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SGD Lutherie Pickups

  • Thread starter Thread starter CapeBass
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#321
Here's a new clip with an alternate neck pickup.

Link Removed

It's not as hollow as the first. I'm going to offer both.

The clip starts with the neck, and then both, and then the bridge, and then with the passive tone control off. I like the tone with both pickups on and the tone off.

Excuse the scratchy pots!
 
#322
I've just ordered my ND3-35's, a set, wide aperture. They will be put into a new bass I'm having built. Shortscale with .17mm bridge string spacing and hopefully weighing less than 6 lbs. It will have a mahogany body with a myrtle (highly figured) top. It will be passive. I may put in a preamp in the future or maybe a Stellartone Tonestyler but since I'll be doing the series/parallel/single I'll probably have enough choices not to bother with preamps......That paired with a Markbass LMII should sound pretty good.......
 
#324
I guess more and more people are going for David's pickups. I ordered a set with a ND3-neck and a Sidewinder-bridge, but then after discussing about the sidewinder design with David, I decided to go with a set of sidewinders for both pickup positions. David had not finished making my first pickups ordered, so he was really kind and let me change the order without any problem.

I'm excited to become of of the first users of his SW pickups.
 
#326
At last, I installed and wired my new pickups: SGD S Series 4 Sidewinders. One word: WOW!!! Very clear, defined sound, and indeed with an extended range which gives a sound somewhat similar to piezo pickups, particulrarly at the high end.
I did not have much time experimenting, but Iwas so excited by what I heard that I couldn't resist and post quickly.
Congrats to David who makes such great pickups, yet affordable.
 
#328
Hello all,

I have a passive short scale Warwick (2 Jazz style pickups). It has a short scale tone: the bass is more 'round', less tight, the treble stings are very nice and fat (I see a Dingwall in my future :p - I love the sound of the shorter D and G strings, but I'd like a bit more definition on the E string).

I come from a graphite basses, this one has a hard wood neck, very nice for a change, but I miss some of the transparency and evenness of the graphite. OTOH, the 'sound of wood'and 'growl' is very nice.

Question: I'd like to have a a more tight bass (although I'd lose some of that short scale character of the D and G strings) and more transparency. I like a modern tone. I am intersted in SGD jazz pickups.....how would they work?

Next question: what passive tonestacks / active pre-amps would you recommend to go with SGD pickups?
 
#330
Well just to generalize a bit, the neo jazz pickups have a thick/tight low end, because they are small humbuckers, not split coils or stacks. The neck pickup is thick yet clear sounding... not muddy at all. Kind of a cross between a P and J pickup. The bridge gives a nice tight burp when you pluck the strings over it, and has a nice top end.

When switched into parallel they are brighter with less mids.

So they should work fine on a short scale bass.
 
#332
Thanks. I'm interested!

Any suggestions on (passive) EQ, Varitone-switchtings, pickups-switchings, and/or on active solutions?

I am thinking about this:

- 6 way rotary pickup switch (4 poles). With 2 pickups I can come up with 8 possibilities, of which I then can choose 6:

1. Neck parallel (NP)
2. Neck Series (NS)
3. Bridge parallel (BP)
4. Bridge Series (BS)
5. NP + BP
6. NP + BS
7. NS + BP
8. NS + BS

Of course I don't know if all these are useful.

Then there are 12 special combinations:
- pickups in series, so NP in series with BP, NP in series with BS etc. This gives another 4 possibilities. How will it sound? No idea!
- 'virtual humbucker' settings.
* one blade of the neck pickup parallel with one blade of the bridge pickup (4 possibilities)
* the same, but now in series (4 possibilities)

Finally, there are single blade possibilities:
- single blade neck (2 x)
- single blade bridge (2x).
- plus of course the combinations thereof.

I did not mention phase yet..... :-)

I think I'll stick to the standard options!


Then there is tone. I was thinking of either finding the best tonesetting per pickup setting, and maybe solder some caps and resistors to the rotary switch.

I never use a volume knob (it's always full on). So I'll leave that out. The simple solution would then be a rorary knob with the 6 most useful pickup/tone settings. What else do i need? :p

I was thinking of having a 'redeemer' module next, to make the bass active and not loose tone in long cables. Thoughts? Edit: I just read that there have been some controversy about the Redeemer. I don't want to start that all over; I'm open for any low cost (redeemer is $50) active modules -


All suggestions and ideas welcome!
 
