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I need the BIGGEST pickup EVER.

#81
To all the Darkstar and/or custom boutique electronics peeps. I get it, and I'm sure those are wonderful products.
Thank you.
However I'm not spending $285+ on a pickup. If I wanted to spend big money I would have got an expensive bass rather than a cheap DIY fixer upper project.
 
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#82
Gaolee said:
I'm surprised it took until the fourth page for somebody to mention a mudbucker or mudbucker replacement. My favorite pickup is a Dimarzio One. It's physically enormous.
Click to expand...

Not a beautiful pickup, but definitely large and has a good kick. Here's a mudbucker and a Model One....

PB070018.jpg
 
#87
Thanks, but believe it or not the Dimarzio Model One is too small for my needs as stated in the original post. the mud bucker with a ring might do it, but then so would an MM with a ring.
That Enfield super eight is the worst looking thing I've ever seen, even when considering non bass related items. :laugh:
the super quad is only 92mm long. I need 100+ to not have gaps.
 
#88
DanAdams said:
I bought a really nice bass (83 Ibanez Musician) that was unfortunately owned by a demented madman.
The original pickups had been removed and a hack job happened to fit other things poorly.

my overall area I need to cover is 4" by 2 1/8"
The biggest pickups I can remember are the Ibanez ATK (too small)
Ibanez P4 (too small, that is what was there originally)
Dizmarzio DP120 (too small)
Thunderbird with ring (too close for comfort as the ring would fall within the hole, and it's not quite 4" long, but perhaps my top option now.
Peavey T40 with rings maybe??? I'm just not a t40 fan, I tried.

Any other ideas aside from adding a pickguard? That would look real dopey on a Musician.
Pickups with bezels / rings are welcome
It is a 4 string bass
Click to expand...

How about Two double bucks.... the gain from that??? Who hoo!!!
 
#90
Gaolee said:
I'm surprised it took until the fourth page for somebody to mention a mudbucker or mudbucker replacement. My favorite pickup is a Dimarzio One. It's physically enormous.
Click to expand...

It's not enormous; other pickups are larger. And it's already been stated multiple times by the OP that the mudbucker size is not big enough.
 
#92
I know some people hate this, but what does it weigh? I had one of those back in the day, and it damn near broke my neck. It had to weigh in at 13 lbs. I was doing 5 - 8 gigs a week on my feet with that thing strapped over my shoulder. It was not good.
 
#93
Look at these!
shopping.jpeg


But on a serious note: have you thought about wood rings?
IMG_3043_i1.jpg

Depending on your woodshop setup, you might even be able to make them yourself.

I sure hope you come up with something soon so i can stop thinking about this , lol. :roflmao:
 
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#94
Thanks everyone for the great ideas. I have a lot to work with.
I'll post here with my solution once I figure it out. I'm leaning toward either MM with a ring from fretsonthenet.com, or a big 3d printed case from my local arts non-profit with whatever the heck I want inside, which based on these dimensions could be darn well anything.

JoeWPgh said:
I know some people hate this, but what does it weigh? I had one of those back in the day, and it damn near broke my neck. It had to weigh in at 13 lbs. I was doing 5 - 8 gigs a week on my feet with that thing strapped over my shoulder. It was not good.
Click to expand...

I didn't weigh this one before I disassembled it.
I've had several Musicians in my time, nothing close to 13 lbs. My 1982 is 9 1/2 lbs my 1979 is 10 lbs.
My Ibanez Studio weighs in at a chunky 11 1/4 lbs, but it feels heavier. (Im not positive of my shipping scale's accuracy)

If you want a super light Musician go for the MC888 it's VERY LIGHT and super fun.
 
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#96
DanAdams said:
That's a cool idea, especially as two shaped like the bridge pickup would add a consistency to the look.
I'm not an electronics expert, so I imagine single coil and hum buckers are not wound exactly the same way, and that either are wound to be beneficial as what they were designed to be. Would I get a great sound out of two single coils when running them as a humbucker? I've never found a single coil that I loved
Click to expand...

The Bigman 4 is basically (2) big singles stuffed into one shell. As far as phasing, I'm not sure how that works humbucker vs two singles. i have a set of big singles here and they are wound out of phase. One caveat is that they also have slightly different string spacing as they are designed to be in distant locations from each other. I have a big splitman 4 in the neck position on one of my basses. It sounds GREAT. I put the split man there because I was going to do all kinds of crazy coil switching. Never did. Just let 'er rip and it is fantastic. I wouldn't hesitate to call Nordstrand and inquire about a set of big singles or big splits to fill the hole on your Ibanez. I know they'll do custom spacing and prob can do the phasing to your application. You won't be sorry.
 
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#99
DanAdams said:
A lack of proper big ass Roadstar pickups is not my problem. Even these don't fill the extra route that was made. Maybe I'm being a brat, but I want this tight.
View attachment 3220152
Click to expand...
Wow. You do have a nice little collection there!

But I like the previously-mentioned idea of 3D printing new covers for old pickups. Seems like a perfect application of the technology for folks who don't happen to have plastic injection molding factories in their backyards.
 

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