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DarkStar Pick Ups

#141
Thanks for the kind words David... yep I feel much the same.

As for 5 and 6 strings basses, the bobbin cover could likely handle 5, but keep in mind a few things
1) if you change the coil pattern and size you change the tone.

2) as was originally quoted from me above, although the pole pieces do matter to the over all tone, a pole piece is not a laser or spot focus on the strings, but rather a flood field all designed to excite the coil. You can actually have a pickup with out magnets or steel, but you can not have a pickup with out a coil. It is the coil that is the heart of the sensor. You can have a pickup without the pole piece directly under a string, and it will still sense ALL the string, but if the coil is not under the string it will not work. I think David's P-90 option is better for string patterns wider than the pickup. Also remember there is a large bar magnet under the pickup as well that is also enhancing the sensor's field and focus.

Yeah I think the tie dye one will be fun for the right applications of course, but Iw as also thinking cream would be a nice option.

curtis
 
#143
SGD Lutherie said:
1. they are only wound to 6k, but have a good amount of output.

2. They are single coils.

3. Real Bi-Sonics or DarkStars require a fairly large rout. The actual sound producing part of the pickup itself is not all that large, as you can see in the photos of the Dagstars.

Most of the Bi-Sonic's size was due to the pole piece lifters.
Click to expand...

A small nitpick on my part please bare with me... I think it comes form my Computer Science, and Remote Sensing Satellite background, but a pickup is NOT an output device but rather a sensor an (input device). It does NO good to think of, or rate pickup in terms of output just like it does not good to rate a computer keyboard or mouse in pixels per inch.
It is better to think of a pickup in terms of the input record volume. Yes it appears that it is controlling the output volume, but in reality it is actually only restricting input when the needle is in the yellow, at some point you increase the input volume reach the "sweet spot" where the fidelity is best you are sensing the target the best. As you continue to increase the input volume and the needle goes into the red you start to overload the sensor and you loose fidelity, mids increase, and it seems louder but it is not. Typically when recording you want the highest fidelity recording and in post processing is done on that master. I think a pickup is much the same... To get the most versatile pickup you want the best speced pickup to maximize the fidelity of the sensor, and then post process to take that tone where ever you want it and deliver that to your output device, your Amplifier.

YEah david is right it is a single coil but you could still do a coil tap on the pickup, there is plenty of room on the bobbin, that would then give you a switchable over drive like my JM-180 does. ( or as stated above, push that needle into the red).

hard to say what large is... it wont fit into many basses without routing, and routing a little or a lot is kind of like being a little pregnant.

Edit: I left out...
If you have an overwound pickup all you can ever produce is an overwound overdriven sound... and i guess that is cool if that is all you ever want to do, but you end up with a 1 trick pony at that point.

.
 
#144
Curtis Novak said:
A small nitpick on my part please bare with me... I think it comes form my Computer Science, and Remote Sensing Satellite background, but a pickup is NOT an output device but rather a sensor an (input device). It does NO good to think of, or rate pickup in terms of output just like it does not good to rate a computer keyboard or mouse in pixels per inch.
Click to expand...

Well a magnetic pickup can either be called a magnetic transducer, or a variable reluctance sensor. I prefer the latter. A transducer is a device that converts one form of energy to another. In either case mechanical energy from the string is converted into an electrical signal. We can measure the voltage and current from the pickup when the string is excited. So the pickup does produce an output.

As you are well aware, depending on many factors some pickups will have more output than others in a relative sense, i.e., into the same amplifier. Many pickup makers list sample output levels for various pickups. That was the question that I replied to.

The pickup could be an input device for mechanical energy, but it outputs an electrical signal. That's what we are interested in. You bass or guitar has an output jack. The amp has an inout jack.

Loudspeakers are of course output devices, and work in a similar but opposite fashion, and they receive an electrical signal and output a mechanical signal.
 
#145
Curtis Novak said:
It is better to think of a pickup in terms of the input record volume. Yes it appears that it is controlling the output volume, but in reality it is actually only restricting input when the needle is in the yellow, at some point you increase the input volume reach the "sweet spot" where the fidelity is best you are sensing the target the best. As you continue to increase the input volume and the needle goes into the red you start to overload the sensor and you loose fidelity, mids increase, and it seems louder but it is not. Typically when recording you want the highest fidelity recording and in post processing is done on that master. I think a pickup is much the same... To get the most versatile pickup you want the best speced pickup to maximize the fidelity of the sensor, and then post process to take that tone where ever you want it and deliver that to your output device, your Amplifier.
Click to expand...
Very nice.
 
#147
I am sorry, but I have zero desire to get to technical here as I tend to find those conversations very dry, and boring, and one of the big reasons I changed careers years ago. It seems to me the deeper you get into the technical the further you get from the music, art, and creativity of it all. Over the years I have noticed the more technical someone gets and the more research they do, and the more data they collect the more they start listening with their eyes and not their ears...

