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Check out my quadruple pickup Ibanez ATK.

Benjamin Strange

Benjamin Strange

Commercial User
Dec 25, 2002
9,737
310
49
New Orleans, LA
www.ufodeathcult.com
Disclosures
Owner / Tech: Strange Guitarworks
#1
So this just happened: Invalid Link Removed

I rescued this US ATK off Craigslist a few years ago, and it was in bad shape. I took the neck apart & fixed it up, refretted it with SS frets, made a new brass nut, gutted the electronics, etc., etc. I don't dig active electronics, so I've been running it passive with the pickup's three coils wired in a bizarre parallel/series setup for about a year now, and have been contemplating adding more pickups for a long time now. I've been hunting for loose ATK pickups during that entire time (they're almost impossible to find), and managed to snag one off Ebay and two here from TBers Awesome Sauce & Funk Factor. Yesterday I took the final plunge into madness and installed 3 extra ATK pickups.

This was a ton of work, and a huge risk, but I am absolutely thrilled with how it sounds. I've got each pickup wired to it's own on/off switch, and thankfully everything is in phase with my preferred pickup wiring setup. I always liked the MM style sound of the original pickup, but it wasn't exactly a warm sounding bass. Now I've got a fat pseudo mudbucker tone, P-bass-ish tone, thick MM tone, and a super bright Rick bridge pickup tone. Rad!

So yeah, I just cut a bunch of holes in a somewhat rare bass. Flame away!

EDIT:
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#5
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#10
Benjamin Strange said:
So this just happened: Invalid Link Removed

I rescued this US ATK off Craigslist a few years ago, and it was in bad shape. I took the neck apart & fixed it up, refretted it with SS frets, made a new brass nut, gutted the electronics, etc., etc. I don't dig active electronics, so I've been running it passive with the pickup's three coils wired in a bizarre parallel/series setup for about a year now, and have been contemplating adding more pickups for a long time now. I've been hunting for loose ATK pickups during that entire time (they're almost impossible to find), and managed to snag one off Ebay and two here from TBers Awesome Sauce & Funk Factor. Yesterday I took the final plunge into madness and installed 3 extra ATK pickups.

This was a ton of work, and a huge risk, but I am absolutely thrilled with how it sounds. I've got each pickup wired to it's own on/off switch, and thankfully everything is in phase with my preferred pickup wiring setup. I always liked the MM style sound of the original pickup, but it wasn't exactly a warm sounding bass. Now I've got a fat pseudo mudbucker tone, P-bass-ish tone, thick MM tone, and a super bright Rick bridge pickup tone. Rad!

So yeah, I just cut a bunch of holes in a somewhat rare bass. Flame away!
Click to expand...

So this is the reason for your thread on how to cut a square hole in a bridge. Very cool man.
 
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#15
Hopkins said:
So this is the reason for your thread on how to cut a square hole in a bridge. Very cool man.
Click to expand...

Yeah - I talked to some guys at a machine shop, and they quoted me a high enough price (with the caveat that it wouldn't be perfect) that I decided to do it on my own. It's not dead perfect, as I'm not a machinist and don't own proper metal working tools, but you'd have to look close to notice any imperfections.

I will say that working with 3mm thick stainless steel is a pain in the spleen.
 
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