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mellowgerman

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ummm... go ahead and stone me!

but I decided that since my ol' 1970 SFB-I will be with me until the bitter end, she may as well have two bisonics.

Did the work myself and couldn't be more proud!

HYhEvE0.jpg


XWirT2M.jpg


Q6IFG9O.jpg
 
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mellowgerman

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A little backstory on the modification:

A new/uninstalled Newark Street bridge-position Bisonic popped up on talkbass.com classifieds the other day at a good price so I decided to see how they get along with vintage Hagstrom Bisonics.
I removed the mounting-ring from the neck pickup a few months back as it seems to have been a bit of a factory-original design error... putting the face of the pickup right up under the strings, almost level with the higher register frets. Incidentally, the NS Bisonics are a little lower output, so this worked perfectly to balance the respective volumes of the two. Tonally they blend beautifully and I'm really stoked with the outcome. Initially I thought I'd give the NS pickup a try and could always swap it out for an original at some point. As it stands though, I'm not in a big hurry to change it up since they do sound great together. Only non-ideal thing is that they do not cancel out the hum, so I'm assuming the NS neck-position pickup would technically have been the RWRP counterpart to my Haggy Bisonic. In any case, the hum has never bothered me before and even with both pickups all the way up the hum is pretty much the same and still less than you'd get from a Fender jazz bass or single-coil precision pickup, so it's really no biggie to me.
I will upload some soundclips when I get a chance, however that may take me a little while since I'm leaving for a trip to Germany this weekend.
For now (and for reference), here's an additional shot of the two pickups side-by-side. The NS reissue has a little less girth to it underneath the hood and the chrome ring is not glued to the bobbin like the Haggy/DarkStar/Novak versions. All holds together soundly though once the pickup is screwed in and mounted to the body.

qp7zDXB.jpg
 
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Happy Face

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Sorry, I'm confused, once again. What did the Newark Street replace?
 

mellowgerman

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Sorry, I'm confused, once again. What did the Newark Street replace?

A chunk of mahogany topped with red finish. This was my 1970 SFB-I, which previously only had the original Hagstrom neck pickup.

*** just edited the original post to include that info

I had replaced the "tone-suck switch" with a 12-position KellingSound varitone (covered in a previous thread with soundclips), but now she's wired Volume-Volume-Tone, with the Tone pot featuring my favorite cap/resistor/inductor combo from said varitone
 
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Minnesota Flats

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"ummm... go ahead and stone me!"

You won't get any guff from me.

So how's it wired (I notice there's no pup selector toggle)? Or is that small knob a selector, not a master volume?

_________________________

"Sorry, I'm confused, once again. What did the Newark Street replace?"

Based on the the absence of pup selector toggle, my guess would be "nothing".


Beautiful bass, BTW.
 

Minnesota Flats

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Now, if you'd put a mudbucker in there, even I might give you a load of crap...

:tongue-new:
 

mellowgerman

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"ummm... go ahead and stone me!"

You won't get any guff from me.

So how's it wired (I notice there's no pup selector toggle)? Or is that small knob a selector, not a master volume?

_________________________

"Sorry, I'm confused, once again. What did the Newark Street replace?"

Based on the the absence of pup selector toggle, my guess would be "nothing".


Beautiful bass, BTW.

Thanks! Actually just mentioned the V-V-T wiring; looks like we made our two previous posts around the same time. The little black knob is just a standard volume control for the bridge pickup.
 

mellowgerman

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Now, if you'd put a mudbucker in there, even I might give you a load of crap...

:tongue-new:

Ha! I would have had to give myself an equal amount of crap for that. I'll admit, I wouldn't mind adding an old Epiphone Rivoli to the stable someday, but it certainly will never replace a Bisonic-sporting Starfire ;)
 

mavuser

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nice work...i guess. put the Alembic Harry pickups in there. then im in your corner!
 

Minnesota Flats

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"I wouldn't mind adding an old Epiphone Rivoli to the stable someday"

I've considered that myself, but would probably just end up putting a Bi-Sonic in it so, for me, such a purchase would be kind of pointless...
 

mellowgerman

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Thanks for the kind words, y'all! I was mentally prepared to have it not come out 100% straight, since measuring on an arch top with so many curves is not easy. I suppose though that maybe I've drooled over enough photos of vintage dual-Bisonic Starfires over the years to have a good template in my head. To be completely honest, the original factory Bisonic is mounted ever so slightly on a tilt.. hardly noticeable, but that makes my bridge pickup installation straighter than factory original ;)

MAV, I would love to have a bass with those Alembic pickups, but I don't think there's anything my ears like more than a vintage spec Bisonic. Kinda like the old Gibson mudbuckers (but completely different of course), I think they're great in their own light and could see liking them in certain settings, but first and foremost I pledge allegiance to the ol' Haggies.

HAPPY, this bass came from a friend of mine who owned it for a long time as a backup to his '68 SFB-II. His original intention was to hotrod it with another pickup and passive mid-notch filters, but he never got around to it and his SFB-II never failed him, so this one spent most of its life in the case; which is also why it's in such clean shape. It was passed on to me a little over a year ago for a very fair price, as my buddy wanted it to go to someone who would really appreciate it and play it (bonus points for a fellow Airplane/Casady fanatic).
Aside from all this, it is a bit of a rare bird as it's a transitional model with both the bigger headstock design introduced in 1970(?) and a Bisonic, which gradually started to be phased out roughly around the same time. And of course it's an absolute gem in terms of playability, resonance, and so on.
 
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Minnesota Flats

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"...it is a bit of a rare bird as it's a transitional model with both the bigger headstock design..."

Love those chunky headstocks. In a way, the smaller ones (as on the Newark series) are better proportioned to the rest of the bass, but I like the big ones anyhow. Not quite sure exactly why, but sometimes ya just like what ya like (both when it comes to headstocks and women). :tongue-new:
 

Happy Face

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All-in-all, nicely done! It is why we are fans of our Mellow One.

Have a great trip.
 

adorshki

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Love those chunky headstocks. In a way, the smaller ones (as on the Newark series) are better proportioned to the rest of the bass, but I like the big ones anyhow. Not quite sure exactly why, but sometimes ya just like what ya like (both when it comes to headstocks and women).
I can just see ya, transfixed in awe, like a deer frozen in the headlights, so to speak.
PS, Mellow, that's absolutely gorgeous.
Not being fully conversant with SF basses, is that a 'hog top?
 
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