much without calling on some electronic voodoo. Never saw a P in a Ren that I can recall. That “rail” running along the Bassline fingerboard is pretty strange too and I guess dropping an S is good enough for Duncan.

Given the tone your going for and the presence of a mag pup, I’ll assume it’s a lined fretless with some steel in the strings. Otherwise a cop would be more difficult than it normally already is. Also strikes me strange Rick would put a Rosewood fingerboard on a fretless unless it’s some composite. Not a lot of fretless P’s around either.

Lets us know what Rick says.

[Rvl]

When I was talking to Rick about another Turner
He was thinking of putting one of his Electroline pickups in there
I still havent done it, bought a house and a whole bunch of things came up. But I am interested again and have a 4 string Turner lined up


I have 20 or so basses and I like all of them some of the time
My favorites are
-hollowbodies
-Ric 4001s
-single coils pickups

I am considering
-Lollar Charlie Christian pickup(beautiful looking)
-Darkstar(love old Guilds)
-Ric Horseshoe(old Ric's are great)
-Nordstrand ??? (havent tried any but everyone seems to like them)
-Turner Electroline
-Hofner violin (have a couple spare and I love my Hofners)
-1967 DeArmond (have some from a spare 67 Fender Coronado)

Problem is I will never know until I put it in there

Some personal thoughts
-want a fairly standard size routing to be able to change out the pickup at a later date

My idea of a perfect bass and somebody else's is very different
But I am interested in talking to you more about Turners and modifications

Thanks

Robert VanLane

[Rvl]

Some ideas I had

http://www.pbase.com/rvl/turnerpickuplocation

Ｔｈａｎｋｓ

Ｒｏｂｅｒｔ　ＶａｎＬａｎｅ

[Rvl]

Ideas on pickguards
http://www.pbase.com/rvl/rick_turner_ren_pickguard

Thanks

Robert VanLane

[jibreel]

Hi Robert,

I did get your PM. I was delaying my response as more moding is happening now.

I have removed the precision pickup. These are custom Mike Lull design DT Basslines pickups. They sound absulutely GREAT as a P-pup. However, after installing it, I realized that I am not wanting the precision sound on this bass.

So in goes a Bart M45CBC. See pic. I will be fabricating a wood pickgaurd to go around this new pickup. Obviously necessary due to the previous p-pup routing. I take it in to Mike today to do the final wiring.

I am commited to the pickguard around the pickup due to the large precision routing. This will allow me to install any other pickups also. I have no problem with this. I have a stock Turner [ my favorite ] so these other basses are explorations which I greatly enjoy.

One other thing I would have done differently and may change is to use stacked pots instead of four seperate ones. One of the TB characters here said it looks like a porcupine. Me thinks he may be right.

This whole business of piezo/mag blends is a challenge. I think that obvioulsy the ones that come out best are when a builder does all of it. Bass/mag/piezo/electronics.

This DTAR eclipse preamp conversion on this bass was challenging, especially since the pre did not come with the trim pots and jack that is was supposed to and Rick [ I love your basses, man ] can be really hard to contact/get information from.

My other current project is the RMC/Audere system in my Worp bass. It has both the RMC and Audere pre's in it. I will post more on that later. Also a challenge but Dave at Audere is awesome.

So.....I will let you know how the latest adventure turns out.

All the best

Jibreel

[luknfur]

Don't think I've seen a Ren used for an experimential project before. I routed my basses 3/4" x 4" x 7" beneath the strings and haven't looked back. I realized I liked my bass just fine, I just wanted to mount any pickup anywhere. For experimentation, placement is as important as the pup itself as it significantly alters the tone.

This time it's a soap, next time it will be a Bongo or different size soap, or Dark Star (seems Fred has 5 in the works).

[Rvl]

I told Rick Turner about this magnetic/piezo project
He has plans to go in this direction himself and will start with guitars and later on the basses
But it looks like next year will be the earliest

Thanks

Robert VanLane

[smperry]

Originally Posted by Rvl

I told Rick Turner about this magnetic/piezo project
He has plans to go in this direction himself and will start with guitars and later on the basses
But it looks like next year will be the earliest

Thanks

Robert VanLane

Just saw Rick a little while ago (he did some tune up work on my two Electrolines) and we talked about those plans too. Good stuff!

BTW, he was super quick (less than a day) in responding to my email.

Marshall

[smperry]

Ouch about the new routing...hope you can figure out a guard option that makes you happy. A faux soundhole in black like the pickup might be nice.

If you do more pickup switching: My fretless Electroline (which sounds completely different from my fretted) has that sound (and has _no_ hum) so I could recommend that option. I've been impressed with Darkstars, but IMO, that's a different sound, rounder and smoother on the top end...in my mind, the Electroline pickup will pretty much get the sound you posted, but the Electroline will get the sound as you described it. Honestly though, either would probably make me happy, but both of those are somewhat P like (ubiquitous "on steroids" adjective here).

Are the Darkstar 5 string pickups out yet? I check every six months or so. I didn't know there a 5 string Ric pickup option. Nordstrands are great (I have a fretless coming with some), but I don't know all of his pickups well enough to suggest a specific model.

Good luck finding your tone.

Marshall