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Musicman Sabre Club
- Thread starter fourstringdrums
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and if they don't, which I doubt will be the case, I can sell you a pickup that's been put into a Sabre cover so you don't have to do routing!
Question for any late-80s Sabre owners who've also tried the Sabre Classic: are your 80s 16-pole neck pickups as noticeably quiet as the ones on the Classics (as compared to the bridge pickup)?
I wonder if they could've solved for X by doing 8-pole neck pickups with weaker slugs but compensating elsewhere (more winds on the bobbins, etc.). How do HH Stingrays not have the "warble" problem?
I had a chorus effect on my jazz bass and solved by lowering the pickups.
Still finding the volume balance by lowering both pickups..
My old Sabre had the big magnets sticking out, I do not recall this problem.
My EBMM Stingray HH and HS have never warbled.
Try asking on the Ernie Ball ...basses forum
Ernie Ball Music Man Basses
Well , here is my 83 SabreI love this bass so much.
I think the 80s ones are quieter towards the neck than the classic which I think is notably louder, I think they overwound it to make it bigger sounding on the classic
I Still have no idea why the hhs are not a problem but my thought is that the space between the winding and the slugs is almost a half inch bigger, you have the magnets much closer together on the Sabre pickup than they are on the stingray pickup.
my main theory still is that the warbling sabres are the ones made in 80,81,82 because those ones have a flatter neck profile and the pickup is the same, meaning effectively that the pole pieces are closer to the strings than they would be on the rounded 7.5 inch neck radius, it's why the a and d string have the worst warbles and the e and g hardly has any. I think the effect actually deepens the voice of the bass though and isn't an issue unless you really like playing above the 14th fret, unfortunately the flatter neck on the post 79s would mean that the string is closer to the pickup poles when fretted and it would kick in the chorus sound at about the 11th or 12th fret depending on your pickup height
Weird - that's not been my experience with my Classic at all. The two neck positions are WAY quieter than the other three positions.
mighf need a new lead wire or a new pickup selection wheel! I would take it to a good tech, though musicmans factory setting for that bass' pickup heights makes the neck pickup quieter than the bridge pickup, changing the height on it usually evens it out, you can get the reissues neck pickup much closer to the strings than you can the 79-83
I suspected as much. I'm just going to keep nudging it up until it fixes it or causes a problem.
don't be shy about putting it up close too, my classic and my 84 have the neck pickup about 3/32 from the strings when fretted on the 12th fret! The pickup height also works to balance out the two pickups cause there's no blend or independent volume control. Since musicman is selling the Sabre to musicman fans, they tend to balance it so the bridge pickup has a bigger presence in the mix in their factory setups
Could you share your pickup height measurements? Might be helpful...
