That tone is more crispy than fresh fried chicken!
That is also a beautiful MTD too.
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MTD 535 with the Super Preamp & Quad Coil Pickups
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
That tone is more crispy than fresh fried chicken!
That is also a beautiful MTD too.
That's gotta be the best sounding MTD I've ever heard. If I was ordering one I'd tell them to build me one that sounds like that!
With the quad coils and super-pre, each pickup is selectable for series, single coil, and parallel operation. The tonal voicing combinations are really versatile, and work in both passive and active modes. Mids are selectable 400/800, IIRC.
If you understand the pre/ pup combinations, there are many tones available! Awesome bass.
The quad coils sound amazing with all coils on but can do much more. I put a set out of a Modulus Quantum 6 in my Franken fretless 6 build. I'm installing an NTMB with mid and active/passive switches in it today. My plan is to add a coil tapping switch for each pickup for more tonal options. That MTD shows what you can do with the different coils. A pretty cool video.
DJmtd
Commercial User
- Feb 18, 2025
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- I work for MTD Bass, formerly employed by Vigier!
This is correct.
The Volume pot is push/pull active/passive and the mid pot is push/pull 400/800hz. Where our treble pot would normally be is a passive tone, the mid is where it should be and the spot where we normally put the bass pot is a stacked bass/treble. Our USA Supers typically have pickups in the bridge and middle position, but you can get them in 'normal' 535 position like this video.
For those who are interested...
The pickups we normally use for our Super electronics package are proprietary. They have four coils, but they're wired such that the splits are in a noiseless J configuration. Mike calls them Quad Coils, but I think that's kind of confusing because of the Bartolini naming conventions. Ours are most like Bartolini 2J Squared in terms of construction. When you choose single coil mode on the switches, you get the outer coils.
Wiring is on page 5 of this pdf:
The guy in the video swapped the pickups out for Bartolini Original Quads. Quads "single coil mode" can be configured as a P or reverse P as well and series/parallel. Bartolini doesn't document a switching solution for series-single-parallel, but there's gotta be a way to achieve that. Not sure what's going on in the video specifically, but it's definitely crispy! I *think* he's got a P-Series-Reverse P thing going on, but without looking in the cavity or asking directly... I can't say for sure.
In the Kingston Super, we use MM style pickups to achieve the same switching. Whatever pickup you prefer, it's the switching that's the real sauce for me - specifically having each pickup independently switchable. It seems like a lot, but pretty much every combo is usable and it's incredibly fun to play with. My personal 'pet' sound is a neck single with the bridge in series. Fat, but with some extra cut.
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So it still operates as a dual coil? (Most soapbars) you just choose the coil?
You don't get to use all 4 at once ?
DJmtd
Commercial User
- Feb 18, 2025
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I'm not sure I understand your questions.
Each pickup has its own three way switch. Our stock switching is Series-Single Coil-Parallel for each pickup.
The pickups that come in an MTD Super operate like a "standard" dual coil pickup. You can use the pickup in series or parallel or you can use the inner or outer "single" coil. There are four total coils so the single coil modes are noiseless. Each "single coil" has two coils (one coil for the B, E, A strings and another for D and G). Both series and parallel use all four coils.
The Bartolini Original Quads operate the same way, except instead of inner/outer J-style single coils, you get P or reverse P.
If you click the links in my previous post, you can see how all the coils are oriented.
Pg 3 is where the fun starts.
I think the term "soapbar" has done a disservice to a lot of players' understanding of pickups. Soapbars can have any type of pickup under the cover. Our standard pickups, for instance, are proprietary reverse Ps.
I hope that clears it up, if you have any other questions, feel free to PM or email me at [email protected]
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Cool tone!
The (discontinued?) RA5 Signature model should be very similar, it is my understanding that it's basically got the "quadcoil" pickup, comes with Series/Parallel switch but you can also mod it to have the Single coil switch.
I'm not sure about the amp..
I have one that I honestly chased more for the 34 inch scale (fantastic feel) but it's a nice surprise and addition that the electronics set up is so unique
(no affiliation but there is one in the classifieds)
The (discontinued?) RA5 Signature model should be very similar, it is my understanding that it's basically got the "quadcoil" pickup, comes with Series/Parallel switch but you can also mod it to have the Single coil switch.
I'm not sure about the amp..
I have one that I honestly chased more for the 34 inch scale (fantastic feel) but it's a nice surprise and addition that the electronics set up is so unique
(no affiliation but there is one in the classifieds)
Quick question for those familiar with Bartolini quad coils—
In the wiring diagram, they show series, parallel, and P/reverse P options, but I don't see a "J-style" single coil mode mentioned.
Based on the polarity (bridge-side coils = North, neck-side = South), it looks like you could run the outer coils on both pickups (neck pickup neck-side coil + bridge pickup bridge-side coil) and get:
- proper J-style spacing
- hum-cancelling (opposite polarity)
Is that correct? Has anyone actually wired Bart quads this way and confirmed it works as a hum-cancelling "J mode"?
Just want to make sure I'm not missing something before committing to using them in an upcoming build.
DJmtd
Commercial User
- Feb 18, 2025
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- I work for MTD Bass, formerly employed by Vigier!
Yeah correct, the Classic Quads are wired for P/Reverse P.
The Quads we use on the Super are proprietary to achieve this J type split.
You'd have to contact Bartolini to see what you could do on the Classics. I'm sure they COULD do it. I believe you wouldn't get hum cancelling from the "J" style as-is because they're not wired in reverse. The "P" options are all reverse from one another, cancelling hum and for that to be the case, I believe the inner coils would need to be wound one way and the outers would be wound the other.
I think that's one big difference between the off-the-shelf pickups and ours. The two coils that make up each outer single are wound opposite from each other, which is what gives it its noise cancelling properties.
In other words, I don't think you can get both P and J splits without one of them having noise.
If you contact Bartolini, they'll get back to you - all excellent people over there.
