Dr. DIMENTO'S ONGOING "SOAPBAR" STYLE PUP EXPERIMENT

[luknfur]

Can't get in to edit the first page table of contents any more so I guess the remainder will just be added on without mention there. So if you go to the contents and don't see it, doesn't mean it may not be here, just may have been posted after the last pup listed was.

ACTIVE EMG DC40
1 ½” x 4” soap
Ceramic HB internally hardwired parallel
Hot, ground, and battery lead

SYNOPSIS:

Interesting and good solid bass pup. Good output. Very P bass toned. Nice thumpy low end, warm mids, and clear broad top end that was comparatively soft. Noticeably active but not synthetically so. More rawness to tone than most actives. Snappy, percussive hollowness, some woodiness, a little tubey, little fuzz to tone at times. Some growl. Good punch E-D strings. More bulge than punch on the E string. Tends to have a nasal quality to tone. Fairly user friendly. Works well to finger/flat pick/slap. Joy to play to half the tunes, ¼ less so, ¼ pretty average. Does work to a broad range of styles and is responsive to attack/technique/hand position.

WHOLE ENCHILADA:

Loaded into an acoustically midrange bass in bridge position with the bridge coil in line with standard J position. Had a pair in but there was nothing appealing to me out of the combo or the neck positioned pup. Output above average. Dead quiet. Sensitivity to attack, position, and technique noticeably above average. Worked well to finger and flat pick. Decent slap tone at the least but I didn‘t explore it to any depth. Finger transfer an uncomplimentary pat-like tone but not an issue as played. Becomes more pronounced as mids and trebles are increased and in slow tunes. Pick transfer was complimentary and could bring out some round ring in the TI flats. Sustain little better than average.

Interesting and good solid bass pup. Tends to have a nasal quality to tone. Noticeably active but not synthetically so. Probably a good passive to active crossover pup. Sophisticated enough for jazz but raw enough for rock. A well defined tone yet I could be a little on the sloppy side and get away with it. Above average cut. Noticeably out front character to tone but ample low end so not due to a high frequency mix. Fun to play and felt very expressive when tone was in sync. Very P bass toned. Nice thumpy low end, warm mids, and clear broad top end that was comparatively soft.

Borderline user friendly, doesn’t take a lot of adjustment sometimes but getting in sync with a tune can be a challenge at times. Definitely worth it when you get there. Frequencies mix well and tone adjustments didn’t roam far from flat for about half of the tunes. Small adjustments could make a big difference though. When you hit it’s really sweet and the further off you are the less sweet it is. Fought it some for around 25% of the tunes. Some tunes I never did get it beyond passable before the next tune was up. Reggae was the main hang up. Nevertheless, a pretty versatile pup and worked well to a broad range of styles.

Little problem with the E string lacking a balanced warmth but at minimum could be brought into line so as not to be distracting. However getting a balanced tone on the E string was enough of an issue that I dropped the E side of the pup down which didn’t help. Took some of the Bulge (punch with swell) out but then I lost some warmth and edge on A and D strings and E-D strings lost definition in the process. Bulge was still comparatively pronounced and that doesn’t work well for Reggae in particular. Tone otherwise could be thinned out considerably and brightened up but I didn’t play it that way and it worked well to J bass tunes regardless. Pup didn’t get muddy in the usual sense but it definitely loses definition if out of adjustment. Can easily get boxie with mids much past flat. No fading of strings of consequence as played.

More rawness to tone than most actives. Snappy quality to tone - most pronounced flat picked and solo. Definite bit of what I call tong tone (percussive hollowness). Some woodiness, a little tubey, little fuzz to tone at times. Some growl. Good punch E-D strings. More bulge than punch on the E string but I could take some edge off it so it was more punchie with less swell to the tone.

Was a treat to play to about 50% of the tunes, better than average to another 25%, and
average to about 25% that I just didn‘t get the tone down before the next tune . Probably resolve most of that with more time with the pup. Volume, tone, sensitivity, clarity, and cut even across the board except as noted previously.


FLUFF:

Ran straight to jack > Victor Bailey Pre outboard > Art Mic Tube Pre (unknown 12au7 black Plate) > QSC parallel > pair Aguilar GS 112’s.

If this pup worked as well to the last half as first half of tunes, it’d be one of the best pups I’ve had. However it can be as cantankerous as pleasant. Even when I didn’t get the tone right, it was as good as most pups.

Been so long since I've done a review I forgot all about the frequency spread and these pups are already gone so won't happen.

