Seymour Duncan Alnico on a Tony Levin 5 string OLP

I put a ceramic Duncan along with the Duncan ray pre amp in my SUB and it kills

 

Welcome to TalkBass!!!!!

This is a copout answer. But only you can decide if it's "worth it".

For me, if it plays good and mostly sounds good, I don't care how cheap it is or whether others like it. I'll dump some money in it to get it to sound the way I want it to.

I'm no expert on MM pickup choices so I'll leave that part to others.

 

I think the SD pickup would be a nice improvement. However, is the pickup available with the cover that has the old style mounting “ears”? If not, you may have to make some modifications.

 

That is an awesome bass. I am not sure of how the pickup is mounted (I can't tell from the picture). You can see the measurements on the MM-style pickup we make here.

 

This is a picture of my OLP. It is not the Tony Levin version and there may be a slight difference in string spacing. The Seymour Duncan SMB-5A is made for the actual musicman string spacing and pickup route. Despite the slight offset from the magnets, I don't experience any difference in sustain or volume. Just wanted to show you what a Duncan might look like.

By the way. It sounds way better for my liking. I also really like the ceramic pickup they make, but it's a little honkier.

 

Did you have to expand the pickup route in the body, or just cut the pickguard opening?

 

I just cut the pickguard opening. The body route is just slightly big enough to allow extra space.

 

Try an SD preamp with it, highly underappreciated.
You see them here $50-75.
Just get rid of the blend and voila, it's the MM preamp.

 

check it out with no pickguard

 

Nordstrand MM 5.2 or 5.4 OLP models fit perfectly, exposed mount ears, string spacing, and all. They sound great paired with an original-style MM 2 band pre.

 

Do a search, there are TB members that found Alnico MM pickups tend to sound all the same.
4-conductor is best bc you can experiment with single.
Series/parallel is a must, you get more out of preamps when you can go for power or harmonic depth.

 

I really wanted to try Nordy. Either 5.4 or Bigman. But I only paid $150 for the bass and didn't want to spend more than that on a pickup.

 

When in doubt either of the SD MM's + a cheapie SD preamp works.