Westone "The Rail" Bass - DOA - Now a minimal bass

[Hellzero]

41 minutes ago, rwillett said:

And those positions in mm from the bridge are...? I can easily print two pickguards with the mounting points in different positions, so could do a 60's, a 70's position and/or a Musicman / Jazz Bass 70's bridge position.

 

Rob

Use the nut as a guidance for a more accurate position.

 

Check this file where there is a lot of pickup placements including Fender and Musicman (4 or 5 string pickup is the same position): Pickup Positions For Many Makes Of Bass.xlsx

Edited 10 hours ago by Hellzero

[rwillett]

1 minute ago, Hellzero said:

Use the nut as a guidance for a more accurate position.

 

Check this file where there is a lot of pickup placements including Fender and Musicman (4 or 5 string pickup is the same position): Pickup Positions For Many Makes Of Bass.xlsx

Ah!, Thats very helpful

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, rwillett said:

Sorry misunderstood. CAD = Cardboard Aided Design 

 

You've been watching Project Binky too then.

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

Check this file where there is a lot of pickup placements including Fender and Musicman (4 or 5 string pickup is the same position): Pickup Positions For Many Makes Of Bass.xlsx

 

Have you put this file up before? Went to download it and I already had a copy.

 

Anyroadup, as it's got measurements in groats and cubits, I did a swift edit: Pickup Positions For Many Makes Of Bass - metric & imperial.xlsx

[rwillett]

29 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

Have you put this file up before? Went to download it and I already had a copy.

 

Anyroadup, as it's got measurements in groats and cubits, I did a swift edit: Pickup Positions For Many Makes Of Bass - metric & imperial.xlsx

Any Poles?

[rwillett]

41 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

You've been watching Project Binky too then.

I have, all 37 (?) episodes. That Mini will need to be restored again by the time they finish it. I think putting a 4WD system and rather large engine on an old Mini is utterly insane and stupid. Rather like some of my builds. My mum and dad used to race minis in the 70s. My dads favourite trick was to put an Austin princess six cylinder engine into a classic mini. It would fit once he'd used the rather large sledge hammer to modify the engine bay. It handled like a pig, torque steered everywhere but as it was all off-road racing, rather good fun. He had a garage business so this wasn't exceptional. He once started to build a proper stock car. The design process consisted of suspending an American V8 from the garage beams, rolling front and rear axis in to approx the right positions along with the drive shafts and then welding large amounts of lorry U-bean together to make the chassis so it all fitted (for some value of fitted).

 

I note that the mobile library has come back again. It wasn't clear to me if they put the whole of the old library on a different chassis and engine or put a whole different chassis under the library. What's the VIN number going to be? We are into Triggers broom territory now. 

[JohnH89]

I always fancied a jazz pickup at neck and another one in in normal neck position . I have a Burns Bison and I love the sound of the 2 pickups closest to the neck . No bridge pickup for me . YMMV 😁

[rwillett]

7 minutes ago, JohnH89 said:

I always fancied a jazz pickup at neck and another one in in normal neck position . I have a Burns Bison and I love the sound of the 2 pickups closest to the neck . No bridge pickup for me . YMMV 😁

So two pickups. one as close as possible to the neck and one a little further back. This is the pickguard now

 

 

and what you are looking for 

 

For me, that's just a case of printing a new pickguard and possible lengthening the cables at the neck pickup (or something). Pretty simple to change, just moved the sketches for each pickup. The pickguard holes are automatically generated in the pickguard, so thats it. Took just under a min to change and using Apple-Z even less time to put back.

 

Rob

 

 

[Hellzero]

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

 

Have you put this file up before? Went to download it and I already had a copy.

 

Anyroadup, as it's got measurements in groats and cubits, I did a swift edit: Pickup Positions For Many Makes Of Bass - metric & imperial.xlsx

Yes, I did a few times over the years.

 

As I don't really use the placement from the bridge because of its inherent inaccuracy, I've always let it in inches and never mattered.

[Maude]

I know we've moved on from sliding pickups, but the discussion is now placement and I've had an idea. It's probably not a very good idea and I'm just thinking out loud really but bear with me, and maybe it doesn't belong in this thread but there we go and here we are. 

 

If the area between bridge and neck was filled with single coil jazz pickups, or similar slim pickups, and wired via a rotary switch then you'd have the largest range of tones. 

But, that's a lot of complicated wiring and the pull of the magnets would choke the strings, not to mention the shear weight of it all. 

Which made me think. If a pickup with no magnet doesn't produce a sound(?) then could a huge pickup the length of bridge to neck be constructed with multiple coils inside, each the width of all strings, permanently wired to an output (via tone if wanted) and a sliding magnet be used to 'activate' each coil in turn. There's various easy ways a lightweight sliding magnet mech could be produced, and there's no moving electrical contacts to sort out. 

I assume you'd get 'bleed' from the coils either side of the activated coil as it magnetises the string, but it could be interesting. 

Or am I an idiot? 😁

 

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Maude

[itu]

Dear @Maude, 

 

I think your idea is not that bad, but there are issues, too. 

+ lots of sounds 

+ relatively easy from mechanics point of view 

+ I would say the construction is doable 

- coil construction is somewhat complicated and pricey 

- coils require lots of space 

- moving magnet needs space, too 

- the output level changes, when the magnet moves towards bridge 

 

I would opt for a moving pickup, because it would offer the same pros (and some of the cons) as your idea, but a lower price tag. 

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, Maude said:

I know we've moved on from sliding pickups, but the discussion is now placement and I've had an idea. It's probably not a very good idea and I'm just thinking out loud really but bear with me, and maybe it doesn't belong in this thread but there we go and here we are. 

 

If the area between bridge and neck was filled with single coil jazz pickups, or similar slim pickups, and wired via a rotary switch then you'd have the largest range of tones. 

But, that's a lot of complicated wiring and the pull of the magnets would choke the strings, not to mention the shear weight of it all. 

Which made me think. If a pickup with no magnet doesn't produce a sound(?) then could a huge pickup the length of bridge to neck be constructed with multiple coils inside, each the width of all strings, permanently wired to an output (via tone if wanted) and a sliding magnet be used to 'activate' each coil in turn. There's various easy ways a lightweight sliding magnet mech could be produced, and there's no moving electrical contacts to sort out. 

I assume you'd get 'bleed' from the coils either side of the activated coil as it magnetises the string, but it could be interesting. 

Or am I an idiot? 😁

 

 

 

 

 

Two flaws ... very sensitive to electrical or magnetic noise.

 

Plus, the magnet induces magnetism in the string. The movement  of the magnetised string causes electrical currents in the coil... but they will be extremely weak far from the magnet (inverse cube law) so the signal will be paltry when the magnet is away from the ends of the coil.

[Hellzero]

Atlansia built something like this with this Oxford, not exactly what you described, but an attempt to have almost any possible sound by selecting any of the 16 pickups/coils:

 

[neepheid]

2 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Atlansia built something like this with this Oxford, not exactly what you described, but an attempt to have almost any possible sound by selecting any of the 16 pickups/coils:

 

 

It's like a vending machine of tones!

[rwillett]

15 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

It's like a vending machine of tones!

Which made me think of this somewhat adapted quote from the HHGTTG

 

"He had found a Bass-Matic machine which had provided him with a bass guitar that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a bass guitar. The way it functioned was very interesting. When the buttons were pressed it made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject's musical taste, a spectroscopic analysis of the subject's metabolism and then sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the musical centers of the subject's brain to see what was likely to go down well. However, no one knew quite why it did this because it invariably delivered a tone that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a decent bass tone."

 

With apologies to Douglas Adams

Rob