Club Dark Star

[Hundred proof]

Can’t get much cooler than, Fred Hammon himself playing my Darkstar equipped lecompte bass at NAMM Nashville 2007

 

[DarkStar90]

Having never seen them in person, can any of the dark stars out there (especially the Novak BS/DS) be mounted with custom wooden mounting rings? I emailed Novak and he only offers chrome and gold. I’d like black or wood. If I’m having Cliff Bordwell build this thing, will cliff be able to replace the chrome trim with wooden ones he makes?

I made my mounts myself out of pickguard blanks using the routing template. An actual craftsman would be able to do it no problem.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

Having never seen them in person, can any of the dark stars out there (especially the Novak BS/DS) be mounted with custom wooden mounting rings? I emailed Novak and he only offers chrome and gold. I’d like black or wood. If I’m having Cliff Bordwell build this thing, will cliff be able to replace the chrome trim with wooden ones he makes?

David King made me some very nice ones.

 

[LowWay]

Thanks guys. Looking more likely my second Bordwell build will be a semi hollow short scale with bs/ds and a piezo in the bridge!

 

[LowWay]

So I’m hoping for some more help. I’m looking for advice on using a single or pair of dark stars on a 30” semi-hollow body.

Can anyone help me with positioning choices (and maybe sound samples)?

 

[IngloriousOz]

Been kinda dead around here! My most recent entry:

Any new DS'ers???

 

[davelowell2]

Been kinda dead around here! My most recent entry:

View attachment 4847290

Any new DS'ers???

Omg!

 

[LowWay]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I have a custom build coming up with Cliff Bordwell featuring 3 dagstars built by Roger Daguet.

got a pic of the pickups in progress this week.

 

[IngloriousOz]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I have a custom build coming up with Cliff Bordwell featuring 3 dagstars built by Roger Daguet.

got a pic of the pickups in progress this week.

View attachment 4847472 View attachment 4847473 View attachment 4847474 View attachment 4847475 View attachment 4847476

Love this!

 

[2112]

Any new DS'ers???

Yessir:

Picked'er up here earlier this year... love it!

 

[ctmullins]

Been kinda dead around here! My most recent entry:

View attachment 4847290

Any new DS'ers???

Super sexy! I may have to make one of those….

 

[IngloriousOz]

Yessir:

View attachment 4847735

Picked'er up here earlier this year... love it!

This is excellent, details?

 

[Eilif]

Interesting to see more builders taking up the idea (perhaps started by Serek???) that a Bisonic is essentially a modified P90 style pickup with an unusual method for pole adjustment. I love the look of an original bi-sonic in my Darkstars but I can't see much mechanically to recommend the design over the P-90 style which must also certainly be easier to build.

 

[LowWay]

Well, look at the pics from my dagstars a few posts back. Clearly less futzy in the build and more like a P90 form factor. But they weren’t cheap. They were custom built for the string spacing on my custom build. I’d love to see a mass produced version.

 

[PeeeBass]

Has anyone used a Stellartone Tone Styler with a Dark Star or BiSonic?

 

[JIO]

Has anyone used a Stellartone Tone Styler with a Dark Star or BiSonic?

Not yet, but I like the idea.

 

[JIO]

Interesting to see more builders taking up the idea (perhaps started by Serek???) that a Bisonic is essentially a modified P90 style pickup with an unusual method for pole adjustment. I love the look of an original bi-sonic in my Darkstars but I can't see much mechanically to recommend the design over the P-90 style which must also certainly be easier to build.

After my first use of it in one of my custom basses - I was sold. (pre-Serek's use of it) Guild's RI was a big plus for narrow string-spacing basses as they offered it more affordably than the Novak variety. (which I've also used for Fender-type string spacing) Both great pu's.

 

[ctmullins]

Has anyone used a Stellartone Tone Styler with a Dark Star or BiSonic?

Yes. It works just as you would expect it to.

 

[Nebula24]

Has anyone used a Stellartone Tone Styler with a Dark Star or BiSonic?

Dont have tonestyler but added a varitone. My tone knob didn't do much on my epi eb0 so added 12 way varitone. Would be better if had both but don't have room in my cavity. And think I mostly play it in bypass. Varitone mostly makes it darker as I click through it. A few spots i cant really hear much difference between nearby clicks. About 4 or so i do like. Instead of varitone could see tone knob plus switch between 2 capacitors but would need to fiddle around to decide which 2 I like the most.

I can't recall if I switched from rounds to tapes and then flats before removing tone knob either. So I might have just not liked rounds and stock pickup with tone knob.

Still love my bass and how it looks. Just thinking of other ways could have tweaked it.

Love my guild bisonic though. Wouldn't give that up. Just added a novak h22 goldfoil in center. Still need to fix wiring as they are out of phase when together and when in phase I was getting buzz if pickup touched (use them as thumb rest). Both sound great by themselves (goldfoil smidge brighter).

And just a bedroom player/tinkered so can't say how it fits in a band mix.

 

[CaptainLeisure]

'69 EB0 with Novak Bi-Sonic pickup. Sounds great, plays great. I bought it stripped, as a covid lockdown project. I was planning to resell it when done, but to my surprise I really like it. I never played a Gibson bass that I liked before this one.