Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: KR on January 30, 2023, 03:48:59 PM
-
I've re-installed the new full set of pickups that Mica sent to me a couple of years ago when my '77 Series bridge pickup died. She and Ron thought I should just replace pickups both for consistency. I've found another '77 bridge unit since then to replace the dead one, so I've been playing it with a full stock vintage pickup set installed. It sounds great, and nothing wrong with the sound. But, I just heard a past live recording on a cell phone captured back when the new pickup set Mica sent to me was in the bass, and I gotta say that the new units are pretty amazing in the mix. Definitely aggressive and rocking-sounding. So of course I put them back in, and wow, lot's of detail and power coming from the modern set. I wanted to stay true to the '77 vibe with the older original pickups, but I'm happier with the bigger and beefier sound of the newer set. There's a lot more information coming out of the newer set, to my ears. My current custom build will have Fatboys, and I bet they are pretty close to what I'm hearing from these modern Series pickups.
-
Fat is where it's at... and that's all I got to say about that. 8)
-
Well, thanks to you I'm getting Fatboys. Fat is good.
-
My current build has Fatboys as well. Need to find some Fatboys that are MXY56 size.
-
The Series I/II magnet will not fit in an MXY mold. I did have a small number of _almost_ FatBoy MXY pickups I offered a while ago - not sure if I still have any of those kicking around, but I will check. That's the best you're gonna do, plus I'm not going to make those anymore because the coils really are too big for the molds.
-
Ah. If I really wanted to use the Fatboys I could route the pickup cavity to accommodate the AXY56 pickups.
I forgot to write that my 77 bass had the bridge pickup replaced in the mid 80's. I haven't noticed a considerable difference in tone besides the placement. I wonder when the changes you noticed were made in the design.
-
I have a pair of early 70s caramel pickups and those sound very different to my ear. They are low impedance (resistance is about 700 ohms) and they have a deepness with clarity to them that I don't find in the newer ones. However, they are unreliable, so I am happily playing with a new set and the tone gets great reviews from everyone. At some point, I'd like to get some new low impedance pickups.
I've never heard an Alembic pickup I didn't like and have them in several non-Alembic basses.