AXY pickups

[nathanpatoubass]

Hi Alembic team
The bridge pick up of my Serie 2 (from 82) has been replaced by the previous owner: the problem is that it's not exactly the same pickup in terms of finish : the original Embossed finish has been replaced by a Gold Script finish. The bass has now an embossed finish NECK pick up and and Gold script finish BRIDGE pickup.


In order to get the same finish on the 2 pickup I will need to replace one. I've seen on ebay Germany someone who is selling an Alembic pick up but he's not sure about the type (he thinks that it's a AXY but he's not sure). I supposed that a serie 2 is equiped with SC1 pickups.  I need to know if the pickup are specific according to their location on the bass guitar i.e. : do a neck pick up can replace a bridge pick up (and vice versa) or each pick up is specific to a location on the bass ?


Thanks in advance for your support.
Franck S

[hammer]

If it's an AXY the person is selling you do not want to buy it or place it in a Series bass that has single coil pickups. The AXYs are not single coil.

[nathanpatoubass]

Hi hammer
The seller is not sure about the pick up he s selling. While he s investigating, I need  to check if pick up are interchangeable on the série 2. Of course if the seller confirm that it’s really axy pickup I will not purchase it. But At least I will know if there s a difference between sc1 bridge and neck pick up installed on my série 2

[mica]

The neck and bridge pickups generally only differ in the cable length to the control cavity.
If the bass has been upgraded, and it has the SC-1 pickups, then the neck and bridge pickup CANNOT be interchanged, because while they are essentially the same, when they are added to the components for the high frequency noise cancelling, they have specific positional roles.

You can use AXY pickups or FatBoy pickups in a Series I/II by turning off the humcancelling trimpots. They will not sound the same as the SC-1 pickups and the HX, but it certainly will function.

[nathanpatoubass]

Thanks Mica for this clarification !! It s very clear.
I didn’t know that sc1 was an upgrade and To be honest I m not sure at all if my série 2 bass Has been upgraded with Sc1 pickup ; the bass might be all original except the bridge pickup (Embossed) that has replaced by a new one (golden script). I guess it will be More difficult to find an embossed bridge pickup as they might be older than the golden script one?

[hammer]

Your Series 2 bass would have been built with a single coil series PU and unless someone messed with it when replacing a PU that stopped functioning, it should be of that type. As Mica indicated you could substitute and AXY but would you really want to lose that Series sound just to have PUs that were visually the same.

[nathanpatoubass]

Of course not hammer. My intention is not to replace the existing Bridge pU with an axy one but with the same single coil one but that would look visually the same that the neck one.
Anyway thank you for all the explanation around pick up (and sorry I m not really skill on this topics)

[hammer]

If you're not in a rush to place that pickup keep checking back here, Reverb, and talkbass. Used pickups from older basses do appear every one in awhile and they are typically offered for a reasonable price.

[nathanpatoubass]

Thanks Hammer for the advise and support.i will indeed look at those sites as I m not in a rush