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Darkstar PU's in a custom bass

N

NOLAChris

Jul 19, 2008
9
0
New Orleans
www.myspace.com
#1
I'm thinking of building a bass with a Warmoth Hollow Jazz bass body in swamp ash with A Warmoth Tele Bass neck with 1 1/2" nut width, maple neck and fingerboard, with 2 Darkstar Pickups, and a Badass III bass bridge. All Passive. Also planning on stringing the bass thru the body. I use Tomastik Flat Wounds. I have a local luthier that will do all the routing and finish work for me. I'm looking for advice on pick up placement. Should I go with the location like that dude from the Mars Volta or should I move the neck PU in a position more like in the P sweet spot? Any advice on any of my decisions would be greatly appreciated.

Also can anyone give me the dimensions on the Darkstar PU's. I emailed Fred Hammond but have received no response. Nor can I find the information on his website, maybe I didn't look hard enough. Unfortunately my best bass right now is a Schecter 004. i lost all my instruments in hurricane Katrina. I like the bass a lot but I want to put Darkstars in it. I've already pulled out the active electronics and rewired it like a Jazz Bass. I just need the dimensions so I can order the right pole spacing. Again my local luthier will do all the routing. Thanks again for any advice or info you can give me.

Anyone with any pics close to what I am thinking would be awesome to.
 
#2
the dimensions will vary depending on how you ultimately decide to place the pickups. I would recommend placing the neck pickup close to the neck rather than the pbass position. my reasoning here is that you can have the cavity routed so that you can flip the pickup around if you find it is too close to the neck. since they are single coils with one row of poles and one of height-adjustment screws, flipping the pickup will actually move the poles' position. therefore i'm thinking you will have a wider range of sound options closer to the neck. i hope this makes as much sense to everyone else as it does to me:)
 
#3
I understand you're saying that the further away from the bridge you get the less the strings move apart over the area of the pickup, therefor you could use one size pickup for two possible locations (poles right next to the neck, and then the pickup rotated 180 degrees). yeah?
Makes sense to me.

I'd have the bridge PU in the typical jazz position, and go with the above placement for the neck one.
 
#7
chris, that's true, but just flipping the pickup around 180degrees wouldn't change what pole spacing you need. when i got my dark star i asked fred what way he would recommend the poles(towards the neck or the bridge) and he suggested the swimming pool routing method (pretty sure that's what it was called anyway) which allows you to do the very rotation mentioned above, so i could decide for myself what i preferred. turns out i like it more with the poles toward the neck so that's how i have it now.
 
#8
NOLAChris said:
... Also can anyone give me the dimensions on the Darkstar PU's. I emailed Fred Hammond but have received no response. Nor can I find the information on his website, maybe I didn't look hard enough. ...
Click to expand...

Here's the template pic that used to be on Fred Hammon's site, if it helps:

DSschematic.jpg
 
#13
Yeah well I work at a local music shop and give him stuff for cost all the time so all he's going to charge me for is supplies not labor.

Wyliee can you rout for a 3 screw bridge like the old Fenders or the new badass III bridge? Also can you rout for thru body with the fuerelles or what ever they are called? I know I spelled that wrong but you know what I mean.
 
#15
NOLAChris said:
Yeah well I work at a local music shop and give him stuff for cost all the time so all he's going to charge me for is supplies not labor.

Wyliee can you rout for a 3 screw bridge like the old Fenders or the new badass III bridge? Also can you rout for thru body with the fuerelles or what ever they are called? I know I spelled that wrong but you know what I mean.
Click to expand...

If you can get it done at cost by a pro, then I'd say go for it. If you need the universal rout, let me know and I'll see if I can dig it up.

Sorry but no on the 3 screw bridge. I don't think I have a copy of the BAIII specs. If you have those, shoot them my way and I'll check it out. Most likely no on the ferrules, but I'd still like to see the specs.
 

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