Sidewinder advice

[Kathryn Creek]

Hi electronic wizards,

I'm looking for a sidewinder pickup and thought I would ask for advice. I'm working with a small group in the luthier's forum to make a bass guitar design to honor those who have served us in this pandemic and to pay tribute to the loved ones that are no longer with us. The design will be given to any maker or manufacturer who wants to make it. This is a sort of therapy during this time to make something positive and also connect with others who want to contribute.

The reason I want a sidewinder is because I don't want the pickups to be seen or at least a limited amount visible on the body front. I'd like to ask your thoughts on the utility of having only pole pieces or a bar seen. If you know of a good idea that will work other than a sidewinder, let me know as well.

 

[charlie monroe]

A request for invisible p/u’s is probably most easily satisfied by piezo.

 

[Passinwind]

A ramp with the pickups built in can look pretty stealthy. Neither of the two sets of sidewinders in my basses are really particularly stealthy, FWIW.

 

[Toptube]

Hi electronic wizards,

I'm looking for a sidewinder pickup and thought I would ask for advice. I'm working with a small group in the luthier's forum to make a bass guitar design to honor those who have served us in this pandemic and to pay tribute to the loved ones that are no longer with us. The design will be given to any maker or manufacturer who wants to make it. This is a sort of therapy during this time to make something positive and also connect with others who want to contribute.

The reason I want a sidewinder is because I don't want the pickups to be seen or at least a limited amount visible on the body front. I'd like to ask your thoughts on the utility of having only pole pieces or a bar seen. If you know of a good idea that will work other than a sidewinder, let me know as well.

You could also look at the Lightwave pickup system. its a special bridge system which uses optical technology to sense the strings. so...no routes for pickups!

 

[Kathryn Creek]

I like the light bridge idea, but I like to design using 13 mm string spacing and I doubt they have one with these dimensions, but I'll ask. I'm not a fan of piezos for basses, but thanks for the suggestion. I would like to find a design with pole pieces only showing and the rest under the hood. I have some Artec mudbuckers. What if I took off the face plate and adjusted the pole locations for my string spacing? I would have to make the poles taller to make this work. These pickups are massive. Do you have any experience with them?

 

[Toptube]

Nordstrand has blade sidewinders called Zen Blades. So you wouldn't have to worry about pole piece spacing. They might have some ideas, too. On how to effectively implement your ideas. They are very nice to talk to/email with.

 

[Kathryn Creek]

Thanks, Toptube. I like the look and the name. I'll give them a call. I met Carey at NAMM and yes very he is very easy to talk to and is a great collaborator.

 

[Kathryn Creek]

Hi all, I've gotten feedback from Nordstrand and they don't think the Zen pickups are strong enough for this design. They recommended the BigMan. Another thought is to use Aztec's sidewinder, remove the front plate and revise the keeper. Do you have any experience with either of these pickups?