IT is true all sensors do produce output, what is the use of a sensor that does not produce a result. My point was and is a pickup is a sensor that is where it does it work, what and how it produces its output is not the primary concern, and be a driving factor. Of course the jack on a bass is called an "output jack", b/c that is where the sensor sends its signal, you could not call it input.
A computer keyboard, Mouse, and a Camera for that matter all produce output as well, but they are all designed as input devices of some sort and are designed from that basis, its only function as output is to deliver its sensed data in the highest quality to something that know how to process it.


done with my geek talk.
 
#148
Curtis Novak said:
Thanks for the kind words David... yep I feel much the same.

As for 5 and 6 strings basses, the bobbin cover could likely handle 5, but keep in mind a few things
1) if you change the coil pattern and size you change the tone.

2) as was originally quoted from me above, although the pole pieces do matter to the over all tone, a pole piece is not a laser or spot focus on the strings, but rather a flood field all designed to excite the coil. You can actually have a pickup with out magnets or steel, but you can not have a pickup with out a coil. It is the coil that is the heart of the sensor. You can have a pickup without the pole piece directly under a string, and it will still sense ALL the string, but if the coil is not under the string it will not work. I think David's P-90 option is better for string patterns wider than the pickup. Also remember there is a large bar magnet under the pickup as well that is also enhancing the sensor's field and focus.

Yeah I think the tie dye one will be fun for the right applications of course, but Iw as also thinking cream would be a nice option.

curtis
Click to expand...

Is ther a pre-order list or pricing yet available?
 
#149
Dont get me wrong I know much of the technical stuff, but it is much like a musician that know his scales, techniques, and all the "rules" of his instrument. That all is required to be good, but at some point to progress that needs to be transferred to the subconscious part of your playing to allow your creativity and true art to flow out. Over the years I have learned I do not work well with customers that come to me with too much research and technical info. I much rather have them tell me what that want in regards to tone in more abstract terms.... besides I often do not agree with their data, and in the end I do not think a single customer was satisfied with the results when I did something exactly as they dictated . Any more I refer the off to another builder that is willing to work form that perspective, it just is not my strong suit.
 
#150
Curtis Novak said:
A computer keyboard, Mouse, and a Camera for that matter all produce output as well, but they are all designed as input devices of some sort and are designed from that basis, its only function as output is to deliver its sensed data in the highest quality to something that know how to process it.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but a computer keyboard or mouse is an input device for the computer, but they are not transducers.

I wasn't getting into an argument with you, but you brought it up, not I. I was correcting your corrections. :D

Pickups are technical. There's no way around that.
 
#151
Curtis Novak said:
Yeah I think the tie dye one will be fun for the right applications of course, but Iw as also thinking cream would be a nice option.
Click to expand...

Hey Curtis, I have a beautiful '69 fretless starfire in cherry that really needs a Bisonic-imitation pickup and I think that a cream bobbin would look quite cool on it. If that actually is an option and you're going to be selling these to the general public soon, count me in. Of course, if you can't do cream, I'd be perfectly happy with black.
 
#152
When I went to order a P pickup I was pointed in Curtis' direction. A short phone call later I ordered a vintage P due to Curtis asking how I wanted the pickup to sound not a spec(not that I wanted any). I have a P bass that when A/B'd with the real deal '57-59's you can barely tell which one is which. Tone tone tone...that's what matters.

Curtis Novak said:
Dont get me wrong I know much of the technical stuff, but it is much like a musician that know his scales, techniques, and all the "rules" of his instrument. That all is required to be good, but at some point to progress that needs to be transferred to the subconscious part of your playing to allow your creativity and true art to flow out. Over the years I have learned I do not work well with customers that come to me with too much research and technical info. I much rather have them tell me what that want in regards to tone in more abstract terms.... besides I often do not agree with their data, and in the end I do not think a single customer was satisfied with the results when I did something exactly as they dictated . Any more I refer the off to another builder that is willing to work form that perspective, it just is not my strong suit.
Click to expand...
 
#156
Luckie said:
Mr. Schwab, is there an updated time estimate on when the railstars/railsonics will be available?
Click to expand...

Hey, those are kind of catchy!

I'm working on the final prototype currently, so I'll be ordering my custom parts probably next week, and they should be ready about two weeks after that.
 
#158
This is Bo Pirruccello from Hanson Pickups. We have been building Chisonic pickups since 2007. We were originally trying to capture the Bi Sonic vibe, but when we went with neodymium magnets in the prototyping stages, it obviously changed things. I am now going to offer the Chi sonic 4 string sets in an additional model using Alnico V bars. We really like this pickup and are probably going to name them Chi sonics V. Release date will be October. If any questions, email me at [email protected].
 

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