Nordstrand Poly Vox

[5StringPocket]

In all of the videos so far these pickups sound really full and rich.

 

[DaveAceofBass]

Was considering mixing PolyVox bridge pickup with a BigRig neck but not sure they will play nicely together, and the response from Nordstrand confirms that.

 

[sikamikanico]

@RasJay did you get your poly voxes (voces?) yet? Got to play them yet? Any impressions?

 

[emjazz]

Was considering mixing PolyVox bridge pickup with a BigRig neck but not sure they will play nicely together, and the response from Nordstrand confirms that.

What did they say?

 

[who]

What did they say?

Back on page 3:

OK we tried it. 0 out of 10 do not recommend. Creates phasing issues.

 

[RasJay]

@RasJay did you get your poly voxes (voces?) yet? Got to play them yet? Any impressions?

I placed my order on March 8th and I followed up on April 17th and Nick stated the wait times for these are longer than standard. He did say they are shipping as he sent out some other orders. I installed a Lusithand Double NFP in this Spector ReBop as it awaits the new "multi coils".

I was initially looking at Herrick Multicoils (he is very helpful and responsive) in 35DC size to use with Lusithand Double NFP Special but did not want to route the pickup cavities deeper due to the NS body curved design.

 

[hooky_marr]

And another one from Carey

@SoniaMara Just curious, are those NJ5 basses still available? That's a gorgeous instrument.

 

[sikamikanico]

Update from Devon Smullen, showing the 5 string pickup under the hood. Notice the 6th “dummy” coil for hum-cancellation. Cute

Devon Smullen on Instagram: "I’m so excited to try these new Nordstrand PolyVox pickups out!"

 

[smeet]

I’m gonna have Mo put PolyVoxen into my Devon J5 in the next week or so. Can’t wait!

 

[sikamikanico]

I’m gonna have Mo put PolyVoxen into my Devon J5 in the next week or so. Can’t wait!

please report back with results. With sound clips if possible

 

[geshel]

6-string version is on the Nordstrand website now.

Strangely, the set is $100 more than bridge+neck?

 

[SharpCat]

Sure enough. 226 for a single, 550 for a set.

 

[sikamikanico]

Huh, interesting, progressive pricing… may be a CA thing?

I presume it’s a typo for the singles, as they are priced lower than 5 string versions. Or I guess that little dummy coil makes the 5 string costlier to make?

 

[SoniaMara]

Huh, interesting, progressive pricing… may be a CA thing?

I presume it’s a typo for the singles, as they are priced lower than 5 string versions. Or I guess that little dummy coil makes the 5 string costlier to make?

You should order those now before my web guy fixes it! lol price will not be honored once the change happens!

 

[SoniaMara]

 

[SoniaMara]

@SoniaMara Just curious, are those NJ5 basses still available? That's a gorgeous instrument.

i know of aVJ5 slim w/bigman 51splitP in a soapbar that is for sale now or soon. If you're serious DM me.

 

[geshel]

They're $$$, but what the heck. I just ordered a 6-string set. And I literally a few days ago finally swapped my Big Rigs in to the bass I plan to put these into (replacing Aguilar DCBs which were way too boring for me; I'd tried the DCBs in a fretless, then got the Big Rigs for the fretless and replaced Barts with the DCBs in the fretted. Then I finally got a Wal fretless and kinda didn't care anymore about the older fretless tone. So now here I am about to try the PV6 in the fretted).

 

[RasJay]

I installed the PolyVox 4 with a Lusithand Double NFP. All was well however I now have a grounding issue to sort out that appeared out of nowhere.

@SoniaMara
How are the black and white wires to be connected? My PolyxVox 4 pickups came with one white and one black wire. Unlike one of the PolyVox 5 pics that also had a grey. There is no info on the website and "multicoils" are not listed on the wiring diagram page.

Pickup Wiring Diagrams and Schematics

 

[RasJay]

How are the black and white wires to be connected?

I received a reply from Nick on this question:

"Typically Black is hot and white is ground, but as long as you're consistent in a matched set, you're just flipping the phase on both if they're swapped. PolyVox is definitely permanently wired in its configuration so it's just a two wire pickup."

 

[RasJay]

I installed these pickups about three weeks ago and had no noise until recently. I am trying to sort it out and could use some recommendations. I am researching this issue and perhaps I am chasing the wrong problem. The No Treble website has this statement. Do you agree this is true?

"You have a grounding issue. Here’s how to tell:

• If your bass hums once you touch the strings (but is otherwise quiet), you have a grounding issue.
• If your instrument hums but becomes quiet once you touch the strings, you have a shielding issue."

My symptom is buzz noise when not touching anything. It goes away or minimizes when touching the strings, tuners, bridge saddles/screws (not the bridge itself), shielding paint in the cavity, sleeve of the inserted guitar cable, either filter pot, but not the volume or balance pot. If I touch only the pickup pole, the buzz is louder. This is tested in a large room with no lights on or any interference I can think of. (I had the control cavity shielded and grounded with copper tape but have since removed it to narrow down the cause)

PolyVox white cable is connected to ground and black connected to hot. Are these pickups expected to be quiet? They were at least for the first 3 weeks.