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DarkStar Pick Ups

#161
I will take your suggestion regarding using V to heart before release. Thanks.
Regarding the construction, it will be like the CS, set pole pieces encapsulated in resin epoxy. They will be built in chrome shells, with the option of having them built in MM style Lakland covers. I will post more as release date gets closer.
 
#162
BoHanson said:
I will take your suggestion regarding using V to heart before release. Thanks.
Regarding the construction, it will be like the CS, set pole pieces encapsulated in resin epoxy. They will be built in chrome shells, with the option of having them built in MM style Lakland covers. I will post more as release date gets closer.
Click to expand...

Chisonic AVB-1
 
#164
Interesting. For me at least, the Bi-Sonic style pickup lived up to the hype around them (my Dagstar is just fantastic). However, I think you may have a point with regards to the Darkstar specifically. Now that there are other manufacturers producing this style of pickup, I have no desire to get my hands on a "real" Darkstar (original Bi-Sonics on the other hand I'd love to get). So I think the hype surrounding the Darkstar my have become a bit inflated, but I think the style of pickup itself is well deserving of the attention it receives.
 
#165
Thought I'd add my personal experience. I had Mark Garza of Garz Guitars build a chambered bass for me so I could have a dark star bass built to my specs. The last correspondence I got from Fred Hammon was May of 2010 before he stopped responding to calls and emails. So I called Lakland to see if they were still in touch with him. Long story short, they worked with Hanson pickups to get me a pair of Chi-sonic single-coil pickups.

The Chi-sonics sound INCREDIBLE and I've been thrilled with them, but I was still gassing to try dark stars. So I bought a LeCompte from Chef here on talkbass. The bottom line for me is that I like the Chi-sonics better. They're more versatile, for sure, and sound punchier in the mix. You can dial in a pretty good facsimile of the dark star mojo, especially with the dual single-coils evenly blended. Maybe with the alnico magnets they'll be even closer, but I wouldn't change a thing about the set I have.

I've attached a pic of the chambered bass body with the Chi-sonics, and the LeCompte on my workbench.

As an aside, both Brian Gingrich at Lakland and Bo Pirruccello at Hanson were really really nice to deal with. And Mark Garza, well, he's the man.
 

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#168
KeithKlaxwell said:
Can anyone with experience mention the differences between Darkstars and Guild humbuckers to their ears? I know Darkstars are wide freq single-coils
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Oh, jeez, where to start. The Darkstars have a wide ranging tone and are very sensitive to dynamics. The humbuckers are like standard humbuckers. Rolled off on the high end and cloudy in the mids in comparison to the DS's. The humbuckers would be the first thing I'd change with a bass that had them. I replaced the pups in my Westerly SFII with a pair of Bartolini triple coil GB pickups and it was a huge improvement. Can you guess I'm not a fan? ;)
 
#170
I can't wait any longer so I'm putting my prototype engineering skills to use and will put some Bisonics/Darkstars together myself. I haven't had one to copy directly (Darkstar or Bi Sonic) but there's so much information out there there's nothing important left to guess. It's interesting how different the specs of the Darkstars were compared to the original Bisonics so I'll probably try the different winds, wire gauges and magnet types in order to find a sound that best suits my basses.

Here's the first model of the bobbin. Next up is the mounting ring.
 

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#172
Hi:

While I appreciate SGD Lutherie as a fantastic resource here
(someday I will get one of his neo pickups), I find adjustable
pole pieces really helpful for my finger picking style of playing.
If you want a loud G string octave pop and hit the string first with some flesh with a bit of nail, you get a great percussive sound (think Jack Casady). I very much like to emphasize just that string rather than raising the height of the pickup. That's one of the things Dark Stars excel in, if you hit it softly, it is clean, if you hit it hard, look out!

But, as always, YMMV, IMO, IME. It's a big deal for my sound, but others not so much . . . . .
 
#174
henry norton said:
I can't wait any longer so I'm putting my prototype engineering skills to use and will put some Bisonics/Darkstars together myself. I haven't had one to copy directly (Darkstar or Bi Sonic) but there's so much information out there there's nothing important left to guess. It's interesting how different the specs of the Darkstars were compared to the original Bisonics so I'll probably try the different winds, wire gauges and magnet types in order to find a sound that best suits my basses.

Here's the first model of the bobbin. Next up is the mounting ring.
Click to expand...

Henry, will you be posting progress pics? I'm really interested in how the Darkstar looks, internally.
 
#175
I posted this in Club Darkstar and thought I would publish here as well. Urban Pickups, a Swedish pickup maker that I have mentioned elswhere, is repairing an old Hagström bisonic with a NOS bobbin he got from Hagström. The pickups belongs to the bass player of a wellknown Swedish band from the village of Älvdalen (where Hagström is located too). It comes from an old Hagström Coronado IV (which I actually was going to buy but I wasn't quick enough - doesn't matter, I got myself a different one :) ).

Notice another unused NOS bobbin in the upper left corner. The bobbin with holes to the right is the NOS he used. He had to drill holes.

Check out Urban Pickup's Facebook for more details: http://www.facebook.com/UrbanPickups

Link Removed
The picture is the property of Urban Pickups.
 
#177
mgod said:
Not correct. The 2nd magnet goes back to the early 60s, and Jack's brown Starfire did not have emitter followers. Nor were his pickups rewound.

BTW, if anyone actually cares, there has been one actual lo-Z Bi-Sonic done; Rick did it for me in 96 using Cardas Litz wire. Sounds great, predictably no output but that didn't matter as I ran it into an EAR 824M mic amp.
Click to expand...

EAR gear? 15IPS tape? Darkstars? You, sir, are a hero...
 

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