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55-01 with Nordstrand Dual Coils

#41
Hey Bill;
You and your sound clips. I've been shopping for a 5501 to do this to ever since you intial post.
Just scored one. Lemmee know where to send the bill (including replacing the pups), as this is directly *your fault*


:hiding:
 
#42
Bill, now that I'm pointed down this road, how and why did you choose the pup you did out of the three offereings that Nordstrand has that will fit here?
I have the Fat Stack Single in one of my axes already:
51TeleP_4.gif
 
#43
Chef said:
Bill, now that I'm pointed down this road, how and why did you choose the pup you did out of the three offereings that Nordstrand has that will fit here?
I have the Fat Stack Single in one of my axes already:
51TeleP_4.gif
Click to expand...
Man, that's nice. Tell me a little about it. I'm really hot for a 5 string,19mm, P style, w/ nordy split P and a Fat Stack at the bridge.

:hiding: when there's a bill involved, you'll never find me!

About the different Nordy pick-ups, I sweated over which to choose, not being able to hear them in person. My main goal was lots of choices, so I choose the Dual Coils with three way switching and I'm VERY happy. I got what I wanted. From my experience with these pick-up I would bet that you can't make a wrong choice with Nordstrand, just different flavors.

Chef, are you going to change the pre-amp in the 55-01? If so what are thinking about. I was going to put an Audere in mine if the NTMB-L didn't match up well, but for right now I'm ok with the existing pre.
bill
 
#44
billbern said:
Here are some "real world" clips
Classic rock band gig last Saturday
55-01, Dual Coils, TI Superalloys,DI
These are the three most common settings I use live.
As you can tell it was an open bar, LOL

AM
hi-fi URL: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Listen
hi-fi URL: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Only One
hi-fi URL: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Click to expand...

These pups have that great modern growl to them! I love it!

Now the question: can these do more of the soapbar tone--a little smoother and sweeter? I like many different flavors. :hyper:
 
#45
Hey Bill;
details on the 51P5 here:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=217575
Start at the back, it's long;)
In brief; it's passive, warmoth wood bits, nordstrand custom wound pups, hipshot hardware, cts stack pots, all assembled by Rodent here.

I'd not considered swapping pre's, and from listening to your clips, I don't see much need to.
To take full advantage of everything the pups you used have to offer, you'd want to be able to switch from series/parallel, and single/dual coil.
I think you did that, but they're in the cavity still?
 
#46
Chef said:
Hey Bill;
You and your sound clips. I've been shopping for a 5501 to do this to ever since you intial post.
Just scored one. Lemmee know where to send the bill (including replacing the pups), as this is directly *your fault*


:hiding:
Click to expand...

LOL
If I had the extra money laying around...I'd be in exactly the same boat as you...

like I said, that 55-01 with the nordies is 95% exactly what I'm after (100% would be a bonified miracle...;) )
 
#47
Chef said:
Hey Bill;
details on the 51P5 here:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=217575
Start at the back, it's long;)
In brief; it's passive, warmoth wood bits, nordstrand custom wound pups, hipshot hardware, cts stack pots, all assembled by Rodent here.

I'd not considered swapping pre's, and from listening to your clips, I don't see much need to.
To take full advantage of everything the pups you used have to offer, you'd want to be able to switch from series/parallel, and single/dual coil.
I think you did that, but they're in the cavity still?
Click to expand...
Nice thread about the '51P5, that's very cool!
About the preamp, do you have the MK-1 pre? Mine had the Lakland NTMB to start with, so I don't know how the MK-1 pre sounds with the Nordys.
I finally decided on a 4PDT switch and drilled a hole in the bass.
So one switch selects parallel/Single coil/ series for both pickups.
 
#48
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#49
Hi guys!

I just signed up, but perhaps I'll post an introduction later.

I'm about to do the same thing Bill did to my own 55-01. Looking at his pictures, we've both got very early 55-01's - mine had the same tuners, which were on the forst 200 or so Skylines, or so Lakland told me. It now has the Hipshot tuners (dropped straight in). I had ordered a 55-01 pickguard for mine, but the radius of the heel is different than current production. Mine also has a thicker headstock than current production. I wonder if a USA Lakland neck would drop in.

Anyway, like Bill's, mine is a Bartolini NTMB-L preamp. Mine has a switch for selecting the mid frequency. Burst with maple fingerboard. Plain ash body, no fancy top.

By the end of the month (hopefully) I'll be ordering the pickups. I wanted to publicly thank Bill for posting his experience. It gives me hope. I've always disliked the MK-1's. I may swap out the preamp later as well. I'm really excited about the prospect!

KO
 
#51
I stopped using my 55-01 for my primary gig. I have a lot to do, getting the PA system set up, etc. I'd always remember to get myself tuned up, look over the music du jour, etc., but almost 50% of the time, by downbeat, I hadn't dialed in a tone. "Whoa - why does this suck?"

I switched to my four string P-Bass because there's not much to dial in - plug and play. It has a tone that just plain works every time.

Partly I blame the pickups in the 55-01. They're dark and indistinct. The P-Bass has an Antiquities II pickup in it. It just sounds good.

More, I blame the electronics - nay - all complex preamps! I tend to think that active electronics don't sound good unless you tweak them. In my case, I think that at their very best, active electronics sound as good (post tweaks) as passive electronics just opened up. I have two passive basses and two active basses (I've had well over a dozen basses over the years). I tend to run both of the active basses in passive mode. The fretless bass loses all of it's character when run active. I should just bypass the preamp completely in that thing.

I want to play, not tweak. Passive is better for me.

With the 55-01, the six holes (volume, blend, three band EQ and mid freq switch) and battery compartment are already there. It's a shame, because I like the bass a lot, but not the electronics.

