I installed a GFS Power Rails pickup in my Squier TB-- in the neck position. It's kind of... rigged in... for now. I'll have to make a new pickguard, and when I do that a lot more electronic mods are going to be added, but here's a quick review of what I've got.
This pickup, by all appearances, is an X2N copy. It's got the same impedence, the rails are the same (though, chromed on these), and the magnet setup is the same (one big magnet in the middle, and 2 on the outsides).
The tone is familiar of the X2N I had in an SX, but being in the neck position it's hard to compare.
It has great low end, but it's a very mid-focussed low end, like a P pickup. The high end is great, if not bordering on perhaps too bright. It is a guitar pickup afterall. It really transforms with a tone knob. If you roll off the treble, it's very thumpy. With the tone knob maxed, you can coax a very Justin Chancellor/Jeff Caxide sort of treble-- and this is the deep neck spot (the pickup is at the edge of the old cavity). It's not as glassy, but it's still very bright. I'm pretty eager to try it in a bridge position.
The split tone is really pretty weak. I was sort of disapointed. It would be great for cutting out the bass for chords and such, though. I'll have to explore it more when I can turn up the amp a bit.
Speaking of volume-- this thing is LOUD.
I already have the other one. Once I make a new pickguard, I plan to install the pickups in the Rickenbacker positions (compensated for scale length, of course). The neck pickup will have the magnets changed out for a single Alnico V to mellow it out a bit and hopefully help level out volume between the neck and bridge pickups. The bridge will remain stock.
Because the pickup is sooo high output, I'm going to make a buffer (switchable-- because fuzz boxes don't dig active signals) so I can roll off the volume without the tone changing so much.
So, yeah. Anyone with guitar-sized pickups in their bass-- these are dirt cheap and sound really cool.
This pickup, by all appearances, is an X2N copy. It's got the same impedence, the rails are the same (though, chromed on these), and the magnet setup is the same (one big magnet in the middle, and 2 on the outsides).
The tone is familiar of the X2N I had in an SX, but being in the neck position it's hard to compare.
It has great low end, but it's a very mid-focussed low end, like a P pickup. The high end is great, if not bordering on perhaps too bright. It is a guitar pickup afterall. It really transforms with a tone knob. If you roll off the treble, it's very thumpy. With the tone knob maxed, you can coax a very Justin Chancellor/Jeff Caxide sort of treble-- and this is the deep neck spot (the pickup is at the edge of the old cavity). It's not as glassy, but it's still very bright. I'm pretty eager to try it in a bridge position.
The split tone is really pretty weak. I was sort of disapointed. It would be great for cutting out the bass for chords and such, though. I'll have to explore it more when I can turn up the amp a bit.
Speaking of volume-- this thing is LOUD.
I already have the other one. Once I make a new pickguard, I plan to install the pickups in the Rickenbacker positions (compensated for scale length, of course). The neck pickup will have the magnets changed out for a single Alnico V to mellow it out a bit and hopefully help level out volume between the neck and bridge pickups. The bridge will remain stock.
Because the pickup is sooo high output, I'm going to make a buffer (switchable-- because fuzz boxes don't dig active signals) so I can roll off the volume without the tone changing so much.
So, yeah. Anyone with guitar-sized pickups in their bass-- these are dirt cheap and sound really cool.
