Wilkinson Pickups and another idea for SX Stingray Clone Mod

[akrein62]

A while back I posted a question about modding my SX Stingray clone by adding a Reverend P pickup. I haven't done this yet, but now I've had this idea to make the bass even more versitile by adding a second MM-stlye pickup in the neck position. If there's room in the existing cavity for 3 pickups. The original plan was to add the P pickup in a central location and replace the stock 3 band preamp with the Traben preamp that I bought from a TB'er. The Traben pre has a blend pot for 2 pickups. I'm also planning on replacing the stock pickguard and chrome control cover with dark-stained wood covers. Another home project.

Here's the idea...If I can find and inexpensive MM pickup, I would add that in the bridge position. Put in a toggle switch to wire it Series-Parallel-Single coil and then put a second toggle switch, an on-off-on switch, to toggle between neck MM,P or MM+P. Then connect from the second toggle switch and bridge MM to the blend pot, which would let me blend between a combination of the neck MM and P with the bridge MM.

The Wilkinson pickups can be had cheaply on ebay. Does anyone have any experience with them? The pictures I've seen look like the have 4-wire leads. The stock MM pickup is not wired for for coil splitting and I haven't checked yet to see if it can be, but if it can, that would give the ultimate in versatility. Coil taps on 2 MMs for G&L-like versatility, a single P thrown in the mix.

Oh, the possibilities. Or I could just leave it alone since not many of these were sold in the States due to Rondo's run-in with the EBMM legal eagles. Maybe it will become a colector's item?

So, does anyone have any real-world experience with the Wilkinson pickups? Or Mighty Mite MMs for that matter.

Thanks,

Andy

[Orco87]

I've already tried to get some bites out of peeps to see if they've used the wilkinson's pups and I was told to go ahead and get one and test it out. They're cheap enough so if it's bad, then... well... not out of too much money. I've been meaning to do it, would've already purchased one, but buyin another bass kinda killed the funds for that.

I would say go for it and try it out and def. let us know, you might be the first one!

[akrein62]

I may do this. But since it will affect how I do the pickguard, I'll be thinking about it carefully. Since it's as much about experimenting and a little fun as anything, I don't want to spend a fortune on the second MM pickup. I keep checking the Classified section here, but anyone selling a good pickup wants a reasonable amount for it. I'm all about doing this on the cheap.

Thanks,

Andy