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Hollow body pickup

#21
Date: Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:57 AM
From: Fred Hammon <[email protected]>

To: [email protected] <[email protected]>

Subject: Re: What is the best pickup for a Hollow Body Bass

------------------------------------------------------------That is a good point RV. The trim ring for a flat top bass probly will not work here. The violin body top has a nice curve to it like my girlfriends belly :) hmmmmmm

Well, Fred Hammon emailed me back with his recommendation for which pickup that I should use, quote;


Personally I think a Dark Star is too big for such a small bodied bass. It would sound just fine but.....

In this case I'd recommend the TV Jones Thundertron.

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I've never heard them myself but I've only heard good things about them.

Fred
 
#22
Also some other choices
-Duncan makes a Phatcat (I think that what its called)they are the standard Gibson HB size so easy to find pickup surrounds
-Armstrong Lipsticks ie Danelectros
-Hofner pickups or a used set of one of the copies
-Duncan Rick front pickup
-I have 3 old DeArmonds pu that I use, they have weak output but can be rewound and new magnets added
The list goes on and on

But the main question is.....how much????
These old basses will never be better than they actually are
But I like to play them because of the quirks and odd noises they do make

Thanks

Robert VanLane
 
#23
You've done a nice job on filling in the holes.

I don't know anything about Vox basses, but from what I've seen they all had a different shaped headstock.

http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/guitar/violin.html

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What does yours say on the headstock? Does it say where it was made?

TVJones makes a fine pickup, btw. I don't think they come with a coil tap option. If the surround is tall enough you might be able to radius the bottom a bit for a better fit, or mount the ring on a piece of wood that's been radiused. There was a pair of almost new ThunderTrons on ebay - missed it by that much...
 
#25
I may have found the original pickup that came on this bass, but not sure. It has been so long ago that my obsessive compulsive behavior drove me to tearing this guitar apart every time I found something else to try in it for a different sound. photos attached.

Glenn could you explain again how to bench test the pickup using a digital volt ohmeter?
 

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#26
That plate's often called a neck plate. Your bass was made by UNIVOX, not VOX.

To see if your pickup is alive the first thing is to find the scale on your ohmmeter that will read between 3 and 20Kohms. Mine has selections at 2K and 20K, among others, so I use 20K. The next thing is to find the ends of the pickup leads that used to go to a switch or pot or something. That's going to be a little tricky for you because it looks like the wires are cut pretty short. There should be two insulated wires or one insulated wire wrapped in wire brading. Being a humbucker there might be more wires, but then again that could be a single coil on the inside. A lot of Japanese pickups are like that. You'll need to strip the wires enough so you can put the probes on them both at the same time. If you get a reading other than infinate resistance on the ohmmeter the pickup should work. I'd guess 4-10K if it's ok.

That baseplate might also be connected to the ground wire, so you might be albe to test it with a probe there and the other probe on the insulated wire.
 
#29
I have one more question about this guitar. I want to change the color to gloss black after I finish with the pickup and wiring.

any recommendations on that would also be greatly appreciated...

and what was that about; Whatever you add, dont forget the Piezo?

Thanks again for the direction and advice.

Peaceout dudes
 
#30
Hey Monty, I've seen a lot of people say they like the stuff from:

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Never used any of their stuff personally, so I don't speak from experience. If you have a spray gun and air compressor you can use automotive paint. I've always used automotive acrylic lacquer. I think it's illegal or just hard to get now...the ozone and all... There are plenty of other types of auto finishes.

Any luck with the pickup?
 
#31
Refer to the attached photo

Assuming that the baseplate is the outer metal shell;

On the 20K scale I got a reading of 8.04 measured from the insulated solder point in the corner to the baseplate.

From reading your text it seems apparent that this is a single coil pickup that uses the base plate for the ground wire.

Yes?
 

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#32
I have a reflex lead guitar pickup system (attached photo)(never used). Can I use any of this stuff like the switches & jack to wire up the base with the existing single pickup?

can you post a diagram here for me?

I know, I don't ask for much, ... huh.
 

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#33
I'm glad your pickup shows signs of life. If it's reading 8K it probably is a real humbucker since their coils are small compared to single coils. If there's only one insulated wire, that's probably your hot wire. I don't think the coil tapping craze had started when your bass was made, and if it had it was mostly done on guitars.

I know next to nothing about active electronics. I don't know if you can mix that stuff with your passive HB, but I have read where some basses are made so they can be used active or passive. Maybe someone else can help you with that. The original HB would use 500K or 250K pots, and I think active stuff uses pots in the 25K range. As far as the Strat switch, the only way I know to use that in this case would be to make a little plastic mounting plate for it - you'd have to cut a hole in the body and screw the mounting plate with the switch to the top of your bass. I'd recommend a SG type 3-way switch instead if you're going to use more than one pickup.
 
#34
Thanks Glenn, jeeeeeeeeeeez I am glad I asked. I almost wired it up with those active pots not knowing there is a difference. I will donate that active pickup system to someone with a lead guitar and keep the wiring on this bass rebuild simple.

I shot myself in the foot several times stuffing whatever into this guitar when I was a teenager. That led to my not having a bass guitar to play when I could have been jamming at practice sessions with local bands in my home town. A lesson learned there is; Do not tear down your only working guitar while smoking pot with friends in the back of their dad’s electronic repair shop.

My objective now is to get it back to a clean, simple setup. I now understand that to be the original setup. I want it to be played again and know a kid who will give it try with his band as a his second bass guitar.
 
#35
That sounds like a good idea.

But don't get discouraged - there are still plenty of ways to mess up a single pickup bass such as a coil tap and/or a push-pull pot that would switch capacitors. Those two mods would be like 4 different sounds with one pickup - don't know the extent of the variation.

Most of my stuff stays in a "transitional state", so I can relate to your situation.
 
#39
I am just now getting around to putting this back together and I am not sure how to connect the ground to the coil baseplate. I soldered the ground wires to the pots. Can I do the same on the pickup? There is no sign of any solder connect ground wires to the baseplate from before. There is a a close-up photo of the pickup above.
 
#40
Is this right according to the picture:
1) Bottom left corner - there's a hole in the baseplate where the pickup leads came out?
2) Between that hole and the bottom left corner of the pickup there's a little solder blob?

If yes, I'd solder the ground wire to the baseplate and run it to the volume pot and solder it on the back.
And run the hot wire to the outside leg of the volume pot which isn't grounded (one outside leg should be grounded, and the middle leg gets connected to the hot side of the input jack).
 

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