Nordstrand BigSplitMan 5 Quick Demo

[adamg67]

As mentioned elsewhere, I recently added a Nordstrand BigSplitMan 5 to my Maruszczyk Jake, I already had an NP5 in there (but actually swapped it out for the same thing but with custom narrow pole spacing, which the BigSplitMan has as well). The BigSplitMan is essentially two Nordstrand Big Split pickups (the Big Single done split coil for hum cancelling) somehow squashed into a humbucker sized package. I had to take a little bit of wood out of the bottom of the pickup cavity as it's quite a deep pickup. With the series / single / parallel switch fitted - there's not much point having this pickup without one IMO - you get two tones for the price of one at the bridge position.

The bass is a Maruszczyk Jake 5A with Thomastik flats and a Delano preamp, recorded warts-and-all dry, Di through a Radial JDI and nothing else done, no compression no amp no cab. All you're really hearing are the strings, the pickup and of course the ebony fingerboard and whatever tonewood it is (Alder I think)  . Recorded like that you also get the benefit of the pole piece height matching the fretboard radius, nice even volume across the strings. I slapped some drums on and noodled some keys just to give it some context, but left the bass up so it can be heard.

First minute is "single", so half the humbucker which is the Big Single sound. Second minute is the full pickup in series, so a series humbucker made of two Big Singles (well, Big Splits in this case). So jumping between the first and second halves gives an alright comparison.

 

Edited April 3, 2021 by adamg67