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Won the Wal pickup on ebay!!!

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#481
Just curious if you've got a timeline on when these might be available.

I'll be ordering a custom four banger within the next couple months and would love to spec it out with this pre/pickups combo, especially if the pickups would be in a traditional Wal sized case.
 
#482
Jared Lash said:
Just curious if you've got a timeline on when these might be available.

I'll be ordering a custom four banger within the next couple months and would love to spec it out with this pre/pickups combo, especially if the pickups would be in a traditional Wal sized case.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping to have the pickups ready by the end of the month. The preamp should be ready shortly after that.
 
#483
The redesigning of the Sidewinder J pickups is probably taking precedence over these right now (which I don't mind, because I have a Jazz Bass, and definitely want to get a set when they're ready), but I may as well bump this up, because I'm interested in the progress of these anyway. Also wondering if there will at some point possibly be a version of the preamp which will fit in a three-knob Jazz Bass control cover (since I'm not sure it's been discussed how many knobs/switches the finished preamp will have).
 
#484
WaskoDS said:
The redesigning of the Sidewinder J pickups is probably taking precedence over these right now (which I don't mind, because I have a Jazz Bass, and definitely want to get a set when they're ready), but I may as well bump this up, because I'm interested in the progress of these anyway. Also wondering if there will at some point possibly be a version of the preamp which will fit in a three-knob Jazz Bass control cover (since I'm not sure it's been discussed how many knobs/switches the finished preamp will have).
Click to expand...

No, actually the Sidewinder Js are on hold for the moment, while I get a slight backlog of orders done. The Wal clone is farther along, but I have to address some things about the covers and the actual construction. I have to build them slightly different to make them fit into Musicman style covers, which right now is the only cover I can get that's close to the right size. But the pickup is much taller than the cover.

So I'm hoping to have this project wrapped up soon.

There will be two versions of the preamp, a single and dual channel version. The dual channel version will have a volume, buffered blend, and a low pass filter frequency knob for each pickup. When you pull up on the filter knob, it gives a boost at the resonant frequency. The amount of boost is set with an internal trim pot.

The single channel version has volume, pan and a single filter knob.

Also pulling up on the volume knob engages the "pick attack" treble boost.

I've recently made the first neo sidewinder that I'm happy with, and the Jazz pickups look like a good candidate for updating to the neo version. This is because the neo magnets are smaller, so I can cram everything into the Jazz cover more easily.

So once I get the full size neo sidewinders working the way I want, the Jazz pickups will be next.

It's tricky finding time to do R&D and make pickups at the same time, but I'm plugging along. :D
 
#485
SGD Lutherie said:
The dual channel version will have a volume, buffered blend, and a low pass filter frequency knob for each pickup. When you pull up on the filter knob, it gives a boost at the resonant frequency. The amount of boost is set with an internal trim pot.

Also pulling up on the volume knob
engages the "pick attack" treble boost.
Click to expand...

Okay, now you have my attention...
I only wish you could put them in a standard EMG DC housing.
 
#487
Funny that I've spent the last few days trying to figure out how to design an 8 coil humbucker and just discovered this.... :D
What I think understand is that the more coils a pickup has, the more clarity and cleaner the sound will be, right...? I really don't know much about pickup design or output other than the more wound it is, the higher the output. What I am really wondering however, is if it would be possible to make an 8 coil passive pickup that could be wired either straight to the jack, or wired with a simple V/T configuration. I figure with all the knowledge about pickups in this thread one of you guys might have an answer for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(sorry for the long post and thread jack)
:bassist:
 
#488
FrankenIbanez70 said:
Funny that I've spent the last few days trying to figure out how to design an 8 coil humbucker and just discovered this.... :D
What I think understand is that the more coils a pickup has, the more clarity and cleaner the sound will be, right...? I really don't know much about pickup design or output other than the more wound it is, the higher the output. What I am really wondering however, is if it would be possible to make an 8 coil passive pickup that could be wired either straight to the jack, or wired with a simple V/T configuration. I figure with all the knowledge about pickups in this thread one of you guys might have an answer for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(sorry for the long post and thread jack)
:bassist:
Click to expand...

This type of pickup works fine passive. It actually has a lot of wire on each coil as far as the number of turns. The whole thing comes to about 19.5k in series, which is how it was wired on the passive Wal basses. You would think that would sound like mud, but it doesn't. It's thick and bright at the same time.

On the active basses each string has two coils in series, and then the four (or five) strings are connected in parallel, so that would due about 2k for the whole pickup, which is similar to a Musicman pickup.

I've tested the real Wal pickup wired right up to a jack.

This was a couple of quick and dirty sound clips I made. The pickup was installed on a 5 string bass, so not all the strings lined up. The bass had a lot of fret buzz too because the strings were too low.

Link Removed

Link Removed
 
#490
Stealth said:
How exactly does that pickup not get muddy at such a high DC resistance? Is it the (relatively) low inductance and narrow aperture of each individual coil?
Click to expand...

Low inductance and capacitance of the multiple small coils.

Bartolini started out making pickups with a coil for each string. They still do too, in models like the Bartolini 9W-5J. In one of his patent applications, Bill Bartolini wrote:

Above the resonant frequency, the impedance is influenced by the capacitive effects between turns of the coil and between layers in the coil winding. Specifically, the changing current in one turn of the coil influences the current in the neighboring turns of the coil. This effect becomes larger with increasing frequency such that the coil behaves as a capacitive reactance with turn-to-turn capacitive leakage to ground. Accordingly, the output signal from the sensing coils falls off rapidly above the self-resonant frequency.

Since both the inductance and capacitance of a sensing coil vary linearly with its mean radius, replacing one coil by multiple small coils can reduce the impedance of the pickup system by a factor equal to the number of coils and raise the self-resonant frequency by a factor equal to the square root of the number of coils.
Click to expand...
 
#496
fourstringbliss said:
I'm guessing that since it's taller than a typical MM pickup it would require deeper pickup routes, right?
Click to expand...

wal_vs_mm.jpg


I'm planning on doing a lower profile pickup also.
 
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