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Nordstrand Dual Blade Neo's

Update to an old thread. I have since installed these in my bass. They are very similar to Barts "CB" pickups wired in series. Carey recommends parallel so that's how I wired them. They have deeper lows than the Barts duals I had. The Barts were a little brighter. These give my bass a sort of "twang" when popping. Sort of like a Ken Smith. The single coil mode is very nice. Gives me a cleaner high end. Just be warned that single coil mode will hum if you mode blend from center. I can post a video later.
 

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Update to an old thread. I have since installed these in my bass. They are very similar to Barts "CB" pickups wired in series. Carey recommends parallel so that's how I wired them. They have deeper lows than the Barts duals I had. The Barts were a little brighter. These give my bass a sort of "twang" when popping. Sort of like a Ken Smith. The single coil mode is very nice. Gives me a cleaner high end. Just be warned that single coil mode will hum if you mode blend from center. I can post a video later.

The Aguilar DCBs are a lot more high-fi if that's what you are looking for.
 
I actually may return them or sale them here. They are nice but not exactly what I was looking for. Because of my bass's pickup placement, my bass is naturally dark and woody. Adding in pickuos that are not really bright darkens it more. It's great for finger style. But I have to crank my treble when slapping. Single mode sounds great to me. I'm still on the fence.
 
I actually may return them or sale them here. They are nice but not exactly what I was looking for. Because of my bass's pickup placement, my bass is naturally dark and woody. Adding in pickuos that are not really bright darkens it more. It's great for finger style. But I have to crank my treble when slapping. Single mode sounds great to me. I'm still on the fence.
Are those Bartolini P2 size?
 
EMG 45 size.
Gotcha! I have an Ibanez SR600, which is a good sounding bass, but not great. The body is super light, the neck is great to play, and the action is super low with no buzzing up and down the neck, but the sound is just average. My Peavey Millennium USA 4-string sounds better and does a good job of filling the mix and punching through. The Ibby just fills the bass spot, but without any character.

I'm trying to figure out a replacement, but the MK1 pups in this 4-string are about the size of Bart P2 pups - 5-string pups. I either need to stick a 5-string replacement pups in there and deal with a limited number of more expensive options, or I need to go with a shorter Bart BC sized set, which opens up my options. But it means I either deal with a gap between the pups and the route, or I somehow fill the gap.
 
i mean they both always on. no need switch at all. red, black, green & white wire solder them both together. sorry for bad english.

Are you asking if you can hard-wire the pickup(s) without using a DPDT switch which can select between series and parallel wiring mode? If so, the answer is "yes". The way that you wire the pickups to the blend pots and/or volume pots will determine whether the coils are connected in series or parallel. In this case, both coils are "always on" but you do need to wire them for one mode or another.

If you like the sound of series mode better than in parallel mode, then you are free to hard-wire the coils in series, no DPDT switch is necessary.

Are you asking if a pickup's coils can be wired BOTH in series and parallel at the same time, without using a switch? The answer is "no". You've got to choose one mode or the other.

You can mix and match between the two pickups, if you like. For example, you could wire the neck pickup's coils in parallel, and wire the bridge pickup's coils in series. This would give you a clear, open and crisp neck pickup sound, contrasted with a thick, midrange-heavy and punchy bridge pickup sound. In effect it would exaggerate the differences between the two pickup sounds, more than if you wired both pickups in series or both pickups in parallel. You can also create some interesting mixed tones (using a blend pot, or two volume pots) with such a combination.

Pretty much any arrangement is possible, except for having a single pickup's coils be connected simultaneously in series and in parallel with each other. :)
 
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Are you asking if you can hard-wire the pickup(s) without using a DPDT switch which can select between series and parallel wiring mode? If so, the answer is "yes". The way that you wire the pickups to the blend pots and/or volume pots will determine whether the coils are connected in series or parallel. In this case, both coils are "always on" but you do need to wire them for one mode or another.

If you like the sound of series mode better than in parallel mode, then you are free to hard-wire the coils in series, no DPDT switch is necessary.

Are you asking if a pickup's coils can be wired BOTH in series and parallel at the same time, without using a switch? The answer is "no". You've got to choose one mode or the other.

You can mix and match between the two pickups, if you like. For example, you could wire the neck pickup's coils in parallel, and wire the bridge pickup's coils in series. This would give you a clear, open and crisp neck pickup sound, contrasted with a thick, midrange-heavy and punchy bridge pickup sound. In effect it would exaggerate the differences between the two pickup sounds, more than if you wired both pickups in series or both pickups in parallel. You can also create some interesting mixed tones (using a blend pot, or two volume pots) with such a combination.

Pretty much any arrangement is possible, except for having a single pickup's coils be connected simultaneously in series and in parallel with each other. :)
thank you for respond. now i understand
 
Seconded. More importantly, does anyone have clips of what those pickups sound like *in a mix* ? I'm considering replacing the pickups in my Ibanez SR4005 with some Nordstrands and wondering which of those, the Big Rigs or the Big Blades can give me the kind of aggressive, mix-forward tone I'm looking for.
 
Seconded. More importantly, does anyone have clips of what those pickups sound like *in a mix* ? I'm considering replacing the pickups in my Ibanez SR4005 with some Nordstrands and wondering which of those, the Big Rigs or the Big Blades can give me the kind of aggressive, mix-forward tone I'm looking for.
The BigRigs are NOT aggressuve pickups.
 
Noted, thanks. Is there a 5-string hum-canceling version of the Big Blades out there (and alternately, would the Dual Blade Neos suit my needs better)?

The power's pretty noisy around these parts and my SR1206 (which has Big Singles) is pretty much locked into both-pickups-on-full because of that. I'd rather avoid having two basses with that issue.

[I realize my earlier post was poorly phrased: the choices I'm considering are Big Blades, Dual Blades, Big Rigs and possibly anything else other than Big Singles/Big Splits]
 
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