Bartolini 70BC5L????

[Envincibal]

I purchased a used of Bart BC5CBC's on Ebay (251529689380), but upon receiving them, the id on the bottom of the pickup is 70BC5L, and they are only 2-wire, not 4. I also found that the magnetic pull is in the reverse P-shape as well, not dual coil or quad coil.
Anyone have any info on these pickups? I did email Bartolin, but I don't what to expect

 

[Technotitclan]

I'd put in a claim with ebay. That's not even close to the same pup. It does have two coils but is not at all the one you were expecting. I couldn't tell you anything about the pickup because Bartolini give the worlds most generic descriptions of they're pickups in the world. All I can say is you have a P pup in a soapbar shell instead of what you ordered which is two full length singles in one shell.

 

[JustForSport]

Bartolini used to have a page on their site that you could compare pickup shapes, sizes, tone config, etc.
That page was never deemed important enough to bring over to the new site config,
and since it takes SO LONG to check info about each pickup and then somehow save that for comparison,
I've given up on them- waste of time on the new site.
However- from the info you've given, they are 70mm string spacing, Classic Bass series, and for 5 string.
Whether the listing was for dual-coils, single-coils, or quads, IDK.
Not sure of the 'L' designation, either.
But for someone known as hard to get info as Bartolini, you'd think that they'd have and keep as much info on their site as possible-
unless they have enough customers already.

 

[mmbongo]

Sound like pretty neat pickups....but definitely not what they were advertised as being.

 

[Envincibal]

I may just install them to give them a listen and then go from there; maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised with the results...

 

[Envincibal]

Just got a response from Bartolini, and definitely not what I'm looking for (not looking for deep tone):

Hi Jon,
We made these for Steinberger in between 1993 and 1995. As you discovered, they are a split coil reverse P topology, so are therefore wired in series with a single conductor output. These are quite different from BC5CBC dual coils of course. The tone is very much like our 8S P-bass pickups - deep and classic without a lot of highs.
I hope this helps.

 

[Envincibal]

I may have jumped the gun about returning them... just put them in a Pedulla Thunderbolt with an Audere classic 4-band, and I have to say I'm quite impressed! Nothing at all as to what I thought they would sound like.