 

[luknfur]

Gibson T-Birds
single hot lead wrapped in fiber within like a wax inpregnated insulaton within a metal braided jacket
HB’s

Synopsis:

It short, they have a very useable unique tone that works to a broad range of styles yet retain character in way that makes the tone sound like what there are. As played, the pups were actually pretty balanced: nice thumpy low end, strong flexible mids, and a fairly full complimentary top end. Overall tone was warm, melodic, and clear (all moderately so); noticeably nasal; on the dark side; with a percussive, woodie, hollow body quality, sometimes with a unique liquid-like attack whether finger of flatpick. The pups were actually quite smooth and often mellow. No in your face rawness, actually mildly to moderately refined in tone. Tone could be quite different depending on the mix of variables. Played well to a variety of styles and aren‘t hard to get a solid tone from.

Whole Enchilada:

Loaded into an acoustically midrange bass. Output better than average. Some hum killed by touching strings. Sensitivity to attack, hand position, and technique better than average. Like tone itself, they can exhibit a variety of finger/pic transfer that is different. Among them a pop and a wet (literally liquid like) percussive tone that amusingly enough is similar to the Bass Podxt effect called “Funky Touch.” In fact that effect overall is similar to one of the T-bird’s tones except the birds are not so funky, are clearer/more focused. The attack is more pronounced with more treble and use of a flatpic. It’s quite controllable through technique/tone/hand position, as appealing as not, but does have a way of creeping into the mix in an undesirable/unexpected way at times, probably cause I favor bridge tone (brighter). Not likely an issue live but may be in recording. Better than average sustain.

What I expected from these pups without previous research was a fairly dark, noticeably muddy (if not blatantly), vintage tone (about like the neck actually is solo except not so airy). Which is not at all like the Epi T-birds but I really didn’t expect the Gibson’s to be all that similar to the Epi’s. As I played the Gibs, the pups were actually pretty balanced: nice thumpy low end, strong flexible mids, and a fairly full complimentary top end. Overall tone was warm, melodic, and clear (all moderately so); noticeably nasal at times; on the dark side; with a percussive, woodie, hollow body quality to tone that I call tong tone. The pups were actually quite smooth and often mellow. There’s growl but it was a smooth not aggressive growl (albeit with TI Flats). There was a variety of typically interesting nuances in tone resulting from slides, pull-offs, etc. including a tubular quality to tone at times. No in your face rawness, the pups are actually mildly to moderately refined in tone.

As if that isn’t enough, they can sound quite different depending on the mix of common variables - eq, pup mix, tone adjustment, etc. I would expect a similar response with a change in rigging cause I could skim through just the amp models on the bass cube and typically one model worked distinctly better to a given artist than any other model, yet all would be fairly passable. I mostly used both pups max’d or bridge only depending on desire at the time, seldom used neck only (I‘m no neck player). I could get practically as much flexibility from hand position/technique as pup mix. In as much, they played well to P and J toned tunes and could get some Ric-like tone as well but they didn’t really sound like a stereotypical J, P, or Ric tone. Yeh, they can be boomie, muddy, even bright (one guy mentioned using them for slap - no way with these flats) but it’s doesn’t take much to dial the unwanted stuff out to get a good workable tone.

It short, they have a very useable unique tone that works to a broad range of styles yet retain character in way that makes the tones sound like T-birds. They played better than average to pretty much everything but particularly Blues, Classic R&B, Motown, smooth Jazz. Tone to tunes balanced across the board in terms of volume, sensitivity, cut, and clarity - no capacity to fade strings noticed. Played them briefly through a Fender Deluxe pre mounted outboard and they was no variation of significance I could distinguish with or without it.


FLUFF:

Reviews are getting sparse - and a lot harder to do. I basically have a keeper stash and that’s what I play. So when something new comes along that’s my basis for comparison these days, which is not a fair comparison for a typical pup. I bought and sold a pair of Ken Smith Proto J pups I didn’t even review cause I didn’t enjoy playing them enough to keep them in a bass long enough to do one. I meant and intended to do one, I just forgot about them cause I wasn’t playing them or wanting to. In comparison, these T-birds I’ve had for a month or so and they’ve remained in a bass with regular play.

I don’t know what standard placement is for T-birds but I have them at 10 ¾” (N) and 14” (B) respectively from 12th fret to pup CC. If anybody knows feel free to contribute that info. Just a 250K blend pot to the jack into a Roland bass cube using mostly all the models but mostly the Bassman with the deep switch off. I’ve played them through the power amp as well and tone is comparable.

 

[luknfur]

Villex HB Soaps

2 lead w/ground
split P mag arrangement

Synopsis

Not tones that are earth shaking different but an interesting mix and very user friendly, in fact pretty much a plug and play pup. Tweaking basically yielded a myriad of refined, dark P-J tones to a given tune and played well to a broad range of styles. No problem to get rap boom, jug bass, wall of sound tones to name a few. The pups put out brighter tones but I didn’t find such tones to be useable - especially compared to similar tones in other pups I‘ve got. Minimal rawness with some grind and growl depending on setting but punch and percussiveness in variations were common. Lots of subtle variations in attack.


