Picked up this Acoustic Black Widow locally:
These were made for a few years in the early 70s. Mine is made in Japan. Really good quality. The neck is super narrow (front to back) and very comfortable for me. The pad on the back is a unique touch...
There are a few other posts here with more info on these bases including this recent post from
map34157:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/nbd-1973-acoustic-control-corp-black-widow-990610/
Thanks to map34157 BTW for the info!
Here's the dilemma:
Original pickup was switched out for a single SD jazz. He said his guitar player talked him into it years ago and he threw the original one out (?!).
It is VERY LOOSELY mounted in a plastic piece that was made to fill the giant pickup cavity. I mean so loose the it moves around when you move the bass. So much for setting pickup height...or angle for that matter!
Works well enough to tell how mean this bass can be with the right pup in there.
What to do...
The good:
The pickup route is HUGE. About 2.5" x 4.5".
So pretty much anything would fit in there without modifying.
The bad:
The pickup route is HUGE.
Nothing short of an original with the mounting ring will fill that hole. Try finding one of these basses, let alone a replacement pickup... Obviously why the custom piece of plastic is there now. Pretty much any pickup solution would need to address this.
I was thinking maybe Darkstar type, but I've already got that sound covered on other basses. I'm thinking this bass needs to thump. Which makes me think Pbass. Location is about right for a P style too.
I really like the reverse P style pups on the old Yamaha BB series so that's a possibility. In fact the original ones sort of look like they have the poles in reverse P configuration. You can see what the original pup looked like in map34157s post linked above.
I don't really just want to throw regular P pups in there and mount plastic around them. I'm thinking of maybe getting something custom made. Perhaps reverse P soapbar type?
I've looked at a lot of the stock pups available out there and haven't really seen what I'm looking for.
Anyone got any suggestions?
Also, any creative ideas for a pickup ring? I could get a pickguard made to cover it, but with the contoured body I can't think of a pickguard shape that would work well.
...and since the pup will never be original anyway I will be replacing this:
At least that should be easy. Appears to be standard 5 hole mount (I hope). Could get a bridge with adjustable spacing if needed depending on pup selection.
These were made for a few years in the early 70s. Mine is made in Japan. Really good quality. The neck is super narrow (front to back) and very comfortable for me. The pad on the back is a unique touch...
There are a few other posts here with more info on these bases including this recent post from
map34157:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/nbd-1973-acoustic-control-corp-black-widow-990610/
Thanks to map34157 BTW for the info!
Here's the dilemma:
Original pickup was switched out for a single SD jazz. He said his guitar player talked him into it years ago and he threw the original one out (?!).
It is VERY LOOSELY mounted in a plastic piece that was made to fill the giant pickup cavity. I mean so loose the it moves around when you move the bass. So much for setting pickup height...or angle for that matter!
Works well enough to tell how mean this bass can be with the right pup in there.
What to do...
The good:
The pickup route is HUGE. About 2.5" x 4.5".
So pretty much anything would fit in there without modifying.
The bad:
The pickup route is HUGE.
Nothing short of an original with the mounting ring will fill that hole. Try finding one of these basses, let alone a replacement pickup... Obviously why the custom piece of plastic is there now. Pretty much any pickup solution would need to address this.
I was thinking maybe Darkstar type, but I've already got that sound covered on other basses. I'm thinking this bass needs to thump. Which makes me think Pbass. Location is about right for a P style too.
I really like the reverse P style pups on the old Yamaha BB series so that's a possibility. In fact the original ones sort of look like they have the poles in reverse P configuration. You can see what the original pup looked like in map34157s post linked above.
I don't really just want to throw regular P pups in there and mount plastic around them. I'm thinking of maybe getting something custom made. Perhaps reverse P soapbar type?
I've looked at a lot of the stock pups available out there and haven't really seen what I'm looking for.
Anyone got any suggestions?
Also, any creative ideas for a pickup ring? I could get a pickguard made to cover it, but with the contoured body I can't think of a pickguard shape that would work well.
...and since the pup will never be original anyway I will be replacing this:
At least that should be easy. Appears to be standard 5 hole mount (I hope). Could get a bridge with adjustable spacing if needed depending on pup selection.
