Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on March 23, 2020 at 9:24am

Hi, first a question, why bendable? And you would need steel strings for a mag pickup to work, Maybe piezo pickup might be a better option if not using steel strings. But I'm thinking they might be black covered steel strings, so I'll shut up.
Taff

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Permalink Reply by Mark Miller on March 23, 2020 at 11:59am

They WERE ubass stings in the picture, you are correct, but the sounded terrible and I ruined 2 tuning pegs just winding them.
I reinforced the neck and used steel strings. I tried a regular flat mag pickup but the curve of the fingerboard gave me an inconsistent sound. Ive also tried a peizo and I really don't like the sound. Even through a preamp.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on March 23, 2020 at 12:48pm

Hi mark, what may overcome your problem is, if you can find or modify a pickup, one that has adjustable pole screws, and adjust the screws to the string radius. I do that on Gibson humbuckers to get a better even output.

Or if you had a single coil mag pickup with six pole pieces all at the same height, then fashion a metal bar that will sit on top of them. The top of the bar will have the radius you need and of course the bottom would be flat, maybe with small recesses drilled to accommodate the poles.

This bass I built using a Highlander bass pickup/pre-amp system, I built a coaxial style flexible piezo sensor into a regular hardtail bridge. 

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on March 23, 2020 at 4:54pm

I think your best bet is a pickup meant for a Cello, from what I remember, pickups for Cellos & Basses operate on a different frequency response than other instruments? 

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on March 24, 2020 at 11:26am

 Hi Mark, Brian Q is correct.

s correct, so if yo wanted a better match you could use a Bass pickup as I did on the breadboard Bass I built, shown here. [I hope]

It is the half of the Fender Precisian Bass pickup. To test I placed an aluminium bar across the pole pieces and it still worked fine. I figured aluminium would be easier to work than steel. You could then epoxy the two together, ensuring and good contact between the poles and bar. 

Taff ...This site is still stuffing me around.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Miller on March 25, 2020 at 3:14am

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on March 29, 2020 at 7:29am

I used a Flatpup on a acoustic CBG with Bronze string and it worked great.

As long as the strings have a ferrous core or the pickup has a high level of microphonics, it will work.

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