Multicoil with Filter preamp club

[SteveCS]

Wait. Does the OP assign numbers? Did I sign up for more unpaid work?

Anyway here it is:

1. Rdore2000
2. @SteveCS
3. @DangaDanga
4. @Phreaky Phriday
5. @SunByrne
6. @LowWay
7. @Bar Band Bassman
8. @gidbass
9. @dickfitts

A more elegant solution that gets you off the hook is to say that if someone wants to use a Club # they just take the # of their first 'evidential' post in the thread. So, for example, if @dickfitts wants to use a number it will be 16 and @GHOST AT will use #19. There will be no 12-15, 17 or 18, etc.

YMMV

 

[PhR75]

G&L Tribute L2000 body, multicoil pickups and neck built by and the whole thing assembled together by @MPU. A JTEX Filter preamp.

Sounds like this:

 

[OJ Dorson]

I've got three of Alan's (ACGuitars.co.uk) Über Series basses. Alan's been doing filters for 20+ years and his DFM is the most flexible, most comprehensive, greatest preamp I've ever experienced. Pictures are my two fretted Übers and my non-Über Mikro bass... I also have a fretless Über. Bar none, these are the best basses I've ever had the pleasure to own. If you're in Chicago, you're welcome to come check them out.

 

[NOLA Bass]

Some lovely basses in here!

 

[Passinwind]

Not sure something like this exists because it's such a niche club. But I was just thinking that we could start a club with bassists who have basses with multicoil pickups and filter based preamps, like ACG or Alembic (are they single coil pickups) or Wal or Octave, or the lesser known players.

I'll start with my ACG Uber Krell 4/34. I have an Alembic Epic as well but that's EQ based, so doesn't really qualify.

View attachment 7460197

Yeah, Alembic pickups are typically single coils but with an added coil for noise mitigation. If you want to stretch your admission criteria to include them and a variety of other cool filter based builds with less specialized pickups that’s up to you. The multicoil aspect has never really grabbed me personally, but I have greatly enjoyed the half dozen or so DIY preamp builds I’ve done for myself and a couple of friends. Cool thread in any case!

 

[NOLA Bass]

I don't have the multi coil, but I do have this project. I took my G&L Tribute Kiloton bass and added the Lusitand preamp to it. My friend had done the same. Lusitand said to switch from the stock pickup (that also comes in their L-1000 and L-2000 models as they are too high output for the preamp. The M series pickup is lower output and a good fit, but there is no coil splitting available. The bass sounds fantastic with the Lusitand imo. The Kilton had a 3 way switch that would no longer work. I have the hole covered with gaffer tape. At some point, I'll probably get a new pickguard.

 

[basshobbiest]

I built a poor man’s Wal bass using a Yamaha trbx-304 bass as a platform. I installed Turner multicoil pickups, a Lusithand double NFP special preamp, and a 5-way varitone for additional tone-shaping capabilities. I like it looks and sounds incredible.

 

[SunByrne]

I built a poor man’s Wal bass using a Yamaha trbx-304 bass as a platform. I installed Turner multicoil pickups, a Lusithand double NFP special preamp, and a 5-way varitone for additional tone-shaping capabilities. I like it looks and sounds incredible.

IIRC there was a YouTuber who suggested that the TRBX304 would make a good platform for a Wal clone, but I can't remember who it was. Anyone?

 

[bigsnack]

Yamahas are a great mod platform!

 

[LowWay]

I was playing with tones today with my Underhill preamp. With the Treble boost, 2 variable resonant filters, a bass eq, I left it on just the bridge pickup, bridge pickup in parallel mode (turner multicoils), and was just exploring tones, and to be honest, I was re-blown away by the range of tones. I understand people who just want A bass sound, and a bass that just sounds like the sound they have in their heads with no fidgeting, but for those not afraid to explore. I am not surprised that many find this overwhelming, but I am surprised these are not more popular.

 

[basshobbiest]

I was playing with tones today with my Underhill preamp. With the Treble boost, 2 variable resonant filters, a bass eq, I left it on just the bridge pickup, bridge pickup in parallel mode (turner multicoils), and was just exploring tones, and to be honest, I was re-blown away by the range of tones. I understand people who just want A bass sound, and a bass that just sounds like the sound they have in their heads with no fidgeting, but for those not afraid to explore. I am not surprised that many find this overwhelming, but I am surprised these are not more popular.

It’s probably the expense. $1000 for pickups and preamp. It’s still a bargain though compared to a Wal and you can get about 95% there.

 

[LowWay]

It’s probably the expense. $1000 for pickups and preamp. It’s still a bargain though compared to a Wal and you can get about 95% there.

Yeah, good point about the cost. I pretend all my music ctuff is free so I don't have to face reality.

But if they were more popular, the production could take advantage of scale and drive down costs. Right now, Underhill, Lusithand, Turner, to my understanding, are all very small companies. If they had the ability to churn out stuff at the scale of some of the big players, we might see that number cut in half.

None the less, I'm just having a lot of fun playing with the tone exploration again with no goals, just adventure.

 

[basshobbiest]

View attachment 7461335
View attachment 7461337

G&L Tribute L2000 body, multicoil pickups and neck built by and the whole thing assembled together by @MPU. A JTEX Filter preamp.

Sounds like this:

How did you re-purpose the switches?

 

[PhR75]

How did you re-purpose the switches?

We have to ask @MPU since he put the bass together. I don't know if he used the original switches.

But there's a master volume and the switch near that is the pickup selector. Switches near the filters are the 0db/5db/10db Q-boost switches.

 

[crazycloud]

Did some more experimenting with my (own design) multi coils yesterday and I think I'm at the final iteration.

The filter pre is already designed.

Next I need to get some covers printed and it all installed on one of the basses.

 

[basshobbiest]

IIRC there was a YouTuber who suggested that the TRBX304 would make a good platform for a Wal clone, but I can't remember who it was. Anyone?

I believe it was SuperFunkyPete. Ironically I didn’t see his recommendation until after I chose the trbx-304. I was looking for a budget priced mahogany bodied bass with 4 controls for the Lusithand preamp that I thought would look cool. I vacillated on which color to go with and chose the mist green. Glad I did.

 

[NKBassman]

I should probably tag @slowburnaz with this question...
i think 99% of the multicoil pickups I see are going into active basses (with standard or filter preamps).
Can multicoil pickups also be used in a passive setup? Obviously you couldn't use a multicoil pickup with separate outputs for each coil/string, but for the configurations with one hot and one ground, is there any reason it wouldn't sound good in a passive config?

 

[SteveCS]

Can multicoil pickups also be used in a passive setup? Obviously you couldn't use a multicoil pickup with separate outputs for each coil/string, but for the configurations with one hot and one ground, is there any reason it wouldn't sound good in a passive config?

Although my original Wal ProBass began life as passive, it still had the same Wal pickup - 8 individual coils arranged in a 2x4 matrix. There were mini-switches for various coil arrangements - IIRC series/parallel and something akin to a P-bass using 4 of the 8 coils, but I can't remember for sure. In any event it sounded great. When I sent it back to Wal to have the preamp fitted, it also sounded great. So on that single data point, yes the multi-coil pickups can/do work in a passive arrangement.

YMMV

 

[SteveFromBerlin]

I‘d be really interested in hearing a passive multicoil configuration.

 

[LowWay]

The turners can be run in parallel, series, with the p bass positioned coils, and reverse p. Turner also has the solder free 4 way switch for these. This would give a lot of options in a passive setup.