Totally...while they are not zingy like a narrow aperture single coil (J pups) and have a nice low-mid bump, they still have plenty of highs, more so than my Nordy NJ4SE in the bridge of my P-bass. The first Barts that I liked.
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Won the Wal pickup on ebay!!!
- Thread starter WarriorJoe7
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Totally...while they are not zingy like a narrow aperture single coil (J pups) and have a nice low-mid bump, they still have plenty of highs, more so than my Nordy NJ4SE in the bridge of my P-bass. The first Barts that I liked.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
I'm hoping to have the prototype finished this week.
These wont fit in the EMG form factor though. But I have some real nice EMG sized pickups available already.
They get a good Tool type tone too.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
Here's the chart from the interview in July 2007 Bass Player. They show the Wal's XLR going to the Demeter preamp, and the Wal's 1/4" jack going to the pedal board. From the pedal board the signal is split (post effects, and he has a lot of them) to the RAT/EQ/GK rig with 4X12, and the other side is the clean amp send to the other GK with 8X10.
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One thing I want to point out is that unlike a real Wal pickup, I'm going to allow for different combinations of coils, so you can switch between the humbucking and say a split configuration, for example.
That's the plan anyway.
some of that info is wrong... especially that pedal board line up.... the splitter doesnt come at the end, it comes at teh beginning..... but check out this pick...
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
How would that work? He's splitting the signal from his effects to two amps. Or does he run effects only into one amp?
Where the splitter is on the board has nothing to do with the signal chain.
An observation; having owned a Wal for 25 years, or so, one thing that strikes me as odd is how dull the pickups sound without the 'pick attack' boost. They have depth and juicy midrange but almost no treble. But the preamp works in perfect harmony with the pickups so I suppose the danger is if they are separated you just won't achieve that distinctive Wal sound as the two things evolved together in a symbiosis.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
They do end up being very overwound when everything is in series... about 20K! I'm assuming the newer basses with the low pass filters don't have the pick attack switch... can someone verify that?
I was thinking of putting it in and also the mid boost along with the filters.
I did try the pickup out passively, and it's a rather dark sounding pickup. It had big fat lows and mids. The highs were there, but not super bright.
Running each string to its own buffer would definitely fix that too.
They all had the pick attack from the custom models onwards. I wouldn't play the Wal if it didn't have this feature - it would sound too dark.
it used to be justin would split the signal from the bass whammy.... so, a clean signal in, the wet would go into his effects chain then into an amp, and the dry would go into the rat and EQ then into another amp... but according to that pic of the new pedal set up, there is only one output from the bass whammy... but there seems to be two outputs from the tuner, so thats probably where hes splitting it now...
but thats how it goes... clean signal into the rat, and eq then into an amp, then the rest of the board into another amp...
then the clean clean DI into the PA
David -
On the subject of the 'pick attack' feature it's probably worth trying to find out exactly what frequency is boosted together with the Q as it's such an important element of the sound. To my ears it sounds around 3k - 6k. The db is adjustable from within the preamp.
I've tried to get info on it before, but come up with nothing.
On the subject of the 'pick attack' feature it's probably worth trying to find out exactly what frequency is boosted together with the Q as it's such an important element of the sound. To my ears it sounds around 3k - 6k. The db is adjustable from within the preamp.
I've tried to get info on it before, but come up with nothing.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
OK, cool. I have the schematic for the pro bass preamp. That was the one with the passive tone controls. It's a very interesting circuit... the tone controls actually changed the input impedance, as did the mid boosts for each pickup. The pick attack was on the output stage after the pickups were mixed together.
My idea is to take that circuit and add low pass filters for each pickup, but leave the mid boosts and pick attack.
Here's an update on the pickup. After some trial and error, I found the "magic number" for winding the coils, and I have half of them wound now, so I should have it finished tomorrow. There's some more assembly to do, and then I'll have a working prototype to try out.
I also read somewhere, not sure where, that pulling up on the low pass filter knobs boosts the cutoff frequency. Can't cite a source though.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
Yes, that's true. I'm going to do a variable Q knob instead of the preset.
some of that info is wrong... especially that pedal board line up.... the splitter doesnt come at the end, it comes at teh beginning..... but check out this pick...
Wondering what the white pedal with 4 knobs after the boss EQ is...
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