durhamboy Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 I've noticed that a UK seller has quite cheap alnico 5 Music Man style pickups listed on ebay. Has anyone here tried these pickups? I know the GFS in America has an alnico MM's on their site and they have had some good reports, so I'm wondering if the ones seling in the UK could be from the same supplier as the GFS ones. The Bass player in my sons band (Still just at school so price is an issue) has a cheapish old OLP and wants to try an alnico pickup, so I told him I'd try to find him a reasonably priced one and put it in for him. These from the UK look like they might do the trick, so any feedback would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnDaBass Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 (edited) I have used Warman PUPs from Warman guitars. They are fantastic value for money and deliver a huge range of tones using AlNico magnets. Couple it to a KiOgon loom and you won't be disappointed. Current price is around £22. https://www.warmanguitars.co.uk/product/mm4-4-string-bass-humbucker-13-09kohm-4-wire-overwound/ Edited January 2, 2021 by JohnDaBass Spelling 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 26 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said: I have used Warman PUPs from Warman guitars. They are fantastic value for money and deliver a huge range of tones using AlNico magnets. Couple it to a KiOgon loom and you won't be disappointed. Current price is around £22. https://www.warmanguitars.co.uk/product/mm4-4-string-bass-humbucker-13-09kohm-4-wire-overwound/ Absolutely this. I've got one in a passive MM type bass and KiOgon made me a four position rotary switch, to match the volume and tone knob, which switches through single bridge coil, single neck coil, then both coils in series, then both in parallel. The standard pickup comes wired in series but a true MM is wired in parallel but it's simple to change, if you wanted to. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
durhamboy Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 Thanks for the feedback. I had (mistakenly) thought the Warman MM's were ceramic magnets not alnico as their ebay listings didn't mention alnico, or I just plain missed it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Buy direct from Warman. Their eBay listings are usually more expensive, presumably to cover the fees. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basscabman Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 On 02/01/2021 at 21:54, Maude said: Absolutely this. I've got one in a passive MM type bass and KiOgon made me a four position rotary switch, to match the volume and tone knob, which switches through single bridge coil, single neck coil, then both coils in series, then both in parallel. The standard pickup comes wired in series but a true MM is wired in parallel but it's simple to change, if you wanted to. How do you change the pickup from Series to parallel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnDaBass Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 3 hours ago, Basscabman said: How do you change the pickup from Series to parallel? Diagram and written instructions on the Warman website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 As long it's a four wire pickup, or four plus casing earth, then two wires are for one coil (green and red) and two for the other coil (black and white). Most aftermarket humbuckers come with the red and white wire joined, you use the black (ground) and green (hot) wires to make your connections, this is in series. A proper Musicman humbucker is in parallel so you use all four wires joined in pairs to make you connections, green and white (ground), red and black (hot). Or wire it through a push/pull pot so you can switch between series and parallel. A humbucker wired in parallel, roughly speaking, will be brighter but around 30% lower in output than it wired in series. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 On 02/01/2021 at 19:47, durhamboy said: I've noticed that a UK seller has quite cheap alnico 5 Music Man style pickups listed on ebay. Has anyone here tried these pickups? I know the GFS in America has an alnico MM's on their site and they have had some good reports, so I'm wondering if the ones seling in the UK could be from the same supplier as the GFS ones. The Bass player in my sons band (Still just at school so price is an issue) has a cheapish old OLP and wants to try an alnico pickup, so I told him I'd try to find him a reasonably priced one and put it in for him. These from the UK look like they might do the trick, so any feedback would be appreciated. I had the GFS on an OLP too, and while it was a bit better than the original I personally didn't rate it highly. After trying some cheaper pickups, I was only happy after I went with Seymour Duncan SMB-4A. It's perhaps twice the price but money well spent. You can spend a lot more (Aguilar and Nordstrand make pickups very close to the Stingray originals, the Nordstrand MM4.2 in particular was very close) but the SMB-4A is really good. I wouldn't waste time/money with unknown quantities. I have come across some really nice sounding MM pickups on cheap basses sometimes, so you can get good stuff cheap, the problem is you can't tell until you try them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 18 hours ago, Maude said: As long it's a four wire pickup, or four plus casing earth, then two wires are for one coil (green and red) and two for the other coil (black and white). Most aftermarket humbuckers come with the red and white wire joined, you use the black (ground) and green (hot) wires to make your connections, this is in series. A proper Musicman humbucker is in parallel so you use all four wires joined in pairs to make you connections, green and white (ground), red and black (hot). Or wire it through a push/pull pot so you can switch between series and parallel. A humbucker wired in parallel, roughly speaking, will be brighter but around 30% lower in output than it wired in series. +1 on installing a switch. The parallel mode gives you the classic Stingray sound, but the series mode is very good too in my opinion: fatter, stronger low mids... it's good to have the option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
durhamboy Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 11 hours ago, mcnach said: I had the GFS on an OLP too, and while it was a bit better than the original I personally didn't rate it highly. After trying some cheaper pickups, I was only happy after I went with Seymour Duncan SMB-4A. It's perhaps twice the price but money well spent. You can spend a lot more (Aguilar and Nordstrand make pickups very close to the Stingray originals, the Nordstrand MM4.2 in particular was very close) but the SMB-4A is really good. I wouldn't waste time/money with unknown quantities. I have come across some really nice sounding MM pickups on cheap basses sometimes, so you can get good stuff cheap, the problem is you can't tell until you try them. Thanks for the input. The SD SMB-4A was the pickup I was originally considering as the early Rays had alnico pickups and the description on the SD website sounded pretty good. Having almost decided on the SD, my attention got diverted by the Asian alnico offerings, given that the vast majority of Asian MM pickups are ceramic. The SD's will probably win out in the end..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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