Nordstrand big singles... experiences?

[GRoberts]

I'll have to check out your thread in the Luthier's Corner.

I'm still quite digging my Big Singles/Nordy 3-band pre setup. The other day I was playing some licks for "You Oughta Know" by Alanis, and I wanted some bite when I really dug in, and Popping was too much. I favored the bridge pickup a bit, and voila!!!

LOVE the song. Coool bass line.

 

[Matt Dean]

I've been impressed about how quiet my big singles are... I've got a passively wired set (VVT) in my vJ4 and the only time I hear that typical single coil noise is when I'm standing right in front of my rig, facing it, even when I have the neck pickup soloed.

 

[ric stave]

Just used newly aquired 55-01 w/Big Singles and Bart NTMB Pre at a rehearsal tonight - love the sound! Have some issues with the electronics - need my tech to go over it - they were noisy, even with the mix dead center, but I think there's a ground wire off, so I'll reserve judgement til I can have him go over everything for me.

I will say this - as far as I'M concerned, the pickups are much tastier to my ears than the Barts I had in my previous 55-01, or even my 'stock' 55-02 (with Barts).

I'll update more once I get the bass cleaned up and run through its paces.

 

[jlaplante]

I'm a new Big Singles owner as of this weekend. Dropped a pair into my Dingwall Z1 with an Audere 3ZB 4-band preamp.

Had first rehearsal w/ band yesterday, gotta say my first impressions are wonderful, with only one hesitation - some buzz. I did shield the pickups w/ copper foil, but didn't wrap them as completely as Mike at Nordstrand had suggested, so I will redo in a week to see. Forget running them naked - gotta shield these beasts. I noticed no appreciable loss in hi freq w/ shields either.

Otherwise, the sound was breathtaking. This is now the most powerful sounding bass I have owned, but I must qualify again - this was with the Audere preamp set to "low Z" mode which other preamps won't do, so YMMV. With the mid or hi Z positions, more like a standard pre, it is your typical bright modern sound, but I didn't spend any time at those settings because of the buzz.

But coupled with the low Z setting they have a wonderful ability to convey the dynamic of the string pluck. The low-mid attack is devastating, super punchy, and super fast. I was able to play extremely short stacatto notes, shorter than ever before, and the full attack was there. Very satisfying in a live situation for rock or popular music. The lo-Z sound is thick with bass and low-mids, but not like turning tone controls - you can still hear upper-mids and the full character of the string. Really a sound you have to try. Listening to a sound sample won't do it - there is a fast and resonant, bell-like quality to the attack that you have to play to appreciate. I'll report more as experience grows...

 

[maurilio]

I hope you did wired them with the ground separated, right?

White = hot
black = -
gray = ground

With the blend centered you will have no hum, no question. As you blend one of the pups you'll get hum....

M

I'm a new Big Singles owner as of this weekend. Dropped a pair into my Dingwall Z1 with an Audere 3ZB 4-band preamp.

Had first rehearsal w/ band yesterday, gotta say my first impressions are wonderful, with only one hesitation - some buzz. I did shield the pickups w/ copper foil, but didn't wrap them as completely as Mike at Nordstrand had suggested, so I will redo in a week to see. Forget running them naked - gotta shield these beasts. I noticed no appreciable loss in hi freq w/ shields either.

Otherwise, the sound was breathtaking. This is now the most powerful sounding bass I have owned, but I must qualify again - this was with the Audere preamp set to "low Z" mode which other preamps won't do, so YMMV. With the mid or hi Z positions, more like a standard pre, it is your typical bright modern sound, but I didn't spend any time at those settings because of the buzz.

But coupled with the low Z setting they have a wonderful ability to convey the dynamic of the string pluck. The low-mid attack is devastating, super punchy, and super fast. I was able to play extremely short stacatto notes, shorter than ever before, and the full attack was there. Very satisfying in a live situation for rock or popular music. The lo-Z sound is thick with bass and low-mids, but not like turning tone controls - you can still hear upper-mids and the full character of the string. Really a sound you have to try. Listening to a sound sample won't do it - there is a fast and resonant, bell-like quality to the attack that you have to play to appreciate. I'll report more as experience grows...