I had a G&L L-1000 and I loved the single/parallel/single w/bass boost passive switching.

I'm planning on doing the same with the Skyline and Nordstrands. I'm also hoping to replace the NTMB-L preamp with a preamp devised by a TBLer name Matt Honnert. It would be laid out as Master volume, neck pickup volume, bridge pickup volume, tone (passive high end roll off), with s/p/swbb switches for both pickups. Since I typically run one pickup or the other, I could probably dial on the fly with that set up pretty quickly.

Matt Honnert described the preamp (it's pretty simple, which is a good thing since I'll be building it) as "raw". All I want from active electronics is the capacitance buffering. This one also "actively" blends the pickups - no I'm not sure exactly what that means. This setup could go passive to eliminate the master volume and provide a Jazz bass (v/v/t) setup with the pickup coil switching, which is a very, very broad tonal palette.

More than I need, really, but I like this bass and I can't uncut the holes. I wish that G&L's L-2500 (which I've owned) had a wider right hand spacing and a V/V/T with s/p/sbb switches for both pickups in a passive system - it's really my dream set up. Actually, I love the idea of a P-Bass pickup with a G&L MFD bridge pickup and s/p/sbb switch all passive, volume/volume with no tone control. That's where my Yamaha BB-300 project bass is headed. I'll let you know how it goes.

I really think that active electronics tend to compress signals and that all of the active EQ tends to steal character from a bass. I feel the same way about amps, really. Less circuitry equals more tone. So this might make a bass that I otherwise love into a bass that I totally love.

Let's hope that I love the Nordstrand pickups. I imagine that I will.

This is _WAY_ more information than anyone wanted.

KO
 
#52
kraigo,
i agree with you on the passive subject. i also can't accurately describe the tone, but in passive the dual coils just have more "character", that i love, a little more organic and less modern. that said, i'm a hopeless tweaker on gigs, i'm constantly screwing around with the onboard tweaks, so i most often run it active.
bill
 
#53
I've finally ordered the Nordstrand Dual Coils. Parallel wound. I went through Bass Central for no particular reason - it seemed no one had them in stock, prices were about the same and I wanted to phone in the order. Grasshopper was pretty decent, BTW.

Worst case scenario is that I'll see them in early November. I'm looking forward to it. My current plan is to do it up passive - independent coil switches for each pickup, V/V/T. I'm considering selling the MK1 pickups and the NTMB-L preamp to offset the cost. At that point I'll still have a dummy knob to cover a hole. I may consider adding a homebrew preamp so I can add a master volume without too much capacative loading. There's already a battery compartment anyway.

Anyway, I'll let you know how the project goes. The 55-01 is retired until it gets some new pickups. The MK1 pickups are not for me.

KO
 
#55
>>
The reason I wheeled my 55-01. And I loved its fit. Easiest 5 string neck to date. But the Valenti J5 blows it away sonically. First thign my guitarist noticed.

" Wow, I LIKE that!."

And the 55-01 is coming back up for sale. hmmmm..... I really like the sound of the mod Bill. To my ears, the neck pup in parallel is the "tone".
<<

Buffalo,

Were you using a preamp? Which one? I don't suppose it matters. I'm married to the 55-01 for the foreseeable future.

KO
 
#57
I thought you meant that you had the 55-01, installed the Nordstrands and the Valenti still blew it away. It's a lot clearer now.

My 55-01 came with the NTMB-L preamp, but I'm not a fan of active electronics in a bass, so I'll be removing it and selling it, along with the MK-1's. I've also decided that since I'll have a total of six holes (standard five plus an extra that was there to select the NTMB-L's mid's center frequency), I'll be doing two coil switches and V/T/V/T.

The coil switches will be single/parallel and G&L's "single coil with bass boost", which is series with a capacitor across one of the coils. Above a certain frequency, one of the coils starts to roll off leaving single coil.

KO
 
#59
I got my Nordstrand Dual Coils almost two months ago. I started a parts list to make the 55-01 into the passive bass I wanted it to be, but never found the time to finish the parts list, so I never installed the pickups.

In the meanwhile, I wanted to get my five string fretless back in action, so I ordered a couple of sets of the strings I wanted: Lakland Joe Osborn stainless steel flats - medium light weight on the B, E & A, medium on the D & G. One set for the fretless, one set for the 55-01.

Those came in, and I figured I might as well bite the bullet and install the pickups into the Bartolini NTMB-L preamp that's in the bass. It served as a good excuse to document where the pickup wires go into the NTMB-L for the day it gets removed and put on eBay. It would be no fun at all to try to figure out what the wiring _SHOULD_ be.

I approached it really cautiously: There are a lot of wires floating around in that cavity and if you screw up you've got a lot of time trouble-shooting ahead of you. As a result I've got the pan pot on the NTMB-L pretty well documented as to what goes where.

Anyway, I've got the pickups wired in parallel, probably my least desired wiring. I got the "wound for parallel wiring" version of the DCs because I'm ultimately going passive and I wanted the hotter of the two windings. I didn't want to feed too much signal into the preamp, so series was out. I didn't want to go single coil yet and I don't have the caps for G&L's "single coil with bass boost" series scheme.

It sounds pretty nice as it is. I just did it an hour or two ago and the "new toy syndrome" is not going to make me a fair judge of the bass for a while. I need to take some time and get the parts I need to make it what I really want it to be. I have no doubt that the bass is better with these pickups than the MK-1's that were in there.

I won't be swapping out the pickups, but I will be doing a lot of wiring in the bass in the next couple of months. I think the toughest part is done.

And I like it.

KO
 

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