Pickups for Aluminum Archtop Bass?

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AL	Pickups for Aluminum Archtop Bass?		Lead	[-]
Posts: 2 Mon, Jun 8, 2009 03:58:54	Tags : None Hey Folks, I'm building myself an aluminum archtop bass inspired by Normandy's recent release. I expect the tone to be bright & liveley enough that I can use flatwounds without them sounding dull. I will use a two pickup system. Can anyone recommend some pickups from Bill's catalogue? My friend Marc used EB50's in his Hohner Stein-copy renovation.
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gatguy		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 435 Mon, Jun 8, 2009 04:35:42 Contributing Silver Member	Hi Lasty and welcome to the forum! Is this like what you are building? http://www.normandyguitars.com/bass/index.htm Are you after a particular pickup format? e.g. hums, P, J, P/J? What will your neck be made of? Are you more after versatility or are you going for a particular type of tone/musical style?
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AL		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 3 Mon, Jun 8, 2009 05:29:47	Hey Gatguy, Yeah, at the moment I'm making the nature-identical version of that Normandy body. I'll borrow the neck of my Tacoma Thunderchief (Mahogony?Rosewood) to trial the bass. If it sounds OK I'll make a dedicated neck. I currently have a teak wood, headless, neck-through with a single Bill P pickup that sounds quite middy. For this new one I'm thinking a pair of humbuckers to give a filthy bottom end but I'm open to suggestion. Musical aspirations lean toward rock, R&B, blues.
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gatguy		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 438 Thu, Jun 11, 2009 06:11:38 Contributing Silver Member	Hellooooooo! Can anyone update us on bass hums available? EB50s? I remember Hands posting something about a new bass pup based on the L90. Is this in production yet? Has anybody tried it? Or must AL stick with the P/J offerings? Thanks
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fuzzy beard		#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1861 Thu, Jun 11, 2009 20:44:30 Contrib. Gold Charter Member Wilde Tech	Hi gatuy, EB50s are history. Afaik, I bought the last three ones ...so at the moment, J45 and P46 seem to be the only BL alternatives. I do not have any information about L-90 based bass pickups, but Hands might know
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handsplayingbutterfly		#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 304 Sat, Jun 13, 2009 09:32:40 Bronze Member	That's a very good question! I actually don't know, haven't asked in a while. Bill's been a busy man with his upcoming lines. I'll keep you guys updated if I hear anything. I'd like to throw in a good word for the J-45s. I've enjoyed them even more than before since I upgraded my amp to a Genz Benz ShuttleMAX 12.0 from an Eden WT-400. Beautiful clear tones! I could never find another Jazz bass pickup that comes even close to it.
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AL		#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 4 Mon, Jun 15, 2009 22:21:32	Thanks Hands, I bought a set of J45's & I'll plug them in this weekend. I strung the Ally Bass up for an acoustic test last night & it sounds sweet. I'll let you know what the J'45s sound like.
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fuzzy beard		#7	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1867 Wed, Jun 17, 2009 19:51:59 Contrib. Gold Charter Member Wilde Tech	That's one great looking bass
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handsplayingbutterfly		#8	[url]	[-]
Posts: 307 Wed, Jun 17, 2009 20:55:28 Bronze Member	Looks very nice! I wish I had a chance to try out an aluminum instrument.
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AL		#9	[url]	[-]
Posts: 5 Mon, Jun 22, 2009 10:19:05	First flight of the Bull Goose Bass last Sunday. J45's sound lovely; surprisingly warm & rich in this instrument. I strung it with D'Addario half rounds but I reckon it will cope well with brighter strings. I'll play it out in a fortnight's time with the Dark Beaks.
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fuzzy beard		#10	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1875 Mon, Jun 22, 2009 18:48:50 Contrib. Gold Charter Member Wilde Tech	Great looking bass!! Is it a flat top? Is it loud enough for small, unplugged performances? Regarding the electronics, the L-45 is a great pickup....I guess the shielding is passable
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AL		#11	[url]	[-]
Posts: 6 Mon, Jun 22, 2009 21:05:19	Cheers Fuzzy, I'm well stoked. It is slightly arched, 2" thick around the edges & 2 3/8" in the middle. A subtle compound curve. The back is flat. It is way too thin to have decent acoustic volume, just enough to play along with a quiet CD for practise. Surprisingly it showed no inclination for feedback at stage volume. Yes, it is blissfully quiet 'till you hit a string. I bought 250k mini pots before reading Bill's advice to the contrary, will this inhibit some brightness from the pickup's tone?
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fuzzy beard		#12	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1879 Tue, Jun 23, 2009 20:34:34 Contrib. Gold Charter Member Wilde Tech	>will this inhibit some brightness from the pickup's tone?< Just a bit. I've used both 250k and 500k pots with L-45s, and both values fit fine. High inductance cables have a much bigger impact on sound than 250k pots. I've even installed a 100k tone pot for a customer with - IMHO - a very passable result. It was a little duller, but had a more even taper.
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gatguy		#13	[url]	[-]
Posts: 440 Tue, Jun 23, 2009 22:34:51 Contributing Silver Member	Fuzzy, did you mean J-45s? Either way, the difference between 500K and 250K pots can be illustrated with both L-45s and J-45s. I was just wondering if the difference in highs might be more noticable on a bass? To open up their sound even more, some people go for 1000K pots (one or more of the pots). But, generally, BL pickups are very open sounding with 250 or 500K pots.
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fuzzy beard		#14	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1880 Wed, Jun 24, 2009 09:24:49 Contrib. Gold Charter Member Wilde Tech	eh..J-45, not L-45 this time With BL, the differences between 250 and 500k pots are not big with eighter bass or guitar. I use 1M pots for tone controls only...usually when it's mostly used for tone swells a'la wah wah. The only guitars I can recall that works well with 1M pots is the Jazzmaster and Jaguar. By the way, gatguy, have you heard from nocaster lately ?
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gatguy		#15	[url]	[-]
Posts: 441 Thu, Jun 25, 2009 00:32:43 Contributing Silver Member	By the way, gatguy, have you heard from nocaster lately ? Hi Fuzzy! No, I haven't. Are you there, Nocaster? Do you still run the FIB? I can't imagine that it runs by itself. It would be great to read some posts from you again.
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nocaster		#16	[url]	[-]
Posts: 19360 Thu, Aug 6, 2009 01:16:38 The Big FIBer	http://guitarsbyfender.yuku.com/topic/10233 i feel the weight of the world on my shoulder; as i'm gettin older ya'll people gets colder most of us only care about money-makin; selfishness got us followin the wrong direction wrong information always shown by the media; negative images is the main criteria infecting the [people's] minds faster than bacteria; [peeps] wanna act like what they see in the cinema
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fuzzy beard		#17	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1938 Thu, Aug 6, 2009 09:32:37 Contrib. Gold Charter Member Wilde Tech	Hi nocaster, you're back :-D
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bkief1		#18	[url]	[-]
Posts: 782 Thu, Aug 6, 2009 20:28:07 Contributing Palladium Member	Indeed...it is good to hear from Nocaster again! I've heard that New Zealanders don't go away...
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