my new backup bass

mellowgerman

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that's a vintage hagstrom bisonic... i'm guessing one from 68 or 69 since it has 2 magnets. i got it from a local repair guy for $50. i guess generally people buy new pickups for a bass, but i bought a new bass (epiphone EB-0) for the pickup :D
it's a lot of fun to play and makes a great backup to my starfire

DSC01105.jpg
 

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Could you do me a favor and post a couple of shots of the bridge? Particularly of the front of the bridge?
 

fronobulax

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mellowgerman said:
that's a vintage hagstrom bisonic... i'm guessing one from 68 or 69 since it has 2 magnets. i got it from a local repair guy for $50. i guess generally people buy new pickups for a bass, but i bought a new bass (epiphone EB-0) for the pickup :D
it's a lot of fun to play and makes a great backup to my starfire

WWJD or in this case What Did Jack Do? As I recall the story he bought an Epi and put a Dark Star on it so he would have a beater bass for a trip to Europe. He liked it so much...
 

gilded

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mellow,

you might find that having two magnets on a neck position pickup makes it too strong and pulls the strings out of pitch.

i could be wrong, though. why don't you check with Fred Hammon at DarkStar and see what he says?

yer bass pal in Tejas, Harry aka gilded
 

mellowgerman

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frono, i've heard that story too. probably why it was the first host bass that popped into my head when i got the pickup:)

gilded, i think that's actually been discussed in fred's FAQs on his page since (i think) all dark stars have 2 magnets. i believe he says to play with the pole height and it could actually compliment the strings vibration... or something along those lines
 

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No projects, I wanted to compare it to Kevin's bridge. He's missing the height adjuster on his.
 

gilded

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mellowgerman said:
frono, i've heard that story too. probably why it was the first host bass that popped into my head when i got the pickup:)

gilded, i think that's actually been discussed in fred's FAQs on his page since (i think) all dark stars have 2 magnets. i believe he says to play with the pole height and it could actually compliment the strings vibration... or something along those lines

well, mellow, I'm glad you got the scoop!!

my thinking is, if it's close enough to pull the strings into the 'gravity well' of the magnetic field, then it's close enough to make it harder to leave that gravity well. The magnetic attraction is going to be strongest where the strings come closest, so the pickup has to be correspondingly farther away, right? Still, I think Fred knows ever so much more than gilded and I would take his observations to heart over mine.

Now, the Big Question.......How does an orig. Bisonic in the neck position of your Epi sound compared to the DarkStar you had in the neck pos. of your JS II?
 

mellowgerman

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it definitely sounds different but that might be due to the construction with different woods and a bolt on neck. from my experience with the hagstroms though, i really think that there's something about them that the dark stars don't completely capture. not necessarily in a bad way, but i do think the darkstar is just a hair off in some way.
either way, fred hammon is a saint for giving us what is hands down the best bass pickup currently in production and for that i thank him ever-so-dearly:)
 
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