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Nordstrand BigRig Pickups

#81
I recently took delivery of a Lull TC5. My intent with this bass is for choral/solo playing. I've strung it E - C. The previous owner replaced the FatStacks with JazzBars. While I'm not a fan of Jazz basses, I have to admit, this bass sounds pretty sweet as is.

Never being able to leave well enough alone however, I gave the folks at Nordstrand a call asking if they had a pickup that had a sweeter/more articulate voice. They recommended the BigRig with AlNiCo III magnets.

Just put the order in; and now the 1 - 2 week wait.

Here's the bass they'll be going into.

web site - _7240035.jpg
 
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#82
LeonD said:
I recently took delivery of a Lull TC5. My intent with this bass is for choral/solo playing. I've strung it E - C. The previous owner replaced the FatStacks with JazzBars. While I'm not a fan of Jazz basses, I have to admit, this bass sounds pretty sweet as is.

Never being able to leave well enough alone however, I gave the folks at Nordstrand a call asking if they had a pickup that had a sweeter/more articulate voice. They recommended the BigRig with AlNiCo III magnets.

Just put the order in; and now the 1 - 2 week wait.

Here's the bass they'll be going into.

View attachment 1191546
Click to expand...
I know that bass. That's a dream bass!!!

I should have my A3 bigrigs in over the next couple days ;)
 
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#84
I forgot about this thread, shame on me!
IMG_3656.JPG

I ended up using these in my build and was incredibly thrilled with the results. They were wired each to series/parallel switches, then run into the 2B preamp, with passive tone and bypass.

These pickups sound absolutely amazing. Series mode has serious power, but is so focused and nice. Parallel was clear and defined, not as much beef, but also very nice.
Having this arrangement allowed for a lot of different tonal properties.

There's a clip attached and I'm running through various settings in passive, so if you want an idea of how these sound, this should help a little. (Recorded in GarageBand)

I am 1000% positive I will be using these again, as I was thoroughly impressed. The BigSplits were my favorite pickups ever, as they embodied what I love in a killer high output pickup.
These tied them for my favorite, being slightly more refined sounding for those classy gigs. Parallel is sweet, series is savory, Nordstrand wins it again.
 

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#85
rojo412 said:
I forgot about this thread, shame on me! View attachment 1191988
I ended up using these in my build and was incredibly thrilled with the results. They were wired each to series/parallel switches, then run into the 2B preamp, with passive tone and bypass.

These pickups sound absolutely amazing. Series mode has serious power, but is so focused and nice. Parallel was clear and defined, not as much beef, but also very nice.
Having this arrangement allowed for a lot of different tonal properties.

There's a clip attached and I'm running through various settings in passive, so if you want an idea of how these sound, this should help a little. (Recorded in GarageBand)

I am 1000% positive I will be using these again, as I was thoroughly impressed. The BigSplits were my favorite pickups ever, as they embodied what I love in a killer high output pickup.
These tied them for my favorite, being slightly more refined sounding for those classy gigs. Parallel is sweet, series is savory, Nordstrand wins it again.
Click to expand...
Sounds good -- bass and pickups both. I'm listening closely (and will come back and listen again) to see how close it comes to that single-coil clarity and "unified presentation" (for lack of a better term at the moment) that I like -- also listening to see if they exhibit any of those characteristics that have sometimes turned me off from humbuckers with two rows of magnets... so far they seem to be their own thing, but nice. Hmm. "Refined" and "classy" might preclude me from using them, though.

Thanks for sharing!
 
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#86
MarkA said:
Sounds good -- bass and pickups both. I'm listening closely (and will come back and listen again) to see how close it comes to that single-coil clarity and "unified presentation" (for lack of a better term at the moment) that I like -- also listening to see if they exhibit any of those characteristics that have sometimes turned me off from humbuckers with two rows of magnets... so far they seem to be their own thing, but nice. Hmm. "Refined" and "classy" might preclude me from using them, though.

Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...
you can also wire them for single coil ; )
 
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#87
Some quick comments on A3 big rigs:

The single coil mode sounds really cool. A pickup made with one coil, would be a cool thing to try.

I don't really care for the parallel mode. It lacks punch and both pickups together don't sound as cool as I want it to. It might be a great though, to wire the pickups in series with each other, but each puckup is parallel. I will probably ask for directions on how to do that.

Series mode is pretty great. The neck pickup is big, bold, and beefy. Both pickups together sounds cool and still has the bigness. The bridge pickup soloed has a lot of midrange. No sign of nasal but not too honky.

The pole piece alignement for my bass isn't great on the high strings. But single coil mode didn't seem to suffer, with either coil.

