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Won the Wal pickup on ebay!!!

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#541
Einstein built on the works of many physicists, as did Isaac Newton. As David pointed out, there are few totally new and wholly original ideas in magnetic pickups. The Lace pickups are interesting and unique. The Wal electronics wouldn't exist without Alembic paving the trail. This is merely one man building on the works that came before him.

KO

Added: At some point, no matter how brilliant the original thought, it needs to be opened up to the public domain for refinement and improvement. One could argue that ball bearings are a natural evolution of the wheel. Is it really in the best interests of human kind to have the destiny of one brilliant flash of inspiration be owned for perpetuity by one entity? I don't think so. Things need to be allowed to evolve.

Muaguana said:
This is the first time I looked at this thread and I gotta say... this is pretty messed up stuff. I mean, I know it's way too late to start lecturing now, but it just feels wrong. I hope the guys at Wal know about this and have some kind of agreement going on, because otherwise this is borderline thievery.:hmm:

Edit: Just to clarify, I'm referring more toward the OP than anyone else.
Click to expand...
 
#542
Additionally, the original Wal pickup had a specific internal wiring, one string's neck-most and bridge-most coil joined together, then onwards towards the preamp. There's no guarantee that's the most efficient wiring - even efficiency aside, maybe a different internal wiring would simply sound better.

What's happening in this thread is evolving the design, not just outright cloning - there've already been several bobbined and bobbinless designs and they each have their advantages and disadvantages. Not to mention the fact the Wal sound heavily depends on the preamp in the signal chain, and there's so many possible combinations here that one of these designs might really pop up as the next step in the evolution of that sound.

That said - MPU mated a Wal-oid pickup with a homemade SVF and that sounded excellent. I wonder how the Wal-oid'd sound with a Sabre or Stringray preamp in chain. Or even better - what about our very own TB11?
 
#543
Stealth said:
Additionally, the original Wal pickup had a specific internal wiring, one string's neck-most and bridge-most coil joined together, then onwards towards the preamp. There's no guarantee that's the most efficient wiring - even efficiency aside, maybe a different internal wiring would simply sound better.

What's happening in this thread is evolving the design, not just outright cloning - there've already been several bobbined and bobbinless designs and they each have their advantages and disadvantages. Not to mention the fact the Wal sound heavily depends on the preamp in the signal chain, and there's so many possible combinations here that one of these designs might really pop up as the next step in the evolution of that sound.

That said - MPU mated a Wal-oid pickup with a homemade SVF and that sounded excellent. I wonder how the Wal-oid'd sound with a Sabre or Stringray preamp in chain. Or even better - what about our very own TB11?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Wal has a humbucker for each string. The way that they connect those single string pickups together differs a little from the older Pro model to the newer filter preamp model.

So the one way is to have the row closest to the neck in series, and the row closest to the bridge in series, and then the two rows in parallel. That's how the Pro bass was wired. I think that's how MPU did his as well.

The newer basses have each string's pair of coils in series, and then all the string pairs in parallel. That's probably how I'm going to wire my version. But it would also be nice to be able to switch it to a split humbucker too. I'm trying to figure out a good connectivity option so there isn't too many wires coming out of it.

The part that's taking so long it making custom parts for it, but I'm well underway in that department.
 
#544
SGD Lutherie said:
So the one way is to have the row closest to the neck in series, and the row closest to the bridge in series, and then the two rows in parallel. That's how the Pro bass was wired. I think that's how MPU did his as well.

The newer basses have each string's pair of coils in series, and then all the string pairs in parallel. That's probably how I'm going to wire my version. But it would also be nice to be able to switch it to a split humbucker too. I'm trying to figure out a good connectivity option so there isn't too many wires coming out of it.
Click to expand...
Yes, I wired mine like those Pro basses. However now that you mentioned it I may take the pickup and wire it like the newer ones and find out what difference that makes.
If I understood correct each string will have a humbucking pair of coils and those pairs are then wired parallel. Right?
Marko
 
#547
My impression of my ND3 is that it's a "hi-fi" pickup, not a "character" pickup. Mine has got a lot of high end, so I'd think the "click" factor would be there. It's not at all anemic in the low end, but the low end isn't exaggerated. I would expect the Stingray pickup to exaggerate the low end to make up for the fact that's it's placed so close to the bridge.

I've got my ND3 on a coil switch. My preference and the preference of other bassists who've played it has been parallel mode. When I need more low end I simply switch to series mode. Oddly, I haven't really been called by single coil mode at all. Parallel mode has all the high end I want without the 60 cycle hum.

KO
 
#549
opiate said:
Can the ND3 produce a good stingray(ish) tone? Ive hears one sample so far and its pretty okay but it doesent have the click...
Click to expand...

It's a much fuller sounding pickup than a Stingray. But I have the 2-band Stingray preamp in my Ibanez with Nd3 Neo Jazzbuckers, and with the treble cranked it definitely has that 'Ray vibe.

Parallel would help too, but I never use parallel on my own personal basses.
 
#551
SGD Lutherie said:
The newer basses have each string's pair of coils in series, and then all the string pairs in parallel.
Click to expand...
I wired my five-string pickup this way just before hitting the road for Christmas. Output is a lot lower, but that's not a problem with the SVF pre as it has adjustable gain. The sound is quite a bit clearer with maybe a bit less lows. It still has strong lows so I guess I'm keeping it wired this way. Total resistance of the pup is around 1kOhm wired this way compared to almost 20kOhms wired five in series/rows in series.
Marko
 
#552
MPU said:
I wired my five-string pickup this way just before hitting the road for Christmas. Output is a lot lower, but that's not a problem with the SVF pre as it has adjustable gain. The sound is quite a bit clearer with maybe a bit less lows. It still has strong lows so I guess I'm keeping it wired this way. Total resistance of the pup is around 1kOhm wired this way compared to almost 20kOhms wired five in series/rows in series.
Marko
Click to expand...

I'm going to try and offer the pickup so it can wired both ways. I'm just trying to not have a slew of wires coming out....
 
#553
SGD Lutherie said:
I'm going to try and offer the pickup so it can wired both ways. I'm just trying to not have a slew of wires coming out....
Click to expand...

There sure is a lot of wires behind the pickup. At the moment only three makes their way to the control cavity. I've cast my pickup with casting urethane so that the magnets and wiring can be changed. The next one will be cast full so that only the wires come out of it.
Marko
 
#558
I just finished my take on five-string Wal-style pickup. 10 coils with steel poles, laminated steel keeper bars, ceramic magnets, custom made cast plastic MM5-sized (48mm x 101mm) cover with 17mm string spacing.
DSCN3150.jpg

The prototype with different ( but same size) cover is available if someone is interested.
Marko
 
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