916 Pickups Club

[ctmullins]

Recent 5 string Neodymium build. These came out to 16k Neck 16.4 bridge.

I got these installed and the instrument reassembled today!

I had to slightly enlarge the pickup cavities. Which also gave me the opportunity to do a few more coats of clear. So a bit of a delay.

Initial impressions: They sound huge! But I need to improve my shielding (likely not the fault of the pickups).

I'm taking it to rehearsal later today; will report back!

 

[XsoGol]

I got these installed and the instrument reassembled today!

I had to slightly enlarge the pickup cavities. Which also gave me the opportunity to do a few more coats of clear. So a bit of a delay.

Initial impressions: They sound huge! But I need to improve my shielding (likely not the fault of the pickups).

I'm taking it to rehearsal later today; will report back!

OMFG I love her!!!! Can't wait to hear your initial band setting impressions!

 

[Matt Kustom]

There are a few companies that seem to have very thin covers for P bass. This issue has popped up one other time. It was with Fender Japan bases. The P bass from over there have very thin covers. If anyone wants to check before ordering I can always give caliper readings from the covers if they are in stock.

 

[ctmullins]

Back from rehearsal!

• These Neos are loud!
• The low end is nice and full.
• The high end is quite present, but not harsh. These replaced a set of EMG P pickups, which also have a lot of top end presence, but in a different way. The top end of the Neos has a fullness to it, with zero unpleasant “ice pick” that some other pickups have.
• I think I need a new rehearsal amp. This is not the only bass that seems to overwhelm my old Carvin.

 

[XsoGol]

Back from rehearsal!

• These Neos are loud!
• The low end is nice and full.
• The high end is quite present, but not harsh. These replaced a set of EMG P pickups, which also have a lot of top end presence, but in a different way. The top end of the Neos has a fullness to it, with zero unpleasant “ice pick” that some other pickups have.
• I think I need a new rehearsal amp. This is not the only bass that seems to overwhelm my old Carvin.

That is an awesome review and I agree with your description of the Neos...they are full range and powerful without being icepicky up top. It is like having active pickups without batteries in a way.

Which amp in your profile is the rehearsal amp sir?

 

[ctmullins]

< … rushes off to check profile … >

 

[ctmullins]

The Carvin ProBass 150. Although when rehearsals resumed post-lockdown, it was sounding extremely compressed, like it couldn’t keep up with the transients/attack of my bass. So I bypassed the head and hooked the cabinet up to my GK MB200. Better. But still sounding compressed. Is it the driver perhaps?

I will do some A/B testing with my home amp (Blackstar Unity into Cyclops Unibrow), comparing against other basses with known tone profiles.

 

[Matt Kustom]

What has been on the bench as far as bass lately. Thunderbird is a order for a well known bands bass player. The P bass is also going to this player hopefully to make it into his main bass. Fingers crossed.

 

[Matt Kustom]

 

[BklynKen]

What has been on the bench as far as bass lately. Thunderbird is an order for a well known bands bass player. The P bass is also going to this player hopefully to make it into his main bass. Fingers crossed.View attachment 5435065

Interesting! What were the tonal goals for these Thunderbird pickups?

 

[Matt Kustom]

Interesting! What were the tonal goals for these Thunderbird pickups?

Some players report the factory pickup to be a bit thin. The pickup is literally thin. It's like a credit card pickup. The factory cover and Baseplate has no room to expand. So for a factory cover/plate the only options are to overwind till coils full or drop down wire sized to fit more wire. With bass pickups what is actually needed is more gauss. Over winding is a old way of trying to fix certain issues. With this pickup taller / standard size Humbucker A5 magnets were used along with some of our Neodymium booster magnets to get the Alnico 5 gauss levels into the high 8 hundreds at the top of coil. These coils are slightly overwound to the factory originals. Upper mid 8 k range and added gauss from both taller Alnico and the booster. Not trying to change the overall tone , just a more robust version of the factory tone.

 

[Matt Kustom]

Here are some readings. You can see the gauss of the small Neo bars. We custom ordered these Neos to boost Alnico and a few other designs.

 

[BklynKen]

Some players report the factory pickup to be a bit thin. The pickup is literally thin. It's like a credit card pickup. The factory cover and Baseplate has no room to expand. So for a factory cover/plate the only options are to overwind till coils full or drop down wire sized to fit more wire. With bass pickups what is actually needed is more gauss. Over winding is an old way of trying to fix certain issues. With this pickup taller / standard size Humbucker A5 magnets were used along with some of our Neodymium booster magnets to get the Alnico 5 gauss levels into the high 8 hundreds at the top of coil. These coils are slightly overwound to the factory originals. Upper mid 8 k range and added gauss from both taller Alnico and the booster. Not trying to change the overall tone , just a more robust version of the factory tone.

Yeah, if you don't have pickup rings, the vintage ones will come up and leave a gap. Is this what you're talking about? The modern black plastic-covered ones don't have that problem. So you're modeling these ones after the vintage ones?

 

[Matt Kustom]

Yeah, if you don't have pickup rings, the vintage ones will come up and leave a gap. Is this what you're talking about? The modern black plastic-covered ones don't have that problem. So you're modeling these ones after the vintage ones?

These are takes on the original pickups with Alnico 5 magnets as the blades. The newer pickups are mini Humbucker bobbins with steel blades and a ceramic magnet I believe. Definitely a cost cutting pickup to save money. Do not know about the gap issue. Do not have a t bird here at the shop

 

[BklynKen]

These are takes on the original pickups with Alnico 5 magnets as the blades. The newer pickups are mini Humbucker bobbins with steel blades and a ceramic magnet I believe. Definitely a cost cutting pickup to save money. Do not know about the gap issue. Do not have a t bird here at the shop

The "vintage" alnico ones, even the ones in the current Non-Reverse models, are way shallower than the modern ceramic ones with the magnet on the bottom, so you need rings with spacers, unless you're ok with a gap. The ceramic ones are deep enough.

 

[Matt Kustom]

The Slant pole Neos made it into Kelly's #1 bass. Kelly LeMieux plays bass in Buckcherry and Goldfinger. His custom Alnico/Neo T Bird set will be installed after the builder routes his bass.

 

[Matt Kustom]

Blades cut , sanded , polished and plated in nickel. Going to build 10 Super Ferrite P Bass pickups with exposed blades. If anyone wants a set DM me. If someone wants a set with more wire on the coils that can be done. But these ten sets are for Ceramic powered P bass. U.S. certified 1018 steel blades. 99.9% pure nickel plated. Wound with Electrasola Magnet Wire. U.S. vulcanex flatwork. U.S. lead wire. Ceramic mags are custom order. Laser cut p bass covers for the exposed blades.

 

[XsoGol]

The Slant pole Neos made it into Kelly's #1 bass. Kelly LeMieux plays bass in Buckcherry and Goldfinger. His custom Alnico/Neo T Bird set will be installed after the builder routes his bass.View attachment 5440202

Gorgeous bass!

 

[Matt Kustom]

52mm Chrome EB covers in stock. This is the factory style option we were able to obtain. If anyone wants to order a factory chrome cover it's 52mm. Iif some other string space is needed we still offer our vulcanex option and still have a few SLS printed covers

 

[Matt Kustom]

SF P , and 10k ceramic bobbins ready for winding. Two sets of 10k will be available at a discount due to the blades plating not being perfect.