Whole Enchilada

Installed in an acoustically midrange bass typical bridge and neck position. Controls V/V/T/Mid (see Fluff). Output better than average but not grossly so even though a DCR reading show these pups at 25K each. Quiet no hum. Sensitivity to technique about average. There were lots of subtle variations in attack but they were primarily due to tone control changes not altering technique. Finger transfer apparent but neither appealing nor unappealing for the most part, nothing problematic. Worked well to flat picked. Sensitivity to hand position better than average - I fingerpicked up to the 12th fret on one useable tone (not the absence of the fundamental as often accompanies going up the fretboard). Sustain varied depending on the tone but average to better than average.

Generally a refined, noticeably thick, dark toned pup that worked well to a broad range of styles. Lots of variations of similar tones. Very little tweaking required to get solid tone. Very rounded tones in general. Ample bass and mids with an adequate complimentary top end. Bass could go boomie and Mids could get honky/boxie but bass was never an issue and mids nothing problematic. The only issue of any consequence was trebles on the G string (and D to a lesser degree) could produce a noticeably hard edge that generally became more pronounced the brighter the tone. Not an issue on darker tones but an some mildly bright J type tones it was unappealing and I couldn’t tweak it out. Trebles typically seemed more like an extended upper midrange and never approached being bright or harsh.

P players would probably find the pup very appealing as well as guys who like darker J tones (along the lines of a contemporary toned 60’s Fender) as that’s pretty much the tone range I got, maybe a little Hofner mixed in. Lots of subtle variations to the same tunes but no Jekle/Hyde in these pups. Even jumping around on amp models didn’t bring that about (see Fluff for amp setup). Although very different sounds resulted from as much, it sounded more like different eq‘ing of the same pup. The pups exhibited minimal rawness with some grind and growl depending on setting but punch and percussiveness in variations were common.

One thing very unusual about these pups/this harness setup is similar tones could be pulled from either the neck or bridge positions, as if the pup placement didn‘t have much effect. In as much, no problem as a stand alone pup and with a little creativity may yield a Villex/whatever pup combo that could be quite interesting and useful.

Played passably to all tunes, better than average to most tunes, and excelled to ballpark 20%. Good pup for about anything where dark tone is desired but particularly Blues, Reggae, 60’s R&B, smooth jazz. Volume, tone, sensitivity, clarity, and cut fairly even across the board. Some desirable controlled fading of D&G strings in some tones. No solo tones noted in tones to tunes.


Fluff

Signal Chain: Bass > Roland D-bass 210 with a Roland Bass Cube 30 ran through it’s effects loop. Among other tone shaping the D-bass has 3 amp models (flat, modern, vintage), 2 preamp models (tube, ss), a mid frequency control that varies from 100 Hz - 3 kHz as well as an effects mix permitting variations from 100% D-Bass - 100% cube (which has 5 additional modeled amps - Fliptop, etc), and variable tweeter (off-100%).

Some strange going’s on in the Villex/pup setup but I’m surprised there hasn’t been more tailored pup/harness combinations marketed. Here’s the link to the atypical wiring diagrams: http://www.villex.com/wiring.html. From William Villex: black lead - output from mane sensor coil; bare - ground; red and white are for fitting back part of the output signal to special coil. The pup yields no DCR between the red and another lead and 25K between the black and bare. I paired red and black to run the pup straight to the jack so my guess is that’s how it would go through a preamp.

Another twist of the Villex setup (aside from the 50k passive mid) is apparently William recommends audio pots for the tone controls and linear pots for volume - the opposite of the norm. The pots that came with the pups were all audio and what little is left of my stash is all audio. From the function of these pots (aside from the 50k mid which was as recommended), the curves were all off on the pots. So I got what many TB pot threads are about - the taper all squished into a quarter turn or so. So my guess is, William knows his stuff.

 

[A9X]

Another good review there. I agree for the most part with the tonal description too.

 

[sirsam22]

Those Peavey pickups sound like the ones from the short lived Forum-4 string w/ single pickup in the middle position, Forum Ax-4 string w/ two pickups in the bridge and middle positions, Forum 5-5 string in the Ax configuration, or the Rudy Sarzo sig-4 string same configuration as the previous two models.

I'm not entirely sure that the Forum and Sarzo have the exact same pickups. I have a Forum, but I've never been up close to a Sarzo to be sure, and someone on the Peavey Forum said that they were pretty sure they were not. I'll try to post a pic of mine later, if that will help.