 

[jlaplante]

Yea, sure did, thanks. I was super careful, also was super careful to avoid ground loops with the chassis grounds. With the blend centered I do indeed get the minimum hum, so I think it's correct. Hum's still there but way less. Hoping to get this fixed soon...got lots of fluorescent bulbs in the garage, really brings out the worst in these single coils...

Another curious thing - Nordstrand ships these PUs with only twisted pair wires - no shields. I stupidly installed them with this wire. Since then I have ordered a cavity shielding kit from stew-mac.com, will include the correct shielded wire, and fresh batch of copper foil. I'll report when this is complete.

 

[maurilio]

I'm really confused, here.

BS comes with W and B and grey pole piece's ground twisted together

M

 

[maurilio]

.....With the blend centered I do indeed get the minimum hum, ......

still, this sounds wrong!

M

 

[jlaplante]

W & B are pickup +/-. Gray is the shield, no question because you can see it soldered to the shield which grounds the pole pieces.

It's actually not true that centering the blend will completely eliminate noise. Because the pickups are seperated some distance apart, noise arrives at each pickup at slightly different times so the noise signal is not identical in both pickups and there won't be complete cancellation. This is especially true of the high-frequency buzz that I'm getting from switching electronics like fluorescent lights, etc. I am actually getting no discernable 60hz sine wave hum, it is just that 60hz high frequency buzz. The fact that the noise gets much better with the blend centered shows the wiring is probably right.

 

[Jason_A]

Mine only had white and black leads - no shield.

 

[jlaplante]

Well it's not much of a shield - they stick a strip of copper foil across the bottom of all the pole pieces, and solder the gray wire to that.

And as a side note - I'm meaning to mention this to Mike at Nordstrand - one of the pole pieces was a bit short and was not making contact with the copper. I messed around for a while, and finally had to abandon the copper strip and wrap a tiny wire around all the poles to get a solid ground. Just an FYI if you are installing these - ohm out the grounds on all the pole pieces to check.

 

[ric stave]

Just used newly aquired 55-01 w/Big Singles and Bart NTMB Pre at a rehearsal tonight - love the sound! Have some issues with the electronics - need my tech to go over it - they were noisy, even with the mix dead center, but I think there's a ground wire off, so I'll reserve judgement til I can have him go over everything for me.

I will say this - as far as I'M concerned, the pickups are much tastier to my ears than the Barts I had in my previous 55-01, or even my 'stock' 55-02 (with Barts).

I'll update more once I get the bass cleaned up and run through its paces.

Hi guys - small update - just got a call from my tech - he basically took everything out of the control cavity, added some longer wires(some things were so tight that the wires broke off after everything was crammed back in), redid all the grounding, put lock nuts/washers on all the pots and put in sheilding tape. (Damn, he's fast! Ron at Suburban Guitar Repair for anyone needing work done around the Western NY area - excellent work!).

I should have the bass back in a day or 2, and I'll use it at my show this Sat - I'll post again to let you know how it all worked out!

 

[ric stave]

Follow-up update....

OK, I took a couple weekends of shows to get a better idea of how I'm liking this new bass...

...and I DO like it!

The first show I used it at, it took me a while to balance out the volumes between the Lakland with Big Singles and my G&L L2500 - I've really been spoiled on the G&L MFD's. I also at first thought I had an issue with the bass cutting out, but it came down to a loose wire on my wireless pack (D'OH!)

One thing I did change was the pickup height on the Lakland - not much, but I did raise them both a few turns and the signal is much better balanced between the 2 when I switch basses. The next show I was lovin' it, sound and feel.

And then a 'funny' thing happened - Friday night during the 1st set, my singer brought over a cup of a shot that was sent up to the band, and trying to 'feed' me whilst playing, poured 1/2 of it down my front, my arm, and on the bass. I wiped it off quickly and finished the set. The next day when I used the bass, my B string was almost completely dead - no sustain! Good shot, I guess.... LOL!


