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Nordstrand Dual Blade Neo's

#102
The FD3's have a more focused and clear sound since they effectively only have one coil sensing the strings at any time. The Blades are going to be thicker and more complex in the way a humbucker generally is compared to a single coil. BUT, if you split the Blades to the outer coils, I'd bet they sound pretty similar to the FD3's. I haven't tested it, but I think it would be pretty close. Of course that's not a noiseless setting though.
 
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#103
I had a Dingwall ABZ-5 with a pair of FD3's and found solo, parallel, and series settings were all useful and sounded good. Series was thicker and a bit higher gain but it had a great pick tone for rock. It seems most pickups are wound for series or parallel but generally don't do both well. Is the dual blade neo with its thicker more complex tone in this category? Perhaps the focused and clear sound of the FD3 helps it to work well in both parallel and series.
That being said, I'm thinking about adding a series/parallel switch in a bass loaded with an NPJ5S set. Might this be functional in the way the FD3's are or is this a bad idea?
 
#104
The Dual Blade's are made to work in parallel mode, but not sound thin in that mode. I think series might be overkill because of this. The FD3 is a offset linear hum canceling pickup so there is a lot less wire involved when switching form series to parallel. Thus the difference isn't quite as extreme as it is on the Dual Blades.
If you want to put the NPJ5s set in series it should work well. It'll be a very thick and bold sound.
After answering that last question I should point out that we may be talking about different things here. On the ABZ-5 the series parallel setting was probably for both the pickups. When I talked about the Dual Blades above, I'm talking about series parallel for EACH pickup, not both of them.
 
#106
Carey said:
After answering that last question I should point out that we may be talking about different things here. On the ABZ-5 the series parallel setting was probably for both the pickups. When I talked about the Dual Blades above, I'm talking about series parallel for EACH pickup, not both of them.
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Yeah, the ABZ series basses are generally wired passively with volume, tone and a rotary knob to switch between neck pickup soloed, bridge pickup soloed, both pickups in parallel or both pickups in series.

It's a cool setup especially since one of my favorite mods on a jazz bass is a switch to have both pickups wired in parallel OR series. But of course it does eliminate probably my favorite pickup setting for fingerstyle that you can get with a blend knob or two volumes - bridge volume full up and neck volume just barely dialed back.
 
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#108
Carey said:
The Dual Blade's are made to work in parallel mode, but not sound thin in that mode. I think series might be overkill because of this. The FD3 is a offset linear hum canceling pickup so there is a lot less wire involved when switching form series to parallel. Thus the difference isn't quite as extreme as it is on the Dual Blades.
If you want to put the NPJ5s set in series it should work well. It'll be a very thick and bold sound.
After answering that last question I should point out that we may be talking about different things here. On the ABZ-5 the series parallel setting was probably for both the pickups. When I talked about the Dual Blades above, I'm talking about series parallel for EACH pickup, not both of them.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that is just what I was looking for. This is what I had in mind for the NPJ5S set. In series mode it looks like the neck volume pot will control both pickups.
Darkglass%20Tone%20Capsule%202VSPampB%20Wiring_zpsxragem4t.png

Is the Big Blade going to be single or split coil?
 
#112
Jared Lash said:
Yeah, the ABZ series basses are generally wired passively with volume, tone and a rotary knob to switch between neck pickup soloed, bridge pickup soloed, both pickups in parallel or both pickups in series.
Click to expand...
I removed the Pan Pot on some of my basses, left the active Pre and started using this configuration in its place. I really like the series aspect. Hearing the Big Singles on Sheldon's basses is what inspired me to do that.

I'm not sure how these Neo Blades would be in series...It might be to big sounding (serious).
 
#114
I've done more up close inspection, and it would appear that the pickups are wired completely different than the wiring diagram I found for these pickups. I ordered a couple new DPDT switches, and I'm going to have my tech rewire these. I'm pretty excited to hear these wired correctly in parallel.
 

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