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Badass black basses!
- Thread starter jd56hawk
- Start date
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Figured... he was associated with the Peavey B-Qual also. It's the same body shape. I like the B-Quad hs shape better and it has stereo inputs like a RIC, an 18v pre, a carbon fiber neck, and string to string dialing for the piezo stereo option. A very technologically adventurous bass for Peavey in the mid '90s. (...not a black bass, but black variegated leaf!)
Last edited:
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
I’ve never posted my Black bass here, I guess, because I never considered it all that “bad-assed”….that is until I plopped in the Duncan ceramic MM pickups…
Also kind of gives it more of a Frankenstein vibe since the SD pickups replaced a pair of a different shape, so there is evidence of the previous pickups residing in that body…
Also kind of gives it more of a Frankenstein vibe since the SD pickups replaced a pair of a different shape, so there is evidence of the previous pickups residing in that body…
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
They look interesting. There are so many good sounding pu options out there - if one is more expensive, it thwarts taking the chance it will be "the magic bullet". The most I've paid for a pu is for a Novak Darkstar w/Fender spacing. (awesome) I also use the Guild (narrow pu pole spacing) Darkstar (much cheaper) and I have to say - they both sound really good. I honestly don't think one sounds better or worse than the other. So if I use them on a Fender spacing neck - Novak. But if a harrower spacing neck (like an Epi/Gibson T-bird) - Guild.
Guild RI Darkstar -
Novak Darkstars -
I've had good luck with taking chances on speculative/intuitive purchases of spendy pickups. Fender Super 55, Delano JC 4 HE/M2, Häussel BassBar, all have resulted in phenomenal sounding basses, and they are all pickups I'd never heard before having them put in my basses. Sometime in 2024, a Rickenbacker-inspired bass with three Q-Tuner pickups will be finished (I bought the pickups a few years ago), and I'll finally get to hear what those sound like as well. I have high hopes.
I got my set back in 2005 and wrote them up here -> https://www.talkbass.com/threads/q-tuners-are-good-for-nothing.166151/
They are the brainchild of Erno, a gentleman in the Netherlands who suffers Asperger's, which makes him a bit of a propeller-head for this type of thing. I've not been in contact with him for a number of years but recall he was ill and may have now passed. I helped them with their marketing, particularly helping them write copy that most normal people could understand; their materials were very technical and English wasn't their main language. IIRC there may have been some legal issues with people ripping off their tech that was causing problems as they got more successful.
Unlike other pickup designs that use a wide magnetic field and almost brute-force to create an electrical signal, Q-Tuners use a definable part of the frequency spectrum - the Q in a parametric EQ - that you "tune" with the screws appearing as pole-pieces around the windings. The windings are computer controlled to be perfectly matched between sides, making them the quietest pickups made and the greatest bass tone you'll ever hear.
