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Ultimate Essex 6er Neo pickup mod...

#21
Ordered the magnets! I got 2 1/8"s just in case the 1/4" is too thick for the bridge pickup (I was concerned it would not allow for height adjustment). Better to have an extra magnet than to have to place another order and pay the $10.21 UPS ground shipping! :scowl:

Looking forward to modding my Ursa 6! :hyper:
 
#23
Update. While the magnets mod does increase the pickups output, I found (my opinion) that they also introduced some sort of distortion, some harshness that I just couldn't get rid of by EQ or adjusting the pickups height. (Disclaimer: I am a DIY-fer so that my comments for what they are, IME and IMO.). I removed the magnets and found that the tone of the pickups "stock" is alright. (These are $170 basses...)

"off-topic" comment, I couldn't get the action as low as I wanted so I added two full size shims made out of formica... free samples courtesy of Home Depot). With a fret rocker and a file from Stewmac I got it playing nicely.

Another off topic: my bass came with the famous dead spot on the G string 6th fret (Fender trademark, all rights reserved). i ordered a Fatfinger, and it's true! the dead spot is gone (or moved elsewhere). i went note for note all over the fingerboard but couldn't find another deadspot, or at least not as annoying as the previously mentioned one. :D. And, true, notes do ring a bit sweeter with the Fatfinger. It does add considerable weight to the headstock... But I have a 4.25" Levy strap so there's no significant neck dive.
 
#24
PrietoBass said:
Update. While the magnets mod does increase the pickups output, I found (my opinion) that they also introduced some sort of distortion, some harshness that I just couldn't get rid of by EQ or adjusting the pickups height. (Disclaimer: I am a DIY-fer so that my comments for what they are, IME and IMO.). I removed the magnets and found that the tone of the pickups "stock" is alright. (These are $170 basses...)
Click to expand...

I haven't noticed "harshness" on mine. I presume your pickups are the ones that have ceramic magnets on the bottom. My 6ers have two styles of pickups the ones without a ceramic magnet on the bottom were/are fine and putting a magnet on them didn't improve them and seemed to make them worse. The opposite was true of the ceramic magnet pickups.

But of course my big complaint was single coil hum (from low output) and I wasn't concentrating on tone. Distortion effects on SX pickups are what Chunger calles "the SX effect" and seems common on SX basses. I'm guessing the magnets made it worse. Personally I ignore it, but chunger's solution was to replace the SX pickups with Nordstrands he had custom wound to try to duplcate the SX tone without the distortion.

A bass where the pickups cost much more than the whole bass is not my idea of a "bar bass", but I can dig the concept of SX with killer pickups. But I'm not sure what the cure of the "SX effect" might be short of replacing all the pickups.
 
#25
Yes, the SX-effect; I remember reading about it in the Chunger thread.

For a while I thought about replacing the pickups but didn't find many (any) direct drop-ins available other than the Carvins J99-somethings, which are cheap enough (about $55 a pop?) to justfy. I also thought of getting me a pickup winding machine from Stewmac to try out stuff myself.

I've decided to leave well enough alone. I bought this bass to see if 6 strings is something that I'd like (I do). Once I know more about what works and what doesn't and what type of music I want to play I'll probably just upgrade to a better overall instrument.

But for now my SX6 fretted is everything I need and more.
 
#26
PrietoBass said:
Yes, the SX-effect; I remember reading about it in the Chunger thread.

For a while I thought about replacing the pickups but didn't find many (any) direct drop-ins available other than the Carvins J99-somethings, which are cheap enough (about $55 a pop?) to justfy. I also thought of getting me a pickup winding machine from Stewmac to try out stuff myself.

I've decided to leave well enough alone. I bought this bass to see if 6 strings is something that I'd like (I do). Once I know more about what works and what doesn't and what type of music I want to play I'll probably just upgrade to a better overall instrument.

But for now my SX6 fretted is everything I need and more.
Click to expand...

By the way, THESE:

http://www.pure-tone.com/hippo-6-string-bass-pickups/

are supposed to be drop-in replacements for the SX 6er.

I'd love to find out if they are better or worse than factory. I've tried to order some, but my bank won't do Visa transactions anywhere in asia because of fraud, I sent a bank check but they sent it back because it cost too much to cash, and paypal simply tries to charge my credit card as a debit card (which it is not) and no money comes out. <sigh> No wonder the world economy is in the toilet when you are standing there trying to give away a fist full of money and nobody will take it.

So hey, try a pair and tell us what you think! :D
 
#29
bassbenj said:
By the way, THESE:

http://www.pure-tone.com/hippo-6-string-bass-pickups/

are supposed to be drop-in replacements for the SX 6er.

I'd love to find out if they are better or worse than factory. I've tried to order some, but my bank won't do Visa transactions anywhere in asia because of fraud, I sent a bank check but they sent it back because it cost too much to cash, and paypal simply tries to charge my credit card as a debit card (which it is not) and no money comes out. <sigh> No wonder the world economy is in the toilet when you are standing there trying to give away a fist full of money and nobody will take it.

So hey, try a pair and tell us what you think! :D
Click to expand...

I'm a sucker for the oversized pole pieces like ebmm.
 
#32
ThatCoolBassist said:
+1
I had an old stratocaster with a Super weak bridge pup. Slapped a piece of metal under there and man what a difference! Only cons, it increases the treble a wee too much for me.
Click to expand...

And traditionally wired Strats don't have a tone control on the bridge pickup which only makes the pickup brighter (since there is no loading of the tone control on the signal).
 
#39
Answer: Not glued They stick very tight!

By the way I noticed that some of my pictures no longer show. This was due to a slight name change at the server. (Need to add /Docs/ before bspam in Any URL

ThinNeo.jpg


AND

ThickNeo.jpg


And let me say that in my SX 6er fretless is keeping very good company. It is sitting in a row in my practice area with a G&L L2500 fretless, a Modulus Q6 fretted, and my Alembic fretless Epic 6. And I love each one equally well! Each for what they can do! Each one has tone to die for in it's own way!
 
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#40
Another semi-necro bump, but just wanted to say I stumbled on this thread recently, did the mod, and it came out great. Easy, cheap, and fixed the one issue I had with my SX 6: kind of anemic pickups. Had no issues with distortion etc. Worked exactly as described.

So a quick thanks to bassbenj for the original post, and a recommendation to anyone else out there with an SX 6 that wants to pump it up a bit.
 
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