DarkStar Pick Ups

[RDagBasses]

..........Here's the thing about old pickups. .... They used off the shelf parts. They just happened to have come upon a good combination. Even down to the amount of wire wound on the pickups. Seth Lover, who designed the Gibson humbucker, has said they didn't count turns in the beginning, they just wound them until they were full!...........

just consider how were made the mosrite pickups...

we get used to "standardization" of factory made product, it wasn't the case in these times. I love that!

 

[mgod]

just consider how were made the mosrite pickups...

we get used to "standardization" of factory made product, it wasn't the case in these times. I love that!

Agreed. My favorite guitar pickups are those P-90-ish things Guild used in the 50s, something made in New England. Wow, are those primitive inside.

I have the first pair of Dark Stars made and they were a huge amount of work, done by hand and there is something special about them.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

just consider how were made the mosrite pickups...

we get used to "standardization" of factory made product, it wasn't the case in these times. I love that!

Very true. Builders were more inventive. Now everything is a Fender or Gibson clone. I have to hand make most of the parts in my pickups.

Those Mosrite pickups were made by Carvin! I still have a mid 60s Ventures bass. I used to have two.

Here's a pickup from a Mosrite built Acoustic Black Widow:

Filled with newspaper and bondo! No bobbins.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

So SGD, when did you see the M-85?

Only saw it in photos.

 

[BassManPatsFan]

Only saw it in photos.

If you don't mind my asking, when do you expect your Bisonic-like pickup to be available?

 

[Stealth]

Very true. Builders were more inventive. Now everything is a Fender or Gibson clone. I have to hand make most of the parts in my pickups.

So the moral of the story is, talk softly, carry a large wire spool, make your own pickup formats and armatures and have a bass with a washtub rout?

 

[SGD Lutherie]

If you don't mind my asking, when do you expect your Bisonic-like pickup to be available?

In a couple of weeks.

 

[spiritbass]

Walt Disney would have been proud - a good example of "Imagineering". Thanks for sharing this!

Would you happen to have a pick of your new Bisonic style?

 

[D.M.N.]

Well, thought this should be seen here too:


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[SGD Lutherie]

Walt Disney would have been proud - a good example of "Imagineering". Thanks for sharing this!

I might as well show the finished rebuild:

Would you happen to have a pick of your new Bisonic style?

No. I'll have some when I'm ready to put them online.

 

[jumbodbassman]

Well, thought this should be seen here too:


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Curtis is putting 2 of those into ripper pup covers for my dead 1980.

 

[D.M.N.]

Curtis is putting 2 of those into ripper pup covers for my dead 1980.

Let me know what you think about them, I'm tempted to contact him if I can't get in on Roger's batch. I'd ask him if he could put them in a smaller package, ala Rogers, cause that is a great package (and I wouldn't need to route my Jazz out as much!)

 

[SGD Lutherie]

(and I wouldn't need to route my Jazz out as much!)

You may not need to rout it at all...

 

[D.M.N.]

You may not need to rout it at all...

Can the pickup really be shrunk down that much to fit in a jazz size package? My impression was the coil was too big to fit in a jazz size without losing part of the sound. (Disclaimer, I know very little about pickups, though I really would like to learn more)

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Can the pickup really be shrunk down that much to fit in a jazz size package? My impression was the coil was too big to fit in a jazz size without losing part of the sound. (Disclaimer, I know very little about pickups, though I really would like to learn more)

The coil is not as big as it seems. The whole Bisonic pickup is a large assembly, but the actual pickup is not that big.

You can get a very similar tone in a slightly smaller size.

 

[webelo]

I'll admit, half of my lusting over Fred's darkstars lies in the fact that I think they look badass. The look of the chi-sonics just seem to lack a certain je ne sais quoi.

 

[mgod]

I might as well show the finished rebuild:

Are you planning to recreate the Black Widow pickup?

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Are you planning to recreate the Black Widow pickup?

No, it was a rewind/rebuild. The owner was not happy with the string to string balance, and that resulted in one pole screw being broken off, since they weren't really adjustable.

So I wound a pickup to the same specs, but with blades instead of poles. It did sound the same, but was a bit fuller sounding in the low end.

I could make a similar sounding pickup if someone wanted one, but it's not a new product or anything like that.

 

[mgod]

I'm very fond of the asymmetrical Black Widow pickup. No idea about its history.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

I'm very fond of the asymmetrical Black Widow pickup. No idea about its history.

This particular pickup was from a Semie Mosley built bass. Some of the other Black Widow pickup were single coils, and then they had the split coil looking pickup. I don't know what was inside that one.