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New Nordstrand BigMan
- Thread starter who
- Start date
I'm not really understanding that statement. Do you buy in the covers or make them in house? You already make 6 string versions of the fatman and other pickups. If these are two of those pickups in a MM style shell, surely it's just a matter of casting the casing.
We buy covers from suppliers. We are not yet big enough to be able to afford having molds made, especially for something like a 6 string music man style cover as I'd be extremely surprised if we sold more than 100 of those a year. It's just the economics of the situation.
Now maybe we can get a 3d printer at some point and make them as we need them.
Now maybe we can get a 3d printer at some point and make them as we need them.
Dude. That's pretty future-tech of you. Or maybe my surprise dates me.
Sorry if this has already been answered, but can the BigMan be run with a series/single/parallel switch or is series a bit too hot to be useful?
Even if a dual coil pickup is wound for parallel operation and might be a bit too hot for series operation, could a voltage divider reduce the signal seen by the preamp to prevent clipping and even out the volume between parallel and series? I've seen this described in another thread. My passive Dingwall ABZ-5 has a 4-position rotary switch for parallel/single/series operation. Series is definitely hotter with a bit more grind and I turn the volume down to compensate. Single operation only works if the individual singles are hum-cancelling. The Dingwall FD-3 pickups are but the individual BigMan single coils are not.
In the MM/JJ selector configuration below where the Big Single Neck is hum-cancelling with the BigMan bridge coil, would mounting the BigMan in the MM sweet spot locate the bridge coil in a good position for jazz base pairing with the BS neck? I prefer the 60's over the 70's bridge position which is about 1/2" farther from the bridge. I'd like to know the optimum placement for BigMan and Big Single pickups for this scheme and what tradeoffs might need to be considered. Best tone from the BigMan is primary and locating the BS neck for a good JJ tone is secondary. Also, can the 3b-4a preamp be ordered with 200/800 Hz mid frequencies? From my experience, those low mid/high mid frequencies should work well to give the bridge position more fat or fingerstyle a bit more presence without gank.
In the MM/JJ selector configuration below where the Big Single Neck is hum-cancelling with the BigMan bridge coil, would mounting the BigMan in the MM sweet spot locate the bridge coil in a good position for jazz base pairing with the BS neck? I prefer the 60's over the 70's bridge position which is about 1/2" farther from the bridge. I'd like to know the optimum placement for BigMan and Big Single pickups for this scheme and what tradeoffs might need to be considered. Best tone from the BigMan is primary and locating the BS neck for a good JJ tone is secondary. Also, can the 3b-4a preamp be ordered with 200/800 Hz mid frequencies? From my experience, those low mid/high mid frequencies should work well to give the bridge position more fat or fingerstyle a bit more presence without gank.
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I think series is pretty darn hot. A resistor to slow it down a bit might be a good idea. Not sure what value to use though. Also not sure I can answer many of the other questions here very well, but I do have a demo clip I just put together. In it you get to hear parallel, rear and front coil. Check the sound cloud description for more details.
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Interesting -- I'm surprised at how "Music Man" the two coils sound together. The other thing that surprises me (thought maybe it shouldn't) is how much more defined the upper treble is with both coils in parallel vs. either coil alone -- I always think of humbuckers as being less clear and defined than single coils, but maybe running in parallel compensates for this. Is the parallel output roughly equal to that of either coil alone? Of the solo coils, the neck coil seems to fill out the mix better. More midrange detail, I think, with the soloed coils. Big caveat: Laptop listen. Got to do it at home with good headphones to make a real call. Still, I don't think I'm totally off-base.
Never thought of running a resistor in series mode to even out the output between series and parallel -- would there be compromises in signal quality, or just clean attenuation?
I think I recall Adrian or Stew saying that using humcancelling coils in place of singles (i.e. a "Big Man" made up of two Big Splits, rather than two Big Singles) would've yielded some sonic weirdness (or maybe just a less-liked tone), but I might be mis-remembering or misinterpreting.
