Multicoil with Filter preamp club

[DangaDanga]

Anyone able to compare the old lusithand to the new version or underhill full english? I'm thinking about changing for a more useable frequency spectrum and the treble boost push.

 

[LowWay]

I can't compare, but I have the Underhill Cali Dub, with the treble boost, and I like the treble boost. It really helps get more into that Blood Sugar Sex Magic zone for me.

It should be like the full english, except with fully continuous resonant boost instead of switches. I like it. I have a JTEX I'm looking forward to installing in another bass this summer. Looking forward to that comparison.

 

[SunByrne]

Anyone able to compare the old lusithand to the new version or underhill full english? I'm thinking about changing for a more useable frequency spectrum and the treble boost push.

I have the v1 of the double special NFP. Since making mine, my luthier has made a couple more, and they use the v2. He tells me that other than the pick attack toggle, they don't sound much different.

 

[Phreaky Phriday]

Something to note on the Underhill preamps - you can add underhill's bass eq pot as well since everything is modular. Very helpful with fine tuning the tone without having to bend over and mess with eq on the amp. Both of my dual filter basses have the treble boost and a bass eq pot

 

[LowWay]

Something to note on the Underhill preamps - you can add underhill's bass eq pot as well since everything is modular. Very helpful with fine tuning the tone without having to bend over and mess with eq on the amp. Both of my dual filter basses have the treble boost and a bass eq pot

Yup. +1 on that. I have that as well. It looks like a lot of knobs on the bass. 10 of them on mine, plus one is push/pull. But it's really not that much if you are comfortable with the filter pres.

2 filters, each with stacked knobs for frequency and variable Q
Bass eq with stacked knobs for freq and boost/cut
2 "knobs" that are actually 4 way switches for selecting the pickup coils
a volume with push pull for treble boost
and a blend

Gets real intuitive, real fast. As soon as you get the filter mindset straight, this thing is super easy to dial in and really flexible.

The bass eq has a center detent for flat. The q knobs have center detent for half the Q boost, giving the combination of easy to set full/half like a switched Q filter, with continuous variability for more subtle adjustments.

Definitely a nice setup.

 

[slowburnaz]

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?

Yeah, most are definitely the "separate output for each coil pair into a filter preamp with multiple inputs" situation... at least the ones I get orders for.

The other wiring config I make, the "SPPP" variant, is more like a regular humbucker wiring-wise, and works just fine in a passive setup.

I've had at least one customer use the "SEP" wiring variant in a passive setup, by wiring all the hot leads together in parallel (they all share a common cold/ground lead). I typically don't recommend that, though, just due to the low-ish output you get by wiring four "pickups" in parallel. In an active bass, it's not as much of an issue.