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SimS Custom Retrofit Pickups

morebassbaby

morebassbaby

Supporting Member
Jan 26, 2001
1,647
2,402
43
Wisconsin
#1
Not sure if anybody has posted anything about this or not, or if you guys are familiar with Enfield Basses, the bass company owned by Martin Sims...or their pretty awesome Pickup switching system co-designed by John East, but they allow you to go from a Split P, jazz single coil, or parallel dual coil in one pickup enclosure. Up until now you could only get these pickups on one of the UK basses. I guess they just released these for our basses! (Of course it does involve sending your bass to them to do the retrofit. Very tempting. I just emailed SimS asking for pricing and details. If I find out more i'll post here.

Check out the YouTube video at the London Bass show http://youtu.be/YG88o8DPZhw

Or if your curious about Enfield basses with these home grown pickups Link Removed

Never gotten to play one, but I sure would like too. Their Wal-like resemblance is nice too!
 
#3
Yeah I'm with you, but honestly I'm surprised their making it available to the public at all. I figured they would just keep this stuff as proprietary electronics on their own basses. I'm waiting to see prices quotes before I get too excited!
 
#6
That is a pickup I have wanted to design for years now. I am glad to see someone has done it. It makes so much since to have something like this. Thanks for the post. I will say the basses look like a Wal and the same for the bridge. But it looks good regardless. I want to see the pricing on these. I wonder if it is the pickup only or pickup and electronics?
 
#7
That's one thing I did ask in the email was if it was required to use the John east preamp that is in the enfield basses to make it all work, or if you can just use a passive setup or preamp of your choice. We'll just have to see.
 
#9
Alright so Martin responded so here y'all go. Save up your pennies :-) it's expensive but about what i expected for something like this. My handy little currency converter puts this at $934.96 for pickups and installation and you'd still have to ship it there and back. This was for a 5 string quote though, you might get off slightly cheaper for a 4 string. Here's the email.

"Hi Luke,
Good to hear from you.
Yes we offer both 4 & 5 string versions.
We do offer a full fitting sevice & are looking for luthiers around the world to become authorised installers.
The pickups will work as any other pickup with a pre amp or passive. The battery is just for the L.E.Ds.
The pickups are designed to be fitted to any bass.
19mm string spacing is fine.
The 5 string pickups cost £185.00 each & we charge £125.00 for fitting each pickup.
I'm not sure how much shipping will be.
Thank you for you interest we are very exited about this project.
Kind regards.
Martin.
 
#11
morebassbaby said:
Alright so Martin responded so here y'all go. Save up your pennies :-) it's expensive but about what i expected for something like this. My handy little currency converter puts this at $934.96 for pickups and installation and you'd still have to ship it there and back. This was for a 5 string quote though, you might get off slightly cheaper for a 4 string. Here's the email.

"Hi Luke,
Good to hear from you.
Yes we offer both 4 & 5 string versions.
We do offer a full fitting sevice & are looking for luthiers around the world to become authorised installers.
The pickups will work as any other pickup with a pre amp or passive. The battery is just for the L.E.Ds.
The pickups are designed to be fitted to any bass.
19mm string spacing is fine.
The 5 string pickups cost £185.00 each & we charge £125.00 for fitting each pickup.
I'm not sure how much shipping will be.
Thank you for you interest we are very exited about this project.
Kind regards.
Martin.
Click to expand...

I think you miscalculated here, as that big slab is a single pickup and not two :) I'm getting about $470 from XE.com today, which doesn't seem too bad for a pair of pickups high quality pickups (basically) and an East preamp. Might be more easily accomplished as well if you just sent them a Warmoth body rather than a whole bass. Hmmmm........
 
#13
ImageUploadedByTalkBass1363355482.952998.jpg

I don't know if this will show up, but this is the bass with the retrofit pickups in it.
 
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#14
I have the prototype (or the first production if you will) Enfield Lionheart - Basically a bolt on version of the top of range Canon model, but with the two separate switchable pickups. I was playing it as a bit of a test at a friend's jam session this evening and he commented that you really can hear the difference when switching between settings. My own personal sweet spot so far is to set it as a P&J. Seems to give the best of all worlds.
 
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#15
OutToPlayJazz said:
I have the prototype (or the first production if you will) Enfield Lionheart - Basically a bolt on version of the top of range Canon model, but with the two separate switchable pickups. I was playing it as a bit of a test at a friend's jam session this evening and he commented that you really can hear the difference when switching between settings. My own personal sweet spot so far is to set it as a P&J. Seems to give the best of all worlds.
Click to expand...

Congrats looks killer I still love the concept.
 
#17
OutToPlayJazz said:
I have the prototype (or the first production if you will) Enfield Lionheart - Basically a bolt on version of the top of range Canon model, but with the two separate switchable pickups. I was playing it as a bit of a test at a friend's jam session this evening and he commented that you really can hear the difference when switching between settings. My own personal sweet spot so far is to set it as a P&J. Seems to give the best of all worlds.
Click to expand...

Which underlines how much of a Bass' character is in the wood and construction. The tonal variation is always within the constraints of the wood. Flicking though the tones only compares the sustained tone. The attack and decay can only be sampled when playing, so I'm sure you'll hear more variation between the various configurations when you are playing them.
 
#18
GMC said:
Which underlines how much of a Bass' character is in the wood and construction. The tonal variation is always within the constraints of the wood. Flicking though the tones only compares the sustained tone. The attack and decay can only be sampled when playing, so I'm sure you'll hear more variation between the various configurations when you are playing them.
Click to expand...

Most definitely - The Lionheart is made from some pretty serious woods, so the differences are very apparent, as is the piano like attack created and affected by the Indian Ebony fingerboard.
 
#20
Dave Neal said:
Doing a mod on a US made SUB stingray and these are very cool,I see little online about ordering them and would you really have to ship the guitar body to the UK to get them? I want to order and fit them myself....Your thoughts bass people.
Click to expand...
Email and see if they will send to you or have someone here in the states that they allow to do it.
 

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