Need advice on new pickups for Kawai FIIB

[Leonie]

Hey! I bought a Kawai FIIB from another TBr - (the one y'all mentioned in this thread:

I think it's the Koa top model.

Anyhow, it has the original pickups but the bridge pickup is dead. I can't have it fixed (that I know of) because the pickups are active & sealed. So I am going to need to replace them. I'm hoping you guys can give me some advice on which pickups will fit & what sounds good if anyone else has replaced the pickups in their FIIB.

Also, anyone know where I can look up the serial number to see what year this was made? It's a string through body so I know it's among the earlier FIIB's.

 

[Ah_Puch]

Hi. I hope you still own this bass. I have a Kawai F1B without the stock pickup. Instead, it has been installed Gotoh Twin-J. It sounds good and allows interesting variations. The only problem is that it does not look as good as it sounds.

 

[kjpollo]

I iknow it would be an expensive proposition but how about Alembic soapbars? After all, that model is regarded as the poor man's Alembic anyway.

 

[Dark Horse]

Old thread, but for anyone looking, I believe I saw someone in the classifieds selling a set of Alembic pickups. Also, I seem to recall Bartolini making some for these...but I may be mistaken.

 

[Sufenta]

Subscribing to this for info on my FBII. Pickups still work, but the switch needs to be replaced. The only pickups I ever found were the Alembics which were hard to justify due to their $$$

 

[Leonie]

I ended up finding some FBII pickups for the bass & then I sold it. So I guess I'm not much help!

 

[Bassman8416]

Does anyone know which Alembic pickups fit the Kawai?

 

[KF2B]

Does anyone know which Alembic pickups fit the Kawai?

This I´d like to know as well...

 

[Bassman8416]

I have heard the pickups that come of a Spoiler will fit.

 

[OnederTone]

This may be of intrest...

Link Removed

 

[FC Bass]

I have heard the pickups that come of a Spoiler will fit.

Those are AXY's, also standard pickups for Signature (standard and deluxe), Brown bass, 20th Anniversary, Spyder limited, Dragonwing (standard and deluxe) and Distillate.
The Fatboy and Series pickups also have the same size, Series are flatter because there's only one coil (coils in Activator pickups are stacked)

 

[Bassman8416]

Those are AXY's, also standard pickups for Signature (standard and deluxe), Brown bass, 20th Anniversary, Spyder limited, Dragonwing (standard and deluxe) and Distillate.
The Fatboy and Series pickups also have the same size, Series are flatter because there's only one coil (coils in Activator pickups are stacked)

Good solid Alembic info here.

 

[The Veg]

Interesting stuff, and something I've thought about. My FIIB's pickups are both fine functionally but not the greatest cosmetically. I'll keep them as long as they work of course, but have pondered what to do if they should ever fail. I think the idea that came to mind was just stick something else in there and throw on a mother-of-toilet-seat scratchplate to hide the difference in the routs. Or maybe find somebody who's good with a 3D printer and have a new black plastic pickup-cover made that looks stock but hides some other kind of replacement pickup.

There's a clip on YouTube of an FIIB with Peavey Cirrus pickups in it. They look like they fit in the routs with a little space left around the edges, so a nice little cover-ring to make up for that wouldn't be huge trick.

The one on that Premier site looks good too- would love to hear it!

If the stock pickups aren't an option for replacement, then creativity is definitely a must, along with a willingness to make changes.

 

[Fairfax Aikman]

I commissioned a set of custom pickups when one of the original pickups lost volume.
Not a straightforward swap and on this occasion custom was not better.

 

[Green Knight]

Any other solutions to this issue?

 

[Fairfax Aikman]

Musicman pickups are a close fit but the radius is tighter so you do need to get the router out.
You'll spend more time setting up the router than doing the work.