So… I did a thing (modified Fender content)

[BearlyBass]

Third, the bass sounds and looks great.

Many thanks for all the kind words! Really wanted to let the instrument speak for itself, so I just went with the first basic riff to come out of my hands

 

[point_departure]

Hey y'all, this year has been a rollercoaster but I finally found a few minutes to record a very rudimentary sound comparison:

Congrats!! Thanks a million for taking the time the time to share! I have a Novak BS-DS (with the slightly wider 17.4mm spacing) that I've been holding onto to drop into a Mustang for a few months now. After seeing a bunch of people pairing them with the H-22, I started to wonder how this would pan out. Really great stuff.

 

[Morningside]

This is an inspiring thread. I just decided to join the club!

I have an American Performer Mustang. The stock pickups are adequate, but I've never liked the look of the little Mustang neck pickup with the Jazz bridge pickup, and I also miss having a bass with a Bisonic. (I used to have a Guild Starfire and loved the pickups.) I emailed Curtis Novak to ask if he could make a replacement set with a BS-DS in the neck, and he suggested the H-22 for the bridge.

After receiving his suggestion, I ran across this thread and went ahead and ordered the pair. Here's what my bass looks like today. I should receive the new pickups soon, and I'll post an update once I've got them installed.

 

[tidbits]

@BearlyBass or anyone care to share about pot values you went with?

I'm putting together one of these to finish up a stalled project, and I put together a standard VVT harness with the usual suspects - 250k pots, 0.047 cap. Mainly because those are the parts I had on hand.

Just wanted to see if anyone tried them out and how they liked them. I'll report back when I get mine done in the next couple weeks.

 

[BearlyBass]

@BearlyBass or anyone care to share about pot values you went with?

I'm putting together one of these to finish up a stalled project, and I put together a standard VVT harness with the usual suspects - 250k pots, 0.047 cap. Mainly because those are the parts I had on hand.

Just wanted to see if anyone tried them out and how they liked them. I'll report back when I get mine done in the next couple weeks.

I went with 500k pots and a .033uF capacitor, though a .047uF cap would be fine. 500k I believe is the value Guild used/uses for their bisonic wiring harnesses, and the Novak H22 goldfoil in the bridge isn't too obnoxious with that much treble coming through. If you put the two pickups on individual volume pots, you might try a 250k on the H22 to see if you like it better. I wanted to err on the side of favoring the bisonic pot value in the master volume wiring configuration, so I used 500k.

 

[tidbits]

It'll be easy enough to swap out that 1 pot for the Bisonic if it's not loud enough or I'm not getting enough top end. I actually got a Guild BS-1 instead of the Novak. Based on the comparison video Serek did I actually liked that one better than the DS setting on the Novak.

 

[BearlyBass]

It'll be easy enough to swap out that 1 pot for the Bisonic if it's not loud enough or I'm not getting enough top end. I actually got a Guild BS-1 instead of the Novak. Based on the comparison video Serek did I actually liked that one better than the DS setting on the Novak.

Me too! The BS-1 sounds great.

 

[birdswthvertigo]

The past few years I've really dug deep into learning luthiery skills, which has been very rewarding, but also now when I get a wild hair to try something there's no one to stop me lol. This all started with a few Castedosa YouTube videos. That short scale goodness called to me, but there was no way my partner would be happy with me dropping that kind of cash. But seriously, look at this beauty:

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But then I'm putting together another pile of basses to put up for sale when I thought… why sell this black JMJ mustang (yes I have two, yes I have a problem) when I could turn it into more of a Castedosa. First problem: can the pickups fit?

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A little photoshop wizardry and math later, and I placed orders for everything I needed. Gold foil pickup and Bisonic routing template from Novak, Bisonic from Guild, a few miscellaneous parts, and it was time to play the waiting game for everything to arrive. Fast forward to this week and everything's here.

Some progress pics:

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I'm going to string it up and see if there's much work to be done on pickup heights before going further into wiring. But that's where we're at! I have decisions to make on wiring, like whether to have a pickup switch (and if so what kind of wiring), stacked pots or a master volume and tone, or maybe a blend pot? Those thoughts are going to percolate for a minute, so suggestions welcome.

Did you have the Guild BS-1 bridge position or neck? I'm doing this exact build on a custom body. But need to figure out the right H22 to order. I already have the BS-1 bridge.

 

[BearlyBass]

Did you have the Guild BS-1 bridge position or neck? I'm doing this exact build on a custom body. But need to figure out the right H22 to order. I already have the BS-1 bridge.

It's the neck version of the BS-1 in my build. You might check with Novak just to confirm the best H22 to pair, but my experience would suggest you order the H22 neck pickup.

 

[birdswthvertigo]

It's the neck version of the BS-1 in my build. You might check with Novak just to confirm the best H22 to pair, but my experience would suggest you order the H22 neck pickup.

Great! I should be good ordering the neck H22 then. Guild says the neck pickup is reverse wound and the bridge is the typical wind. So if your configuration bucks him, then I should be good doing BS-1 bridge with H22 neck.