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Suggest a pickup for me (fretless, passive)

#22
DaveAceofBass said:
As for the Q-Tuners, cool design, but judging from their soundclips you'd have a much harsher tone than the Villex pickups. Villex will still give you the highs and lows you crave, but with a warmth and a growl and a versatility you can't find in other passive pickups.
Click to expand...

You guys have me convinced :) I'll definitely contact Villex when I'm ready to order the pickups. I'm still trying to complete my pedalboard (two pedals and a good set of patch cables to go, should be done within the month), and I still have to pay for my new bass's construction, so this month is going to be tight.

Next month, tho, first thing, I'll be sending mr. Villex an email. Maybe even earlier, who knows, depends on how things go, money-wise, this month.

Thanks for all the suggestions this far, guys... Still one thing left to decide, tho:
The bass already has 5 knob holes (vol, vol, tone/pushpull circuit activation, bass, treble). What do you guys suggest I use to fill up that space? I understand Villex includes some sort of mid-switch, so that'd be one hole filled. What's the usual configuration for the other Villex pots?

.. otherwise, should I go and add a preamp instead? btw, I'm kind of a knob-tweaker, always changing things around from song to song.

It's probably still a couple months till all pieces are in place, but I already can't wait to find out what this project is going to sound like :hyper:
 
#23
IMHO it should be vol/vol/mid-control/tone, unless you want a concentric vol/vol - mid-control-tone, allowing 2 holes to be for a preamp (which I highly doubt it once you listen to the Villex tone). Taking a bout the 5th hole I do have an idea, but the bill goes higher. Let me know if you want to listen to my idea; it makes the hole in your pocket bigger, but it's worth IMHO and IME
 
#24
Right now, I'm thinking vol/vol/tone knobs, plus villex-mid-control and series/parallel switches might fit the bill for my project. No preamp does make the whole thing cheaper, and keeping it 100% passive might be a good idea, after all.

But what's your idea? Let's see if I can do whatever it is..
 
#26
fullrangebass said:
If you add the PRTB (Passive Rotary Tone Booster) in the 5th hole. You will thank me later for that
Click to expand...

Might do that. Just received my paycheck, and it was just a little bit fatter than usual this month. In fact it happens to be exactly-the price-of-a-tone-booster fatter :D

Wouldn't it be kind of redundant with the Villex mid-booster, tho? And wouldn't wiring be kind of a nightmare to have all of

-vol
-vol
-tone
-mid booster
-rotary booster

in place of the knobs?
 
#27
The mid-control is way different than the PRTB. The mid-control "morphs" the mids (allowing for a multitude of tones from the Villex pickup(s), while the PRTB boosts lows and low mids bringing a different life into the instrument.

The wiring is very straight forward.

Just a hint: play for few days without the PRTB. Only then use it, and realize that the bass you have has had the BEST treat ever, in terms of tone and versatility
 
#29
fullrangebass said:
The mid-control is way different than the PRTB. The mid-control "morphs" the mids (allowing for a multitude of tones from the Villex pickup(s), while the PRTB boosts lows and low mids bringing a different life into the instrument.

The wiring is very straight forward.

Just a hint: play for few days without the PRTB. Only then use it, and realize that the bass you have has had the BEST treat ever, in terms of tone and versatility
Click to expand...

Okay. So I'm thinking about getting P (neck)+ J(bridge) Villex pups, on EMG40 enclosures, for a greater variety of sounds, and split coil (do they make split coil J?) in order to avoid hum. That, plus the mid booster, plus the PRTB. Does that sound good? I'm about to pull the trigger here, so stop me if I'm doing something wrong...

If I unexpectedly freak out, I might still get the Delanos+Delano preamp instead, tho... :confused: Seymour Duncan, on the other hand, would be a lot cheaper and easier to get... oh, the dilemma!
 
#30
Villex makes split coil pickups (the PJ set you are looking at is the VPJLH).

They controls (pots) will be vol/vol/mid-control/tone/ PRTB. It sounds fantastic (I have incorporated this wiring scheme in two basses so far, waiting for another two sets to arrive in the next 15 days or so)

The mid-control is NOT a mid-boost. It changes the "character" of the pickup, allowing for a variety of tones from the pickup(s). The PRTB is the booster and does it in a very musical way (you can have a better understanding looking at the Villex website)
 
#31
Mail sent and promptly responded to. The price calculation he sent me seems reasonable, I'm ordering it now (two pickups, midcontrol, prtb).

Thanks everyone for the help in this matter. Now comes the worst part: the long wait... I'll update this once I have the pups installed (should be a while... at least a month, probably)
 
#33
fullrangebass said:
I am on the waiting list too, if that makes you feel better. The result is worth the waiting period. Trust me
Click to expand...

Actually, the fact that there's a waiting list *does not* make me feel better :rollno:

Yea, the hard part is that, even after the pickups are complete, it still takes a minimum of two weeks (up to over a month) for stuff shipped from the US to get here. I mean, it does travel quickly (3-5 days), but the customs office tends to sit on top of stuff for a while... :scowl:

How long does it usually take for Villex to manufacture a pair of pups?

[edit: whoa, the man does answer very quickly! he said it takes five days for him to manufacture the parts. Not too bad, after all :D)
 
#35
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Please, just have a look at these. I think they'd match it fine. The buy an OBP-pres, with a switch from Active-to-Passive. These are both active and passive pickups. Perfect match. Or maybe no pre-amp and full passive system? Have a Series/parallel switch in you main volume????
 
#36
You've made a wise choice with the Villex set up. William won't keep you waiting long, sounds like your shipping will be the longer wait.

Fullrange is right. The booster is not the same as the built in mid control. I wasn't able to use the rotary booster due to space constraints in my bass, but I added the booster with the on/off switch. The booster is just before the jack, after the RMC piezo buffer. It boosts the mids of the piezos and mags, whereas the mid control only affects the mags. The booster does more than mids, I can only imagine the PRTB would give you even more possibilities. The mid control for the pickups does really affect the tone. You were wise to go with the split-coil J pickups, I had a customer who installed the single coils and they were too noisy for him. I think Villex has mastered the split-coils.
 
#38
Holy smokes! The pickups are here already! That's gotta be the fastest transit I've ever had for an (USA->Brazil) international order, coupled with a very fast build time and an incredible email response time... That's 18 days from the day I decided to buy the pups to them being in my eager hands... unbelievable.

Trouble is, I don't even have a bass to install my Villex pups on, yet!! I'm still waiting for the new bass to be completed in the luthier shop, will be a couple weeks still, probably... gah! I'm almost eager enough to pull the pups off my current bass and install these villex even before the new bass is done.

I'll update again once I have them up and running. I don't know about their sound, but guys: service-wise, I couldn't be a happier customer!
 
#39
So I finally had a chance to install them. Unfortunately, one of the pickups doesn't work! after a couple hours of careful exploration, my technician found out one of the wires in broken inside the casing, so he cannot fix it locally. I've contacted mr. Villex and he told me send it back for a replacement. He even said he'd throw something extra in for the inconvenience, which is a great act :)


The one pickup that does work, whoa. It's surprised me in every aspect, but especially in the versatility of tones obtainable and in the output power allowed by the Passive Rotary Tone Booster. I'm still working to find the exact "warm" tone I'm looking for, but I tell you, with mids, tone, and PRTB maxed, this thing sings over any pack of distorted guitars and loud drums better than my EMGs ever could!

I still haven't even put them in the configuration I want them (fretless, flatwound), btw
 

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