Pickups: Darkstars or G&L MFDs ?

[fu22ba55]

I'm building a warmoth bass from scratch and need help choosing a pair of pickups. (I'd like two of the same for visual symmetry).

Darkstars or G&L MFDs ?

I want versatility, but more vintage (fender + SVT) tone options. (Not so much Jaco and modern tones, but one or two would be nice.)

I'm pretty hot to trot for the MFDs, but the Darkstars are getting sooooooo much hype, it's crazy. I'm almost afriad the Darkstars are a little too "flavor of the month". Are they really that much better than other boutique pickups? Better than Lindy Fralins? Better than Nordstrams? Is it just the vintage look?

Here are the tones I MUST have:

1) Classic 70's P-bass (Live at Leeds/Happy Jack, Tracy Pew, Cheap Trick/Cheap Trick)

2) Neck PU only, tone rolled off, dirty EB-O style fuzz. (I got a decent approximation of this for years with my jazz bass and SVT. Not as much of a tuba sound as the EB-O, but close enough.

3) A basic slap sound (for studio stuff)

4) A basic Jaco/bridge PU sound (for studio stuff)

Anyhting else would be gravy. (Single coil sounds, 60's sounds)

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What am I going to sacrifice or gain using either the MFDs or Darkstars?

What would you put in your "dream 4-string bass"?

[Kenny Allyn]

If your thinking Dark Stars are like other J Bass type pickups sound wise you are totally on the wrong track ...

... The G&Ls are more of what you need, and this from someone who owns 3 basses with Dark Stars

[Matt Dean]

You might want to consider Nordstrand Big Singles... they're soap bars that have been described as jazz bass on steroids. In my bass, with the bridge pickup rolled off and the neck pickup rolled on, the bass plunges deep into P bass territory.

[troyus]

I have a set of Nord big splits (hum canceled big singles) sitting around, like new if interested pm me. Need to put them on for sale in classifieds, haven't gotten around to it...

[fu22ba55]

Originally Posted by Kenny Allyn

If your thinking Dark Stars are like other J Bass type pickups sound wise you are totally on the wrong track ...

... The G&Ls are more of what you need, and this from someone who owns 3 basses with Dark Stars

Well if you own 3 basses with Darkstars, they're definitely on to something.

So you're saying darkstars are "their own thing" and you either want that "thing" or you don't.

Are there soundclips somewhere on TB, (or elsewhere), that demonstrate the range of Darkstar sounds? I've seen a few clips on youtube, but they're more about "look what I can do" rather than the sound options of the pups.

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And... did the Darkstars come with DIMENSIONS for a routing template? I have an existing bass that might do well with them (RD Artist), but I don't want to route it TOO much. I know they're the size of an aircraft carrier up top, but how big is the hole in the body?

Thanks for the input on this guys. The Big Splits look appealing too.

Troyus: PM sent.

[Rodent]

BestBassGear has a ready made routing template for Darkstars if you're willing to drop $9 on a CNC made template

http://bestbassgear.com/bass-pickup-templates.htm

if you want to amke your own template, Fred used to have a jpeg with the routing dimensions on his website ... but I haven't visited his website in a while

all the best,

R

[fu22ba55]

Thanks for all the input.

I found a routing dimensions for the DS3 (P-Bass position) here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...velopeREVA.jpg


And some soundclips here:

http://www.hammoneng.com/soundclips1.htm

Fred Hammon also mentions Jefferson Airplane's "Crown of Creation" as an example of the sound these pups (and the old Hags) make.

If the Darkstars sound like Crown of Creation, I'm sold. I love a good fuzzed-out growly single-coil sound.

These probably make more sense in my RD Artist than in my Warmoth right now, and they'll make the RD look even more pissed of than it already is.

Thanks for the help.

[Kenny Allyn]

Yeah I do like them ... did you read the DS review here on TB?

Here is my 76 Jazz



Bud LeCompte and Fred Hammon with the LeCompte VB



And Fred Hammon playing my LeCompte NAMM show special




... WAY BIG sound from them without a muddy bass

[fu22ba55]

Wow. You're really not messing around if you're cutting up a '76 Jazz to put in Darkstars.

Do you run them in series or parallel? (or both)

And do you notice less hum with two installed (set up to cancel each other)?

[Kenny Allyn]

That 76 was beyond bringing it back to anything like original so it was a good candidate for the conversion.

It's wired like a stock Jazz ... it had an Audere pre amp for awhile but I had it switched back stock.

You will need a trim ring made if you use a stock Jazz, as the J pickups are longer, you can see the trim ring in the photo.



... You can get great P bass and even Stingray vibe out of it

[fu22ba55]

That is such a mighty look.

I totally have to put those in my RD Artist.

I just need to justify $400 on pups. I didn't even pay that much for the bass! It looks like it was dragged behind a car.