#333
doublestop said:
Thanks. I'm interested!

Any suggestions on (passive) EQ, Varitone-switchtings, pickups-switchings, and/or on active solutions?

I am thinking about this:

- 6 way rotary pickup switch (4 poles). With 2 pickups I can come up with 8 possibilities, of which I then can choose 6:

1. Neck parallel (NP)
2. Neck Series (NS)
3. Bridge parallel (BP)
4. Bridge Series (BS)
5. NP + BP
6. NP + BS
7. NS + BP
8. NS + BS

Of course I don't know if all these are useful.

Then there are 12 special combinations:
- pickups in series, so NP in series with BP, NP in series with BS etc. This gives another 4 possibilities. How will it sound? No idea!
- 'virtual humbucker' settings.
* one blade of the neck pickup parallel with one blade of the bridge pickup (4 possibilities)
* the same, but now in series (4 possibilities)

Finally, there are single blade possibilities:
- single blade neck (2 x)
- single blade bridge (2x).
- plus of course the combinations thereof.

I did not mention phase yet..... :-)

I think I'll stick to the standard options!


Then there is tone. I was thinking of either finding the best tonesetting per pickup setting, and maybe solder some caps and resistors to the rotary switch.

I never use a volume knob (it's always full on). So I'll leave that out. The simple solution would then be a rorary knob with the 6 most useful pickup/tone settings. What else do i need? :p

I was thinking of having a 'redeemer' module next, to make the bass active and not loose tone in long cables. Thoughts? Edit: I just read that there have been some controversy about the Redeemer. I don't want to start that all over; I'm open for any low cost (redeemer is $50) active modules -


All suggestions and ideas welcome!
Click to expand...

I'd suggest yout start a distinct thread for this question, as all these switching / pasive or active tone shaping questions are more general than just regarding SGD pickups; you could get more responses I guess.

Regarding SGD pickups, I'm really pleased with mines, though they are of the Sidewinder kind and I don't know if David can make those fit into a Jazz-sized shell. My desciption of the sidewinders would be close to what David said above. A thing I really like is how the pickups respond to the fingers touch in the top end : when you pluck with the soft part of your fingers, you get a conventional sound, burpy for the bridge p/u and fat for the neck p/u, but when you change you finger plucking to a more picking-like, or slapping, or tapping technique, then you get a very interesting top end extension that's not heard with common pickups. At least to my hear. As I said earlier in this thread, it gives some kind of piezo top end to the sound. I love that.

Regarding active/preamp solutions, I'm using a Noll preamp with parametric mid frequency control, and I like that preamp a lot. It doesn't give a massive boost or cut, but its very musical and useful, and compliments my SGD pickups really well. And the parametric mid control gives me a lot of tonal possibilities.

All this is just to my ears of course.
 
#335
doublestop said:
- 6 way rotary pickup switch (4 poles). With 2 pickups I can come up with 8 possibilities, of which I then can choose 6:

1. Neck parallel (NP)
2. Neck Series (NS)
3. Bridge parallel (BP)
4. Bridge Series (BS)
5. NP + BP
6. NP + BS
7. NS + BP
8. NS + BS

Of course I don't know if all these are useful.
Click to expand...

I have one bass with series/parallel/single switches for each of the two pickups. This bass has the Jazz size pickups. I find I leave them in series most of the time, but parallel is nice if you want a brighter tone with less mids. I also find the switches useful for when I have both pickups on. Switching one or the other into parallel gives some interesting tonal variations. I find I almost never use them in single coil mode. It sounds very similar to parallel, and of course they hum if I don't have them both on. I don't like hum.

You can do that with a rotary switch, but I think I like having three switches better, one if the pickup selector, and the other two are series/parallel. I find that faster to use. If you use center off switches, and don't care about single coil mode, then the series/parallel switches can also double as pickup selectors. ;) Then you get all your selections with two switches.
 
#339
Ok a couple quick questions.

1. What exactly is a sidewinder pickup? I did a quick google and didn't really find a straight answer.
2. How do they differ from the Series 3 pups?
3. Are they available for the P4 size?

After months of indecision I'm hoping to have a set of pickups ordered by the end of the day. :ninja:
 
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