Won the Wal pickup on ebay!!!

[mikezimmerman]

I love it, Alan! It would be a perfect fit for one of the (many!) projects that are floating around in the back of my mind...

How's it sound?

[SGD Lutherie]

Looks good Alan!

[Benberg]

looks damn good Alan!

[Unrepresented]

Originally Posted by Skelf

Hi
I thought this would be of interest. I have been asked if I would use one of these clones in my basses because I all ready have a filter pre-amp. Since I only use my own custom pickups in the basses I did not want to start using other pickups because it opens the door to having to use a huge range of pickups that are available. This is something I have wanted to avoid from day one and have worked hard to provide a wide range of pickup types in my own pickups. With this in mind I decided that a multi coil pickup would now have to be thought about. So today I installed the first prototype pickup in my own try things out bass.







Start to finish 4 weeks in total. I need to thank various people for making this happen. Haydn Williams of Williams guitars. Paul Hair AI Engineering. Aaron Armstrong and John East.

The pickup works in conjunction with a proprietary interface board to integrate it seamlessly with the ACG EQ03 pre-amp. My thanks to John East for designing and building this.

The next challenge is to make the production of the pickup quicker and cheaper and when this is done they will be available in my own basses.

Cheers
Alan

It's as if with every project you do, you're trying to eliminate any reason I'd ever have for ever wanting to shop from any other builder.

Can't wait to hear samples and see more pics!

[edgaroviz]

what about the pre?

[Skelf]

I will try to get some clips sorted out but not being much of a player it may take a while. The spec and features on the 03 preamp can be found on my site.

[eude]

Originally Posted by Skelf

Hi
I thought this would be of interest. I have been asked if I would use one of these clones in my basses because I all ready have a filter pre-amp. Since I only use my own custom pickups in the basses I did not want to start using other pickups because it opens the door to having to use a huge range of pickups that are available. This is something I have wanted to avoid from day one and have worked hard to provide a wide range of pickup types in my own pickups. With this in mind I decided that a multi coil pickup would now have to be thought about. So today I installed the first prototype pickup in my own try things out bass.







Start to finish 4 weeks in total. I need to thank various people for making this happen. Haydn Williams of Williams guitars. Paul Hair AI Engineering. Aaron Armstrong and John East.

The pickup works in conjunction with a proprietary interface board to integrate it seamlessly with the ACG EQ03 pre-amp. My thanks to John East for designing and building this.

The next challenge is to make the production of the pickup quicker and cheaper and when this is done they will be available in my own basses.

Cheers
Alan

I had the pleasure of playing this very bass at the weekend!
As with all ACG basses I've ever played, it was a thing of beauty and incredible craftsmanship, but I digress.

The new pickup is VERY impressive, incredibly full range and hifi to my ears, every nuance is reproduced absolutely perfectly.
This was really apparent when a very talented and unique bass player, Kev Hopper, was playing it.
His technique is truly wild and the bass responded perfectly to everything he threw at it.

The revised EQ03 was brilliant too.
It builds on the EQ01 perfectly. So many tonal options available, and the mid boosts really make the thing complete. You can dial in some fairly extreme sounds and then use the mid boosts to maintain clarity.
Again, like the pickup, the EQ can provide a really full range sound, but of course, you could dial in pretty much anything you wanted from it.
There's also a passive switching option too which AC Guitars have available on their basses, which adds yet another layer of sound.

All in, very VERY impressed with both the pickup and EQ.

Cheers,
Ewan

[Prostheta]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

I call this mid July.

Disagree.

I would certainly consider this for a future build. Any plans or possibilities for five strings?

[Skelf]

I will have 5/6 string pickups but as I mentioned above I am working on reducing the production cost of the pickup and getting a production version of the interface board. Once I have done the work on these two issues I will move on to the 5/6 string versions.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by Prostheta

I would certainly consider this for a future build. Any plans or possibilities for five strings?

Yes.

[SGD Lutherie]

One thing I want to mention about the pickup I'm offering. Our preamp is coming along nicely, so we decided to release both the pickup and preamp at the same time, and as a package. This will give the whole experience of what the system was made to do.

So, not now, but soon!

[Unrepresented]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

One thing I want to mention about the pickup I'm offering. Our preamp is coming along nicely, so we decided to release both the pickup and preamp at the same time, and as a package. This will give the whole experience of what the system was made to do.

So, not now, but soon!

Translation:

I'm missing my "late July" release date on the pickups.

[MikeLee]

Originally Posted by Unrepresented

Translation:

I'm missing my "late July" release date on the pickups.

Now let's not jump to any conclusion....

What do you say David, when's the ETA?

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by MikeLee

Now let's not jump to any conclusion....

What do you say David, when's the ETA?

Due to a few manufacturing issues, the date was pushed back. But now I'm going to wait for the preamp to be finished and then release both at the same time. So it will be a little bit longer, but the preamp is coming along nicely.

ETA? I don't know for sure. Maybe by the end of August. Maybe sooner.

[MikeLee]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

Due to a few manufacturing issues, the date was pushed back. But now I'm going to wait for the preamp to be finished and then release both at the same time. So it will be a little bit longer, but the preamp is coming along nicely.

ETA? I don't know for sure. Maybe by the end of August. Maybe sooner.

Works for me! My plan was to buy the pickups but wait for the pre-amp to install everything together anyway!

[MikeLee]

By the way David, once these are available to purchase from your website, will there be a discount code for us forum members that we can enter at checkout? Maybe we can call it the "Patiently Waiting Discount"?

[skiscem]

Any estimated price for the pup/preamp combo? , i would really like to know a ballpark so i can be prepared
thanks

[Oreomeister365]

The pre will be available separately aye?

As much as I like the ACG preamp, there are enough differences that I'm going to try both.

Semi-related question that you probably won't answer: How high do the filters on the Wal pre extend? At 10 are they letting the full frequency range though, or are they capped somewhere?

Thanks.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by Oreomeister365

Semi-related question that you probably won't answer: How high do the filters on the Wal pre extend? At 10 are they letting the full frequency range though, or are they capped somewhere?

Not speaking for the real Wal preamp, but our filter is ruler flat beyond 20kHz when wide open.

[Unrepresented]

Early August '12 bump.