I need to talk with Nordstrand, because these hum pretty loud with my ceiling lights on, if I'm not touching the strings/knobs/etc. But Kiesel/Carvin's pickups do not do that. I had the same problem with an ESP bass with had big splits in it. I thought it was a problem with that bass...

It will be a bit before I post clips. Need to talk with Nordstrand and I'm also having issues with the new super brights I put on.

Ending with a big positive note: These A3 version tame the unpleasant aspects of fret spank, perfectly. This bass has stainless frets, as well. I can play as rough and rocking as I want and it just sounds COOL.
 
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#89
That pickup in singlecoil mode is essentially a 51 P pickup, other than the A3 magnets. I have a humcanceling version in my acoustic bass of the 51P and it's amazing.

What you're hearing in Parallel is probably due to the A3 magnets. My normal A5 versiin sounds amazing in parallel, and I normally don't care for my pickups in parallel.
 
#92
My pickups finally made it to my luthier (Shawn May - May Custom Basses), so it should only be a few more weeks while he does some finish sanding and then all the wiring. These are going to be in parallel mode, with a John East Uni-Pre 3-band. Walnut core, Mappa Burl front and back, Wenge neck with Purpleheart, and Ebony board. This will be my 3rd May bass (the other two have Nordstrand DC pups, one fretted, one fretless), but I cannot wait to hear how these Bigrigs sound in person. I'm hoping the combination with the woods and the preamp will make for a killer sound. :)


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#94
rojo412 said:
That bass is a STUNNER! I'm definitely eager to hear how they jive with the East Preamp. That's a dream setup for me in a future project.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I'm excited to see how they sound together. The East preamps are pretty awesome. I've only had one time where I found a combination that didn't work well together, which was the East J-Retro Deluxe and some Joe Barden Jazz pickups. I swapped them out for Bartolini Dual Coil jazz pups, and it sounds amazing. I also have a MM retro in an old Flea bass that has the Lane Poor MM pickup. Recently, my Lakland DJ5 had some noise issues. I took it back to the retailer (Sweetwater), but they didn't see where the hum was coming from, but it was bad in my music room. Decided to drop in an East DJ-Retro preamp, and problem solved. NO noise in active mode, even with the Lakland single coil pups, and man it really opened them up. Plus, John East is a super nice guy. I've worked with him a couple times with questions, and once sending a preamp in for repair due to a bonehead move on my part. All that being said, with everything the Bigrigs have to offer, I'm hoping it makes for a pretty powerful combo. I've heard an East preamp with Big singles and Big splits, which sounded great. Hoping this sounds as good if not better. Will definitely keep everyone posted once I get it done. Hoping by the end of September. Shawn builds in batches, so it just depends how many days mine is on his bench here in the near future.
 
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#95
I had the series/parallel switch on each pickup and was very happy with both, but series has plenty of good output. So if you find the parallel isn't enough juice, you can always rewire easily enough and get that boosted oomph.
... Or boost the gain on the East. I kinda forgot those have that.

Either way, it sounds like it will be awesome. And yeah, John East rules! As a company and an individual.
 
#96
I was going to go with the Series / Single / Parallel option, since that is what I have on my other 2 Mays. They have the Nordstrand 3 band and DC pickups. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room in the control cavity. (Part of it is taken up for the LED module. Shawn includes side dot LED's standard with his basses). I'm sure with the power of the East, the Parallel should be fine. The East has tons of headroom. I'll soon find out! :) I generally like having as many options as possible, but I doubt I'll be disappointed. Like I mentioned to Shawn when he told me, my MTD doesn't have a Series / Parallel switch, and I never find it lacking. Thanks for the input though on the Series / Parallel!
 
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#98
kittywithabanjo said:
View attachment 2779232 My PJ Reimer has been done a few weeks now haven't had much chance to use this with the band yet but not sure this is the the right pick up for this combo seems a little too dark to me. Still going to try with the band this week then decide if I should keep it or get a big split instead.
Click to expand...
Regardless, that's classy
 
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#100
bassmanmicah said:
I was going to go with the Series / Single / Parallel option, since that is what I have on my other 2 Mays. They have the Nordstrand 3 band and DC pickups. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room in the control cavity. (Part of it is taken up for the LED module. Shawn includes side dot LED's standard with his basses). I'm sure with the power of the East, the Parallel should be fine. The East has tons of headroom. I'll soon find out! :) I generally like having as many options as possible, but I doubt I'll be disappointed. Like I mentioned to Shawn when he told me, my MTD doesn't have a Series / Parallel switch, and I never find it lacking. Thanks for the input though on the Series / Parallel!
Click to expand...
Absolutely beautiful bass! What are your impressions of the BigRig?
 
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