The job my tech did was amazing - I have no noise coming from these single coils, even panned either way. I'm sure I could 'force' some by standing right up against the mixing board or a computer monitor, but for usual usage these are awesome.

Big Singles = Big Thumbs Up!

 

[Todd GT5]

Hey guys,
I just ordered my Big Singles today, also a passive VVT pre-wired harness. I'm pulling out my Bartolini's and active pre in my GGS 5 string. I can't wait to see how this will sound, graphite necked Modulus style modern craftsmanship with simpler more old school pick up type and tone controls.

It looks like I might have to wait up to 8 weeks to recieve my order due to the custom "EMG45" size and 18mm string spacing.

I'll report in after installing - Todd

Here's a before pic for now.

 

[jdwinva]

Big Singles are The Bomb!

 

[TonyP-]

Hey guys,
I just ordered my Big Singles today, also a passive VVT pre-wired harness. I'm pulling out my Bartolini's and active pre in my GGS 5 string. I can't wait to see how this will sound, graphite necked Modulus style modern craftsmanship with simpler more old school pick up type and tone controls.

It looks like I might have to wait up to 8 weeks to recieve my order due to the custom "EMG45" size and 18mm string spacing.

I'll report in after installing - Todd

Here's a before pic for now.

I'm really curious on your results since I'm thinking about doing the same thing to one of my Q5s.



Cheers

 

[David Jayne]

Hey guys,
I just ordered my Big Singles today, also a passive VVT pre-wired harness. I'm pulling out my Bartolini's and active pre in my GGS 5 string. I can't wait to see how this will sound, graphite necked Modulus style modern craftsmanship with simpler more old school pick up type and tone controls.

It's gonna be Tone City. Very loud and aggressive, I predict.

 

[J.Wolf]

Just an update on my previous post. I received my custom with Big singles, and it came and went (unfortunately), but in regards to the big singles noise.... completely dead silent, no noise whatsoever, regardless of the settings. So I guess much of the talk about BS's being noisy and having alot of hum is more about proper shielding.

And man they did sound fabulous, just as I remembered

 

[jlaplante]

...but in regards to the big singles noise.... completely dead silent, no noise whatsoever, regardless of the settings....

Good to hear, cause if you have no noise problems these pickups really rock.

Update on my reshielding efforts - I haven't had quite the same success. Completely re-shielded using the Stew-Mac kit with sticky copper foil, and shielded wires. No real noticeable difference in noise from my previous shielding effort which I guess must have been pretty good.

Shielding apparently cannot remove all types of noise. First off, my garage is pretty bad, several old fluorescent lights, and the buzz remains. I must leave my balance pot centered or I get noise. It is dead quiet otherwise. Also, with my Audere preamp, both pickups must have the same impedance selected or I get noise.

I have much less trouble in our practice garage at the lead singer's house where single pickup selection yields only a trace of buzz.

Fortunately my Audere 4-band rocks. I barely miss using the balance pot. I can get all kinds of extreme sounds by only tweaking the tones.

Nevertheless, I am not going back, I love my Big Singles. Just switched bands to a 90's alt/grunge outfit, and the heaviness of the Singles + Audere low-Z is outstanding, I rarely use anything else. With pickups balanced the sound is punchy and aggressive but a bit more refined than soloing one pickup. I have found that when noise permits, soloing the neck pickup gives a roaring, screaming quality to the tone that is simply superb. It feels like how Eddy Van Halen would want to play bass. Like others have said, the sound is a bit raw sounding with played outside a band situation, but when backing up a band, I get those amazed looks from bandmates.

 

[Todd GT5]

An update; I got an email today saying my Big Singles and wiring harness shipped today

While I have been waiting, I ordered some copper shielding tape and picked up some little hole fillers for the two knobs and two switch locations that will be vacated.

I think I might go ahead and take out the Bartolini's and the pre and get to shielding.

I'll check in later - Todd