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SGD Lutherie Pickups

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#961
Sven Olaffson said:
Hi !
I have a fretless 5 strings singlecut bass beeing made by a luthier, and I'm looking for a pair of pickups for this bass. The bass will be passive.

I thought about a pair of ND3 soapbars, wide aperture, EMG 40 size. And I've a few questions to adress

- first, does this choice seems right, for a fat and modern fretless sound with a lot of growl (think about a pedulla pentabuzz for reference)
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Yes, that would be a good choice.

- second, i've head about some player using "neck" pickups in the bridge position to enhance the low mids, especially when the bridge pickup is soloed. have you heard about this, and would it be possible to order a "special set" consisting of two neck ND3 instead of a neck + bridge set ?
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My neck ND3 pickups sound kind of like a P bass or a Hagstrom Bi-Sonic (Dark Star). They are warm but not muddy. You would probably get less low mids when used at the bridge. The bridge pickup is designed to be used soloed and has extra low mids. A narrow aperture bridge pickup would give extra bark, if that's what you wanted.

-third, I read about the "Wal replica" pickups here but they don't appear on your website … are they still on prototype level ? They sound like a good idea for a growling fretless, considering what a Wal fretless can sound like !
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Those aren't ready yet. They would give a thick, but bright tone.
 
#964
So I have pair of sidewinders coming for a stingray hh. This one has the five way switch. What are my wiring options. I'm assuming all options in series bridge,neck both pickups and mute. Are there any coil splitting options like inner coils on bridge and neck or outer coils bridge and neck.
 
#967
hunterred43 said:
Anybody go with two sidewinders for both pickups in their bass. Are you still able to get solid low bass response from them.
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I've got two on the way-----but I asked for the bridge to be made with a neo magnet instead of the default Ceramic. Its still the sidewinder design. The idea is that It will still have a similarly sweet top end like usual, but get a balls boost from the neo magnet sonic properties. I love the way the "wide" neck sidewinder sounds with the ceramic, so I didn't want it changed.

I plan to post some recordings after I receive them, set them up, and get a little familiar!
 
#968
hunterred43 said:
Anybody go with two sidewinders for both pickups in their bass. Are you still able to get solid low bass response from them.
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I have 2 sidewinders in EMG 40 shape in my fretless. I have a bass boost only and filter preamp (a la alembic) runnin 18v and I can get some serious thump. Here is a cool thing, wire up an S-1 style switch that throws both pups into series at the flip of a switch or the pull of a knob for some deeper lows a la P style sound.
 
#970
12bass said:
I'm wondering if it isn't that the sidewinders lack deep bass so much as they do not have the bump in the lower midrange that it common in humbuckers?
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that's what I hear (or don't?) when I listen to the samples on the site and in this thread. Which is why I asked for the neo magnet in my bridge sidewinder, because when I listen to the ND3 samples, it has a low mid throatyness similar to what I hear in many alnico pickups.

Overall, I love the sidewinder sound and its the sound I want. But I guess I'm trying to customize it even more to my personal taste, with which SGD has been really great!
 
#971
Thanks for the replies. I recently placed my order so was considering getting a ND3 for the bridge. I'm pairing with the acg preamp I figured I could boost more of the lows. It may be too late to change my order. Probably just leave it. This GAS thing. Its a new addiction. My thinking is that you can never make a dirty signal clean so i liked the clarity of the sidewinders. I just wonder about the bottom with two. Having a ND3 at the bridge would give more wiring options having two voice coils there. Can't wait to hear these pickups with the ACG preamp. Keep leaning towards the humbucker a the bridge. Wonder if he has started on my order yet.
 
#973
I thought I understood how it worked. That the there were two filters that controlled the highest and lowest frequency. Then a gain or volume control for each frequency to adjust the balance. Mine has the passive tone knob which should help some too. Am unclear in my understanding? I play through a Mesa m6 carbine 2x12 combo. The basses I use now are a ray 34 that I put the John east preamp in that has the mid sweep (figures the acg worked similarly to that). I put a nordstrand humbucker in that and wired it in series and like the sound from it. I may be overthinking it. Now I like the pre amp and pickup in that bass more than my American made stingray hh. I was just looking for a bass that could clean up to play chords and more of an upright sound to play through my markbass 1x12 combo at church and I like tools music a lot. Im not big on muddy bass but like everyone and their mom like his tone. Thicker clarity. For instance can you get the clarity from the fingerstyle part of wings for Marie and the harmonics of disposition from the deep neck sidewinder and the heavy outro to schism from a sidewinder or would a bridge n3 give me that.
 
#974
If you haven't looked at it already, I'd definitely look at this thread: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f38/calling-all-acg-filter-preamp-users-849018/

The ACG preamp operates in a similar way to the Wal and Alembic filter preamps, but is more flexible in some ways. The main control is a sweepable low-pass filter--a filter that removes all the signal above a certain cutoff frequency, which can be set to anywhere between 70Hz and 7kHz. If you set it about 1/2 way down, for instance, you might be cutting out all the frequencies above something like 1kHz (just a guess). If you turn it 3/4 of the way down, you might be cutting out all the frequencies above 250Hz.

In combination with that cutoff frequency control, the low-pass filter has an "overshoot peak" control, which is basically a variable boost right at the cutoff frequency. So, you could boost the lows by rolling the cutoff frequency control down to 100Hz or so and turning the overshoot peak control up all the way, which would give you a 10dB boost at 100Hz, but it would also cut out all the frequencies above 100Hz. You can't boost 100Hz and leave everything else untouched.

In addition to the low-pass filter, there's also a high-pass filter, which basically works the same in reverse. It has a sweepable cutoff frequency control that goes from 1.5kHz to 10kHz, and a boost that boosts all the frequencies above that cutoff frequency. So, you have a lot of flexibility in choosing different treble frequencies when adding highs to your signal.

Filter-based preamps can give you a range of sounds that a simple 3-band boost/cut preamp can't, but they work very differently.
 
#975
I read through that thread. I probably won't get it completely until I have it in my hands. It just made it to new York so won't be too long. I like that John east preamp a lot. That's why I wanted the extra control of the acg. I have a tendency to over analyze things. I like being able to control the frequencys of the mids a lot. Just go with the sidewinders and the preamp play with it and if I need to replace the bridge with a wide n3. Thanks for the response. Maybe playing and hearing on your own gear is the real answer.
 
#977
Redleg I hear you on the wiring thing. I'm thinking that since that hh has a five way switch. Think I'll wire it neck-mute-both-mute-bridge and all of that in series. I think with the 2 wires plus shield it's the only way to wire it. It's good to know.
 
#979
hunterred43 said:
Redleg I hear you on the wiring thing. I'm thinking that since that hh has a five way switch. Think I'll wire it neck-mute-both-mute-bridge and all of that in series. I think with the 2 wires plus shield it's the only way to wire it. It's good to know.
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That is a pretty cool sounding schematic, however have you given any thought to a 4 way rotary a la dingwall? Neck, both paralell, both series, bridge, mute?
 
#980
Timmah said:
As of Monday, I have a set of SGD sw4 les Paul size pups on order (deep neck, narrow bridge). Anybody have these guys in their bass?
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when you get them, please post some sound clips. I spent a few days deciding between the deep neck and the wide neck. I settled on the wide neck, because I wanted the fatness. but that deep neck sounds so interesting.
 
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