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What happened with love for Villex pickups?
- Thread starter gricko
- Start date
I have a set in a fretless bass and I love them. I’ve tried to order some for a new build but I’ve been emailing every 6 or so months for the last 2 years and I’ve never gotten a response. Another luthier told me that they’re incredibly difficult to work with so he had to stop using them. It’s a shame because they’re great pickups.
i did write them mid-december 2020, received reply in few days asking for additional data, that i provided on the same day, and then nothing.
Sounds good, please let me know the string count and price please.
Absolutely, I have Villex pickups on my 10 string bass and all the other basses with their pickups sounded incredible, total shame that amazing sounding products are basically a PITA to order...
Sad to hear. Thanks for the update. Best wishes for his family.
that is just sad...
groundbreaking products aside, in what little we were communicating via phone and e-mail, he was very kind and thoughtful.
Yes, wonderful human being and innovator. It was always a pleasure to speak to William, and I was absolutely amazed by his designs! RIP Mr. Villex.
William’s (Villem) brother Karén, was involved in development and testing of the pickups. He is a professor of violin. I purchased this fretless p-bass from him that he and his brother routed for a prototype of their PJ pickup set. The pickups are lovely as you would expect, but it is the most resonant bass unplugged I have ever owned.
Karén is also a very kind.
When I purchased the bass, he met me in the parking lot of the hospital where my wife was in labor. We talked for too long. At some point a very angry nurse ran outside to fetch me. I hid the bass in the corner and was there with what I would consider AMPLE time to support my wife through the birth of my son. We stayed in the hospital for like a day with the baby, and mom was not mad about unplugged lullabies.
So my girls can have any of the other ones, but my son gets that bass.
Karén is also a very kind.
When I purchased the bass, he met me in the parking lot of the hospital where my wife was in labor. We talked for too long. At some point a very angry nurse ran outside to fetch me. I hid the bass in the corner and was there with what I would consider AMPLE time to support my wife through the birth of my son. We stayed in the hospital for like a day with the baby, and mom was not mad about unplugged lullabies.
So my girls can have any of the other ones, but my son gets that bass.
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haha, sorry, but I don’t think we get to determine what is ample time to support our wives through birthing our children. But I’m glad you got the bass and lived to tell the tale!
10ish years ago villex pickups were all the hype around here. based on that info i've ordered a pair, for a build that was supposed to start around that time, but [unfortunately] was not finished utill this summer, and pickups were not used all that time. was very surprised when that bass was tested/amplified/recorded recorded for the first time, few weeks ago.
anyway.... pure bliss... clean, loud, super defined... every detail clear. full of harmonics. super rich... both dry and through pedals and effects.
compared to stock warwick thumb and tobias growler with nordstrand big splitman.
difference is not huge, but is quite palpable. thumb and growler are probably going to be sold.
all three basses are four string, tuned BEAD with kalium [circle K] strings.
based on that experience, was wondering where did all that love for villex disappear?
pickups sound great. come in any shell/format/size available. communication with mr. villex was very clear, simple and drama free. was super helpfull with any-and-all questions i had, and i had quite a few.
at least from my point of view, they are all i could wish for....
Never heard of 'em....
Was there a lot of love for those pickups that has seemingly disappeared?
Very few pickup makers make it big, to me the most recent example is Nordstrand. I kinda missed the Villex hype wave, so I’m guessing a bit, but perhaps it was always more of a niche thing. Not sure how “big” Villex was outside Talkbass, but it was talked about for a period of time.
one story seems relatively common: the inability to grow, particularly from a one-man operation. As orders pile in, they can’t keep up and scale back (or demand dries up) and some even blow up. for example, around the time of Villex (or maybe just after) was the SGD hype wave, but that story ended up much more sadly.
other makers that kinda fit this pattern included Lane Poor and Q-Tuner. I don’t know their stories that well to comment, but both seem to have ended. Sometimes the product remains a niche thing - it seems like the demand for ultra clear and hi-fi pickups is not growing, which is the niche many of these folks operate(d) in.
I distinguish them from boutique makers that seem to persist for a long time, even if they don’t seem to grow much, such as the Lawrence family (Wilde). The old man is even the granddaddy of aftermarket pickups it seems (or so the story goes), but successfully cultivated a family business. Indeed, there’s even the failed partnership drama story with the other guy operating under the Bill Lawrence name.
The Armstrong family business is also an interesting case. They seem bigger than a “boutique family firm” given their international network, and yet I associate their name with the boutique market, probably largely to Kent’s US operations.
then there’s folks like Fralin, Lollar, etc, but I know their stories even less. They probably fall in the later camp, with Lawrences and Armstrongs tho…
They were a niche pickup for sure. IMO they really live up to the claim of behaving more like active pickups as far as tonal variety and output, while still being passive. They don’t distort, so some may not like that. The PJ set in my fretless P-bass honestly gets upright tones. Can also dial in Motown, funk, etc. they were neat tech from a cool inventor. His passive boosters and tone controls he made were really cool also.
majority is set in mainstream - P sound, J sound and MM sound. same goes for G world - singles or hums.
villex sound is none of these. clear, transparent and even across the board. w/ pronounced fundamentals. have too many highs for thump lovers and too many lows for pick'n'pop crowd.
then, again, i use 55pf/m [16pF/ft] cable to transfer signal as clean as possible out of an instrument.
my 2¢
14-15 years ago I played around a bit with a Jazz Bass assembled by a boutique builder in Portland that had a set of Villex J pickups in it that had my favorite aggressive J tone I think I’ve ever heard. A friend of mine visiting town actually bought the bass from the builder and so I got to jam on it for a night, but my friend returned it to the shop (it was an offer the builder made to audition it for a bit). I went back to buy it myself the next week (after debating the substantial cost with myself and winning/losing!) and it had been sold. Still haunts me to this day as I’ve never since bonded with another J bass like that. Would love to find a set of those pickups!
I think you really nailed it with your description. The pickups remind of hi-fi audio gear, clean fundamental tone; but it can pick up every harmonic quirk if you dial it in that way. Perfect for me in that fretless Precision. I don’t personally do pedals, but imagine it would be a perfect signal for post processing.
