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Thanks!
I'd be happy with a 5 in a more normal cover, like EMG40 or Bartolini P2. I just want that tone!!
Thank you so much @Matt Kustom for helping us all out with this project and thank you TBers for being so helpful and enthusiastic! We've been talking about something like this for years.
Hey CT , that's a nice bass.I asked Matt for a pair of five string SF, and I received them after a very short wait. He is certainly not a procrastinator!
First, I have to say, this is an incredibly tidy packaging job! Two pickups, each wrapped in its own protective sheet of thin foam, then in its own bubble wrap. An additional baggie with screws, springs encased in foam, and a tone cap nestles between them. Neat sections of bubble wrap fill the gaps. Impressive!
These are EMG40 shells, which are ubiquitous (and therefore compatible with lots of basses) but rather plain. Not Matt’s fault. I wish someone would make 40-sized shells in chrome, but that’s just because I’m a sucker for bling. Impeccable embossing on the fiberboard underneath.
And yeah, these spring/foam combo blocks are a step above just foam!
I had planned on mounting these in a new build that is currently about 60% finished. But I have this other bass with 40-sized pickups, and I’ve tried several different sets in it, and just haven’t found the right pairing. What came out was a set of Lace BassBars that looked awesome (shiny chrome!) but somehow sounded - I dunno - one-dimensional? So I figured what the heck, let’s just pull the BassBars and drop in the 916SFs and see what happens.
This is a homemade 33” scale headless with a cherry body and a five-piece maple/walnut/cherry neck. Pickups are wired straight to a toggle switch, then to a DarkGlass Tone Capsule, and a master volume. So the pickups are not loaded by any volume or tone pots, allowing their full response into the preamp. I also mounted a new set of stainless rounds (a NOS set of Markley Helix).
How do they sound? I’m pleased. While any comparison between two different basses is always apples and oranges, due to all the other factors that make any given bass sound the way it does, these have the same low-mid girth and texture, and the same top-end aggressive clarity that I so enjoy in my other SF basses. I was a bit concerned about the noise level, but was pleased to discover that these are no noisier than my other SF basses either, which is to say almost none. Both pickups together are silent, and either individually has an unobtrusive bit of single-coil hum that will easily disappear in a band context. I do notice that this bass has more upper-frequency presence, but that could be these particular woods/construction, and/or the brand new strings, and/or the DG TC.
I’ll take it to the next rehearsal and report back. In the meantime, great job and thanks @Matt Kustom !
I see why you guys like these pickups. They sound quite nice. Thanks for the sound demos.Hello Matt and everybody,
This evening I had a few minutes to record some audio.
First, I pulled the DG TC out of the bass pictured above, because I felt like it wasn't a good fit for this particular instrument. In its place I installed an Aguilar OBP-1, but with a 250kOhm volume put with a push/pull passive bypass. It also has a traditional 0.047uF tone cap. For these recordings, the pickups feed straight into a toggle selector switch, then into the the volume pot, which is pulled up to bypass the active preamp, and the tone control is full up. Recording chain is bass into my Focusrite Scarlett Solo, into Logic Pro, into two tracks that have absolutely no processing applied. I took the Markley Helix stainless strings off; these strings are nickel-plated steels - I forget exactly what kind, but they're not too old and they're not too new. One track for finger style, and one track for pick playing. Each track is the same riff played first on the bridge pickup, then both pickups, then the neck pickup. Sorry for any sloppiness!
Fingerstyle - bridge, both, neck
Picked - bridge, both, neck
Let me know your thoughts. Personally, I think they sound fan-freaking-tastic - I think they have that same aggressive single-coil clarity of the originals, which I'm thrilled about!
Excellent tones and recording. Are these the single coils or humbuckers?Hello Matt and everybody,
This evening I had a few minutes to record some audio.
First, I pulled the DG TC out of the bass pictured above, because I felt like it wasn't a good fit for this particular instrument. In its place I installed an Aguilar OBP-1, but with a 250kOhm volume put with a push/pull passive bypass. It also has a traditional 0.047uF tone cap. For these recordings, the pickups feed straight into a toggle selector switch, then into the the volume pot, which is pulled up to bypass the active preamp, and the tone control is full up. Recording chain is bass into my Focusrite Scarlett Solo, into Logic Pro, into two tracks that have absolutely no processing applied. I took the Markley Helix stainless strings off; these strings are nickel-plated steels - I forget exactly what kind, but they're not too old and they're not too new. One track for finger style, and one track for pick playing. Each track is the same riff played first on the bridge pickup, then both pickups, then the neck pickup. Sorry for any sloppiness!
Fingerstyle - bridge, both, neck
Picked - bridge, both, neck
Let me know your thoughts. Personally, I think they sound fan-freaking-tastic - I think they have that same aggressive single-coil clarity of the originals, which I'm thrilled about!
