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Nordstrand Big Blademan for a "Wal" sound?

Ji-Sung

Ji-Sung

Nov 21, 2023
8
8
#1
I'm planning on ordering a custom bass soon that is (sonically) inspired by a Wal Mk1. I know that the Lusithand NFP is similar to the pres used on Wal basses, but I'm not certain about what pickups to pair it with. I'm not going for a dead-on copy of a Wal, just something similar.

Are the Nordstrand Big Blademan pickups actually similar to the ones found in a Wal, or are they just inspired by Justin Chancellor's tone?
 
#2
Herrick or turner pickups offer the 2 coils per string (8 coils on a four string model) multicoil pickups found in Wal's.

The bigblademan i believe is a dual coil pickup (2 coils total)
So inspired by JCs tone rather than similar pockup construction.
 
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#4
From what I’ve read, nortstand made the big blademan and a custom preamp for Justin when he was using Warwick, and within a year he stopped using them and went back to the Wal.

that tells me they weren’t gold enough to his ears.

with that being said, I have a blademan pickup in one of my basses and I love the tone.
 
#7
Metropolis_488 said:
Big Blademan definitely did not sound like a Wal pickup to my ears. That said, it was cool.
I tried multi coil Wal inspired pickups from three different manufacturers, paired them with the Lusithand pre, etc. in custom routed bass body with the centerline of the pickups in the exact Wal pickup location.

Guess what?

Still didn’t sound like a Wal.
Click to expand...

Did any of the pickups sound closer than the other two?
 

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