New Dimarzio "Colossal" bass pickups!

[ctmullins]

I’ve had mine for a couple of weeks now. I put them into one of my headless Ric-a-likes (which previously had EMGs, Lace BassBars, and 916 Super Ferrites). I wired them in parallel, because this bass already has an Aguilar OBP-1, which has tons of low boost already. They sound good, although I am still evaluating them. I will take this bass to our next rehearsal next week; that will be a better test.

 

[ctmullins]

I’ve had mine for a couple of weeks now. I put them into one of my headless Ric-a-likes (which previously had EMGs, Lace BassBars, and 916 Super Ferrites). I wired them in parallel, because this bass already has an Aguilar OBP-1, which has tons of low boost already. They sound good, although I am still evaluating them. I will take this bass to our next rehearsal next week; that will be a better test.

Test passed! I played this the entire rehearsal, and I liked what I heard. Rehearsal space is actually the living room in my guitarist's house trailer (second home in the country, not primary residence....). So there is furniture, and carpet on the floor, and it's stuffed full of various music gear too. My current rehearsal rig is a GK MB200 into a TC 2x8 cab. This is the same setup and environment that made me pull the BassBars out of this bass. The 916 SF sound great too, but - I will admit - I'm a sucker for chrome....

This setup has good clarity and good flexibility. The Aguilar OBP-1 is a known entity, but the fourth knob is a passive tone control, which comes in handy for some songs (variety band). These pickups will stay for the near future!

 

[B-flat?]

 

[micguy]

Just so we all know, winding a bridge pickup hotter makes the balance better when going from neck soloed to bridge soloed, but when blended, it works against you. The "hotter" bridge pickup is typically achieved with more turns on the same magnetic circuit - the specs on these pickups suggest that's how it was done here. Anyway, let's say you wind the bridge pickup with 10% more turns. It'll have a little more than 10% more DC resistance, but 10% more turns means it also has 21% more inductance (there's a square in there for those not afraid of math). When you mix them (wire them in parallel), the bridge pickup with 10% more turns and 21% more inductance "loses" the fight a little - it will end up lower in the mix that the neck, and also lower than if you wound it the same as the neck pickup.

If you want balanced pickups with a good blend, the way to do it is wind them with the same number of turns, and run the bridge pickup physically closer to the strings than the neck pickup to get the levels matched.