I have a series-wound dual coil in what I *think* is 60s jazz position on a fretless fiver. Found it way too dark, initially (while running in parallel was too thin), but that bass has received some tweaks to its setup and a different set of strings and, now, the series setting sounds surprisingly big and growly without being muddy and parallel, while a little on the thin side in comparison, is very clear and usable. I prefer series, generally. Not sure where I'm going with this. I thought it had some relevance to the discussion at hand, but I've lost the thread. Ah! Don't know by how much the output of a Big Single exceeds the output of a split DC, but if it's not a huge amount, I don't know that the pickup would be unduly hot -- my DC in series (passive bass) has a healthy output, but I've played passive basses that were hotter. I don't know anything about putting a resistor in line with a pickup to pad the output, or what sort of preamp trickery could be done to even out the series/single/parallel levels. That would be a nice feature, I suppose, but not critical to me.
Never thought of running a resistor in series mode to even out the output between series and parallel -- would there be compromises in signal quality, or just clean attenuation?
I think I recall Adrian or Stew saying that using humcancelling coils in place of singles (i.e. a "Big Man" made up of two Big Splits, rather than two Big Singles) would've yielded some sonic weirdness (or maybe just a less-liked tone), but I might be mis-remembering or misinterpreting.
I have a series-wound dual coil in what I *think* is 60s jazz position on a fretless fiver. Found it way too dark, initially (while running in parallel was too thin), but that bass has received some tweaks to its setup and a different set of strings and, now, the series setting sounds surprisingly big and growly without being muddy and parallel, while a little on the thin side in comparison, is very clear and usable. I prefer series, generally. Not sure where I'm going with this. I thought it had some relevance to the discussion at hand, but I've lost the thread. Ah! Don't know by how much the output of a Big Single exceeds the output of a split DC, but if it's not a huge amount, I don't know that the pickup would be unduly hot -- my DC in series (passive bass) has a healthy output, but I've played passive basses that were hotter. I don't know anything about putting a resistor in line with a pickup to pad the output, or what sort of preamp trickery could be done to even out the series/single/parallel levels. That would be a nice feature, I suppose, but not critical to me.
Keep in mind that the treble on the preamp is rolled back a bit on the 2nd and 3rd sections. That may be part of what you're hearing for the difference.
The output across all three settings is quite similar. I don't think level differences will be a practical issue at all.
With the coils soloed there is definitely more mid texture and definition. I think the lack of that is a really big part of the traditional MM sound. They have a naturally scooped midrange and that tends to be very mix friendly, especially for certain types of music. But I personally really like the thicker mids and the growl. And I really think that this type of setup is an absolute killer in the studio. It's got a fantastic straight ahead MM type tone and then if you want thick bridge pickup tones you've got two flavors that you can use solo or mixed a bit. The versatility really struck me hard. It's going to be hard to let this bass go as I could see it being a majorly useful studio bass.
I'm with Carey.
I've been using DC pretty much in parallel exclusively. The scoop of the upper mids cleans up the treble, and doesn't have the grind of a typical SC (the usual series HB is too thick for my finger sound).
I love these BM's because they have something more going on than your traditional MM!
About the MM sound similarity of the BM. Placement is a huge part of how a pickup sounds.
So is the Stingray sweet spot your recommendation? Also, can the 3b-4a preamp be ordered with switchable mid freq at 200/800?
The short answer? Yes and yes.
But I could see playing with the placement of the BigMan for different effects. I'm curious to see how it sounds in more of a P bass placement.
I am having a custom Boardwell Bass made with a BigMan and a BigSplit made. However it will be about 6 months before it is done. Will report on it when done.
Please do that! I'm sure everyone here would be interested in the result, probably Carey included!
+1 BigMan+Big Split sounds like a good combination. Curious where the Big Split will be mounted.
I just added a P-bass with MM pickup to a graphic with useful scale lines for comparison. It's not perfect but confirms what several have said that the jazz bass neck pickup lines up with the precision EA half of the split. I think if I was going to add a single coil pickup to catch the P-bass sweet spot I'd align it with the dark blue line which bisects the split P pair.
I just added a P-bass with MM pickup to a graphic with useful scale lines for comparison. It's not perfect but confirms what several have said that the jazz bass neck pickup lines up with the precision EA half of the split. I think if I was going to add a single coil pickup to catch the P-bass sweet spot I'd align it with the dark blue line which bisects the split P pair.
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