Can I have Rackmounted Series II Electronics added to my Darling Bass?

[TheVolatics]

Greetings-

This question is aimed toward Mica!

I recently put a down payment on a Darling Bass that is currently in the works.

When we placed the hold payment the electronics had not been put in yet, but the holes were drilled and the body was routed. I asked our dealer if it were possible to upgrade the bass to Signature Deluxe or Series II electronics. He informed me neither could be done because the body was already drilled for the East Meets West electronics.

I asked him the other day if it were possible to add Rack Mounted Series II electronics if the body could not be changed, and he also gave me a negative on that.

I've met people through the forum who say they've have had their basses upgraded to Series II after being fully completed. Could I get some clarification on this because we would really like to have Series II capabilities in this current build.

Thank you for your time, Happy New Year!

-Joseph

[jazzyvee]

Hi Joseph, series electronics require a deeper body and cavities to fit series electronics so unless you requested a thicker body prepped for series electronics, it's not going to be possible or if it is, will be expensive.
I don't see why you couldn't have signature electronics, though the location of the controls would be non standard.
As an alternative you could use an alembic rack mount SF-2 Superfilter which is sort of series 2 ish but with even more tone shaping properties including a wider filter range, q and high, band and low pass filters. It won't make your bass sound like a series bass because they have true single coil pickups and not humcancelling ones like all non-series pickups.
I have used one in my rack for many years
Here is a link you could check.
https://alembic.stores.yahoo.net/sf2superfilter.html
if you like the SF-2 idea you could ask if alembic could give you a mono/stereo jack and switch so you can assign each pickup to it's own superfilter channel.

If you were able to have anniversary electronics you get mono/stereo and pickup selector switch which may be a better option to use for the SF-2.

 Also have a read of this,  as this type of solution may be possible .[size=78%]http://www.alembic.com/info/fc_refinement.html[/size]

[TheVolatics]

Thanks very much for breaking this down for me jazzyvee.

[edwardofhuncote]

Jazzyvee pretty much covered what I was thinking, but I would add that from my personal experience, East-Meets-West electronics when combined with an SF-2 is a very special thing. Having them wired for stereo output is an option you could have explored, as well as possibly having a 5-pin connector to power it, all of which may depend on the constraints of the fairly small size of the Darling body. Probably the folks who have 'upgraded to Series II' started out with an already equipped Series I, and went from there. (I'm currently waiting on one in the queue for this now... the bass is 40 years old, and needed some other work anyway)

Mica may add plenty more to think about, and she surely knows best, but I would not throw in the towel just yet.

Feel free to contact me directly if you want to discuss at length the merits of E-M-W electronics... I had them included into my Custom build a few years ago. The Superfilter came later on my journey down the rabbit-hole!

[mica]

We have installed Series II electronics in a rack module for a few customers - these were cases they wanted no knobs on the instrument.

However, the pickups are an issue on a redo. A humcanceller between would have very thin walls, and could possibly blow out. Putting the humcanceller in the cavity like some of the earliest builds would not yield the best humcancelling results, and might not even be possible due to the smaller size of the Darling bass body.

Like Greg notes, we build instruments for customers with a "prep for Series" option sometimes. This lets us do all the internal plumbing and shielding in advance, plus make sure the control placement aligns with the expected layout for the future Series I/II.

We'd have to evaluate the whole electronics package to consider a stereo output - stereo pan pots are very weird (and expensive (that's ME saying they are expensive)) so going to a 2-volume setting would be advised if you ultimately wanted a stereo output. And working with an existing drill out can be challenging but we of course cram things in tight and strange all the time. It just depends on the goals. Like Vince mentioned, this would result in having the controls in non standard places, which sometimes means it's not a logical layout and can be hard to use.

I will say that the very best outcome for a Series I or II bass is to start the project with the options you want and not try to go in later and force the bass to be something it wasn't intended to be.

[JimmyJ]

Joseph, welcome.

The above posts answer your direct questions but I will also encourage you to have confidence in your Darling order.  In a stock configuration it will be a great bass!  Get it, play the heck out of it, and you may find that it fulfills all your needs!  Or it may inspire you to eventually move on to other models.

Jimmy J

[jazzyvee]

A long shot would be to find someone looking for a new darling bass and is willing to take over the order. Since yours is well into the build, they would get their bass quicker and you could start a new order for a series II bass.

[TheVolatics]

Mica- Thank you for helping me understand the process. Everything you said makes sense and I appreciate you taking the time to respond. We will keep this in mind for our planned future Series II build.

Jazzyvee- We still intend to keep the Darling that is on order for us. We were just wondering if there were any possible ways to add some more mojo!

Jimmy- We have confidence in the Darling order. This bass will primarily be my girlfriend's (*plays bass whenever not in her hands*) and is very suited to her aesthetically. It has a very attractive Cocobolo top, and while she originally was eyeing something in Buckeye, she fell for the grain pattern of the coco. It fit nearly all the specs she was looking for (short scale, stanley carve, heart omega) and she's also someone who would prefer simpler tone shaping, not a bunch of switches and knobs. I think the East Meets West will be perfect for her.

I, on the other hand, would very much like to shape my tone as much as possible. I like getting in weird places of sound and adding subtle textures to my recordings or loops. I think the best route for me to go will be to order an SF-2 and keep moving forward with our planned Series II build, or possibly purchase one used. In the meantime, I have my Europa and we will have the darling soon to keep us covered until then.

Thank you all again for your kind clarifications!

[jazzyvee]

Sounds like you have a good plan going on. I love Europa basses so............. any chance of seeing a pic of yours?

[TheVolatics]

Sounds like you have a good plan going on. I love Europa basses so............. any chance of seeing a pic of yours?

Jazzyvee- You can find it here. If you'd like more pictures just message me. Thanks again!

https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=27604.0

[JimmyJ]

Excellent!  His and hers Alembic basses could lead to some very funky collaborative grooving.   

Your plan sounds like a good one.  You might enjoy an SF-2, they're very flexible tone-benders.  And of course built to Alembic's super-high standards.

Carry on!
Jimmy J