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Guild Bi-Sonic pickups VS Curtis Novak BS-DS

#5
I currently own a Serek Armitage Bass with a single Guild Bisonic Pickup. I have a Curtis Novak BS/DS pickup without the coil tap option on its way to replace the Guild Bisonic. While I like the Guild pickup (especially in a pair like a Jazz Bass) I found my self wanting more bass in the Armitage with the single pickup design. (more in the Precision Bass tradition although this obviously not a split coil design.) I roll my tone back anyway so I don't think that I will miss the muted top frequencies. My Armitage is strung with Dunlop flatwound strings. I'll do a follow up after the pickup is installed and I have had a chance to play it with the Curtis Norvak BS/DS. I have another Serek Armitage on order with the Serek LZN B90 hum bucker pickup but Jake has a 12 month backlog for orders.
 
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#6
Well, today is Saturday, April 5th. I finally got my Serek Armitage back from the shop where I had the Guild BiSonic Pickup swapped out for a Curtis Novak BS/DS without the coil tap option and the sound of my bass did improve in that there is more low end which the Armitage needed. It is not night and day but the sound has some more weight and I guess richer tone. The Curtis Novak was $305 plus shipping and the installation was $50. I am going to leave the Dunlop Flats on it for now. While the change did not give the bass the punch of say a Fender Precision Bass, it now has the old school low end of the BiSonics of the 1960s. (that was an educated guess since I never heard a sixties Guild Starfire). The Curtis Novak BiSonic did improve the sound of the bass.
 
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#7
I've been thinking about adding a Bisonic or similar to the neck position of my P bass. There was just a bass for sale locally that I missed out on seeing as I was out of town but it was a P bass with a Curtis Novak EB-BSx (which is basically a Novak BS/DS in a Gibson humbucker shape) added in the neck position and a jazz pickup in the bridge position — I think combining a Bisonic type pickup with either a p or j could yield some great sounds — "the punch of say a Fender Precision Bass. . . and the old school low end of the BiSonics of the 1960s."
 
#8
mikeynets said:
I've been thinking about adding a Bisonic or similar to the neck position of my P bass. There was just a bass for sale locally that I missed out on seeing as I was out of town but it was a P bass with a Curtis Novak EB-BSx (which is basically a Novak BS/DS in a Gibson humbucker shape) added in the neck position and a jazz pickup in the bridge position — I think combining a Bisonic type pickup with either a p or j could yield some great sounds — "the punch of say a Fender Precision Bass. . . and the old school low end of the BiSonics of the 1960s."
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I'd would love to try that, because in theory it sounds nice the way you put it, but I'm not sure that in real life the sum of 2 different pickup characters will give you that "best of both worlds" gratification.

For example, I have an Ovation Magnum II. It has a huge Humbucker in the neck position that sounds very deep, and a very punchy single coil in the bridge position. You could expect the same "best of both" when you mix the 2, but I don't like the result. To be clear, I like each pickup soloed, but not the 2 pickups together. It lacks homogenity.

It's like if you love Red and Green and you want to mix them, you're going to get a Brown that you may not like as much as each individual color.

I'm not saying it won't work with your pickups, but you won't know until you try.

1744349508359.png
 
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#9
When I started this thread, I was thinking of project where I would combine a Ric style High Gain pickup in the bridge position and a BS-DS or BiSonic in the neck position. I wasn't sure of the result (see my previous comment), but I wanted to try anyway, building a prototype first, inspired from Leo Fender's breadboard. Maybe with a blend knob instead of a 3 way selector it would work better than on my Ovation, because I would be able to add "just a little fatness" from the BiSonic with the blend knob at 20%, or do the opposite (add "just a little punch" with the blend knob at 80%).

I finally changed my mind partly because the Bridge BiSonic was out of stock when I wanted to buy it (I prefered the sound of the BiSonic over the BS-DS in the video shared by @Silky Johnson)

I kept the idea of the breadboard in order to experiment with different pickups and pickup positions. The project is still ongoing, it's fun to experiment and I learn a lot.

1744351421036.png
 
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#10
gtirard said:
I'd would love to try that, because in theory it sounds nice the way you put it, but I'm not sure that in real life the sum of 2 different pickup characters will give you that "best of both worlds" gratification.

For example, I have an Ovation Magnum II. It has a huge Humbucker in the neck position that sounds very deep, and a very punchy single coil in the bridge position. You could expect the same "best of both" when you mix the 2, but I don't like the result. To be clear, I like each pickup soloed, but not the 2 pickups together. It lacks homogenity.

It's like if you love Red and Green and you want to mix them, you're going to get a Brown that you may not like as much as each individual color.

I'm not saying it won't work with your pickups, but you won't know until you try.

View attachment 7199379
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I hear ya — in theory, it sounds amazing, too amazing almost — like some ad copy. In reality, who knows? BTW the words I used were from the previous poster, just conveniently/questionably edited by me to sum up a dream tone machine.

One thing I forgot to mention about that bass I missed out on — the Novak neck pickup had it's own volume/tone controls and the p and j were on a three way selector circuit sharing a master volume/tone. That's a lot of tone options in one bass with the possibility for best of both (three?) worlds.
 
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#11
gtirard said:
When I started this thread, I was thinking of project where I would combine a Ric style High Gain pickup in the bridge position and a BS-DS or BiSonic in the neck position. I wasn't sure of the result (see my previous comment), but I wanted to try anyway, building a prototype first, inspired from Leo Fender's breadboard. Maybe with a blend knob instead of a 3 way selector it would work better than on my Ovation, because I would be able to add "just a little fatness" from the BiSonic with the blend knob at 20%, or do the opposite (add "just a little punch" with the blend knob at 80%).

I finally changed my mind partly because the Bridge BiSonic was out of stock when I wanted to buy it (I prefered the sound of the BiSonic over the BS-DS in the video shared by @Silky Johnson)

I kept the idea of the breadboard in order to experiment with different pickups and pickup positions. The project is still ongoing, it's fun to experiment and I learn a lot.

View attachment 7199386
Click to expand...
Very cool. To move the pickups, do you just unscrew and drill new holes? Or are you using double sided tape?
 
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#12
I am using a guild bisonic in the classic p position with a Novak gold foil in the bridge position vvt. This has quickly become a go to bass. The bisonic had plenty of lows and clarity and the gold foil can be dialed up to add some mid-range. I looked at the Novak bs-ds, but after watching the Serek video I couldn't bring myself to spend 3 times as much for what I perceived as a lateral move. Equally as good, just a slightly different flavor. The tap option may have been nice, but on this bass, I'm not lacking for final options.
Novak pickups are amazing, and I'm so happy with the gold foil.
 
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#16
mikeynets said:
I've been really tempted to put the guild bisonic in the sweet spot instead of in front/in addition to the p.

Tell me more about the gold foil. I've never seen/heard one in person.
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Yeah! I originally got the gold foil and put it in the p location. It has a great mid-range that like a very mild overdrive. I would say it's almost chewy. Not scooped or bottom heavy, no treble bite, just a low mid sound that really sits in a mix well. It was great, so I obviously had to mess with it. I wanted to try a bisonic because I thought I could get a nice p bass type tone from it and the gold foil could fill in the mid and even give it some grit. That's pretty much what it did. Repainted to suit the new aesthetic.

There's a good video on the Novak website of a bass with it in the p position that really shows what the pickup does.
 
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