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warming up emgs

#41
22pauld22 said:
Hey A9x i'll let ya know when its all finally set up and you can come over and try em out if you want too its your old aggie that will end up in it first off might go an obp3 in the end if I feel the need .. Hey I grabbed that status series one off ebay a few weeks back .. now thats what active pickups should sound like

hey I'm not sure if your a slapper mate (boom tish) but they have a great slapping tone
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Cheers I will.
Which Status?
 
#42
This is the one (status series1 wooden neck with graphite rods) 140175506521 not sure if I paid too much but I really wanted it and it ended up being in great nic .. it had had a refret not long back and there isn't much wear on them, the finish is great also .. so i coudlnt' be happier ..

as far as the ssb5's .. hooked both pickups up today and drilled through and put my earth wire through to the bridge (scarey) and put the copper sheilding in and a couple of volume pots ..
thats as far as I've gotten so far but still all smiles .. still very jazz bass sounding as far as I'm concerned .. very nice highs and tonnes of bass the B string really shakes stuff now and with much more definition than the emgs .. I guess I'd say presence in the b that I never heard with the emgs and no i didn't put new strings on when I put the pickups in .. oh and really quiet now the proper bridge earth wire is through

let you know what its like when I put the obp in
 
#44
Brettt Maaaaate .. I played something very similar to your bass years ago I think at the bass player .. thats why I wanted a status

very sharp looking indeed .. gotta love status styling

spare pesos .. I'll be on 5 minute noodles for a while because of this one

I should have the godin going strong by sometime next week .. I'll let ya know
 
#45
Maple and EMGs are going to be sterile. If you have a sound you want, try the wood you want first. Find a bass that has that sound you are looking for wood wise, Then use the pickups to annunciate rather than compensate. I wanted to warm up the pickup in my maple/wenge Warwick, and did so by buying a jazz bass ;)
 
#46
yeah I half agree with you there .. I have had all maple basses before and you could say they were bright (although this one has a wosewood fingerboard so not all maple).. you could also say they lack any form of muddiness .. or that they articulate very clearly .. which I love .. with the new pickups the bass is still very bright .. but it also has great mids and really present bass .. no note is missed because of the brightness of the bass itself but I have also lost the EMG sound .. which I realise is a certain sound that I don't appreciate ... so I see it has changing out an engine I didn't like in a car I love rather than just going out and buying a whole new car .. I could have gotten a whole new bass .. but I love the feel of this one so don't see a reason to get rid of it just because I don't like emgs :) I could have ended up with a bass I loved the sound of but hated the feel of .. anyway I am now very happy .. and will be more so if I ever get the chance to put the pre in .... so after that long winded rant .. maple .. I have the wood I like .. did you keep your warwick ? if not then you weren't a maple guy I guess .. if you kept it, you wanted both which is also way cool
 
#47
22pauld22 said:
yeah I half agree with you there .. I have had all maple basses before and you could say they were bright (although this one has a wosewood fingerboard so not all maple).. you could also say they lack any form of muddiness .. or that they articulate very clearly .. which I love .. with the new pickups the bass is still very bright .. but it also has great mids and really present bass .. no note is missed because of the brightness of the bass itself but I have also lost the EMG sound .. which I realise is a certain sound that I don't appreciate ...
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This is true. Maple is bright, but it has a very smooth top end.

My basses have cherry bodies (similar to maple in weight), with a purpleheart lamination between the back and top. My main bass has a birdseye maple top. The set necks are maple and purpleheart, with a phenolic (ebonol) fingerboard, and graphite.

So we have all the ingredients here for a bright bass, but it's actually very smooth sounding, not like a maple bolt on, which would have that bright attack.

The issue with EMG's is they have their own sound, and that's not the sound of the bass. It works well with some basses, and not with others. Since they have a kind of EQ'd tone, they might make some basses sound harsh.

On my fretless, the single DC in the MM "sweet spot" sounded great, but the same pickup in the typical Jazz Bass bridge position on my other basses sounded harsh and brittle.

New pickups can make a big difference!
 
#48
DavidRavenMoon said:
This is true. Maple is bright, but it has a very smooth top end.

My basses have cherry bodies (similar to maple in weight), with a purpleheart lamination between the back and top. My main bass has a birdseye maple top. The set necks are maple and purpleheart, with a phenolic (ebonol) fingerboard, and graphite.

So we have all the ingredients here for a bright bass, but it's actually very smooth sounding, not like a maple bolt on, which would have that bright attack.

The issue with EMG's is they have their own sound, and that's not the sound of the bass. It works well with some basses, and not with others. Since they have a kind of EQ'd tone, they might make some basses sound harsh.

On my fretless, the single DC in the MM "sweet spot" sounded great, but the same pickup in the typical Jazz Bass bridge position on my other basses sounded harsh and brittle.

New pickups can make a big difference!
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In my opinion, the DC is a FANTASTIC pickup but ONLY in the "Stingray" sweet spot - as mentioned above, in BRIDGE position it is harsh city. Thing is, the DC was designed with Modulus specifically for their sweet spot Stingray style bass they brought pout in the early 90s (got this directly from EMG and Modulus) and is eq'd to give that Stingray sound without onboard EQ. WQorked GREAT for me in my Yamaha BBN5 bass in that position - people thought it was a Stingray 5. But in other piositions, yuck....

I also agree that EMGs, compared to most pickups (especially PASSIVE ones) sound roughly the same in most basses...subtly different based on construction, but mostly the same...which is great if you like that sound, bad if you want the sound of a particular bass....

Jamie
 
#49
Here's my opinion on pickups...

a good, strong, bright sounding pickup can be mellowed with a bit of EQ MUCH more effectively than a dark sounding pickup can be "lightened" with EQ.

