When I discovered the Korean made ($85) all metal fully adjustable bass bridges with individual piezo pickups in each saddle, I had Eric's Guitar replace on my solid body bass ukes, and now on my violin/Hofner knockoffs, the semi adjustable wood bridge with a piezo pickup assembly that had unbalanced output, which I had to fix too often. Being piezo, the new bridges also allowed me to use the same flatwound nylon core strings.
Those new bridges started out fine, but as I bought more, one or another of the saddle pickups was unbalanced and Eric had to scavenge a saddle from a donor I had to buy, which was a pain for him. I looked for alternatives and could only find the GraphTech Ghost piezo HipShot bridge ($245, and looks very much like the Korean), I ordered two, but both of them had an unbalanced saddle. Both Eric and I tried to make them work, but no go, which was very frustrating.
I then asked Eric if a magnetic pickup can be used, like on a real Hofner. He immediately said, "Yes, much better way to go." I asked if that would be a problem with the preamp, nope, he said. I ordered from Amazon mini humbuckers ($20). As I waited for them, it occurred to me that when Eric converted a small scale electric guitar to a small bass, the flatwound nylon core strings did not have enough metal, so not enough volume output. I had to have Pyramid custom make 23" scale all metal flatwounds.
I contacted Pyramid to put in another order, but their reply was delayed. In that delay, Eric installed the magnetic pickup with the nylon core strings, and to both of our surprise, they picked up perfectly fine. Apparently the mini humbuckers are hotter than any of the existing pickups in the guitar conversions.
He's done two of the Hofner style bass ukes, and I have two more with bad bridges, a Korean and a GraphTech, plus I have four more new bass ukes that will get a magnetic pup right from the start. Only if or when any of the other Korean bridges go bad will they get a magnetic pup.
Those new bridges started out fine, but as I bought more, one or another of the saddle pickups was unbalanced and Eric had to scavenge a saddle from a donor I had to buy, which was a pain for him. I looked for alternatives and could only find the GraphTech Ghost piezo HipShot bridge ($245, and looks very much like the Korean), I ordered two, but both of them had an unbalanced saddle. Both Eric and I tried to make them work, but no go, which was very frustrating.
I then asked Eric if a magnetic pickup can be used, like on a real Hofner. He immediately said, "Yes, much better way to go." I asked if that would be a problem with the preamp, nope, he said. I ordered from Amazon mini humbuckers ($20). As I waited for them, it occurred to me that when Eric converted a small scale electric guitar to a small bass, the flatwound nylon core strings did not have enough metal, so not enough volume output. I had to have Pyramid custom make 23" scale all metal flatwounds.
I contacted Pyramid to put in another order, but their reply was delayed. In that delay, Eric installed the magnetic pickup with the nylon core strings, and to both of our surprise, they picked up perfectly fine. Apparently the mini humbuckers are hotter than any of the existing pickups in the guitar conversions.
He's done two of the Hofner style bass ukes, and I have two more with bad bridges, a Korean and a GraphTech, plus I have four more new bass ukes that will get a magnetic pup right from the start. Only if or when any of the other Korean bridges go bad will they get a magnetic pup.
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