In other words, IMO, I can do something with EMG's if they're too bright. But I'd be hard pressed to get an effective tone from a set of Barts if they were too dark.

Just my 2 cents...
 
#50
PilbaraBass said:
Here's my opinion on pickups...

a good, strong, bright sounding pickup can be mellowed with a bit of EQ MUCH more effectively than a dark sounding pickup can be "lightened" with EQ.

In other words, IMO, I can do something with EMG's if they're too bright. But I'd be hard pressed to get an effective tone from a set of Barts if they were too dark.
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In my experience (similar to DavidRavenMoon's) I found the EMG DCs to have a harsh sound no matter what I did with EQ. It don't think it is just a matter of bright or dark. The Lane Poor M3.5Ws I installed as replacements aren't harsh at all, yet they are clearer in the highs and deeper in the lows than the DCs. It seems to me that the EMG brittleness has more to do with the pickup design itself, perhaps having something to do with the onboard preamp.
 
#51
Jamie_Funk said:
In my opinion, the DC is a FANTASTIC pickup but ONLY in the "Stingray" sweet spot - as mentioned above, in BRIDGE position it is harsh city. Thing is, the DC was designed with Modulus specifically for their sweet spot Stingray style bass they brought pout in the early 90s (got this directly from EMG and Modulus) and is eq'd to give that Stingray sound without onboard EQ.
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Yep, I was told that directly from Doug Marhoffer himself when I met the guys from EMG at the '95 A.S.I.A. Symposium. I told him on my basses it was too "chirpy" at the bridge position, and he said "oh no, it's not made to go there, it's made for the MM spot".

It is made to sound like a Music Man bass right out of the box.


12bass said:
In my experience (similar to DavidRavenMoon's) I found the EMG DCs to have a harsh sound no matter what I did with EQ. It don't think it is just a matter of bright or dark. The Lane Poor M3.5Ws I installed as replacements aren't harsh at all, yet they are clearer in the highs and deeper in the lows than the DCs. It seems to me that the EMG brittleness has more to do with the pickup design itself, perhaps having something to do with the onboard preamp.
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I agree.. I would try drastic EQ to warm up the DC and take the edge off, and it was always there. It's the resonant peak of the pickup.

It also doesn't extend very low, which is part of the reason it's hard to get a lot of tones from it. But if you want a god biting MM tone, it will do that in spades.

Here was an example I recorded. I wanted to compare the tone of a DC and one of my first pickups on the same bass, so I recorded the DC and then swapped out the pickup and recorded that. They are both running though an EMG BTC. All EQ was flat.

They were installed on a cherry body/zebrawood top bass in a position somewhere between a MM and Jazz bridge pickup.

You can hear that the DC is more EQ'd sounding and doesn't go as deep. The top end is more brittle sounding.

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#52
Well I'll see soon. I just ordered a pair of EMG HBCS for the XL2. I'll probably take the pre out and just run it with a passive loom and trad type tone control. I got an exceptional quote for them, so I took a gamble.
 
#53
Hey Brett .. whats it like out there on that limb .. two emg cs' for your stieny huh ..
so what was the exceptional quote ? I think you can get some good prices on CS' at the moment because everyone is spending the few extra dollars and getting the tw's

still haven't put that pre in but I have everything here at work today so hopefully it will all be done bar the shouting by tonight and the ssb's will be ready for a proper audition

I won't tell you what I thought of the bridge cs I had until you check them out .. they might go well with the graphite
 
#54
Hey Paul, I was concerned about getting the Villex as there is little depth in the body due to the spine on the XL2. The HBCS are special ordered with a cable out rather than a push on connector, so I reckon these are about the only option for this instrument unless I get something custom made. If I still don't like them enough, and reports from the Steinberger user's group seem positive, then I'll throw them in the Hohner B2 and try. Should be able to move them on the SOG of worst comes to worst. Price was under what Hydes charge for a pair of std EMG's, on special. I'm thinking the vintage type tone control will better tame any HF issues.

TW's won't fit in the case according to EMG tech.
 
#55
ahhh fair enough then if thats all you can fit off the rack and as far as I've read the reviews are mixed on the tw's .. I think the cs aren't that bad on the HF to tell ya the truth out of the emgs .. I was actually thinking that the graphite might pump a bit of life into them .. I really liked them for a little chordal work as they made my bass sound quite a bit like a jazz guitar .. didn't have the bootey that I wanted for a bass line though in the godin anyway..

sadly the obp won't fit in the godin without different pots or a chisel..
so thats a no goer for today

I'll pm you my mobile number I'm home most of the week through the day next week come over and check out the basslines in the godin and the new status if you have some spare time

sadly I only have a ****** practice amp through a 210 at present (waiting for my bass head to arrive) but it doesn't sound too bad
 
#56
A9X said:
Well I'll see soon. I just ordered a pair of EMG HBCS for the XL2.
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Those are probably closer to the original HB-SS than the current HB, since the original SS had a steel plate on the inside.

Here's one of the very original Overlend EMG pickups they used in the L series. Not sure what it sounds like on a bass, but it makes a good guitar pickup.

Overlend_EMG.jpg
 
#57
DavidRavenMoon said:
Those are probably closer to the original HB-SS than the current HB, since the original SS had a steel plate on the inside.

Here's one of the very original Overlend EMG pickups they used in the L series. Not sure what it sounds like on a bass, but it makes a good guitar pickup.

Overlend_EMG.jpg
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That seems to be the consensus on the Steinberger Yahoo group, and why I jumped. If after a couple of months they still don't do it for me, I should be able to move them on and try a custom.
 

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