I hesitate to post this. $45 Thunderbird pickups.

[Alanko]

I post on Basschat and a couple of aviation forums too, but not too often. 

My pickups arrived. A sketchy wee box with "Thank you for your patronage" written on the top. Could be anything in there! 

Luckily it is the pickups, pickup rings and enough screws to make it all work. Still not sure exactly what sort of journey they've been on, but they are here!

[lowend1]

Tracked mine today. Unfortunately they are still sitting in:
(NOT a political post)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDrfE9I8_hs&ab_channel=HuffPostMovieMashups

[uwe]

 

[veebass]

Mine have no commenced their second attempt to leave China.

[Basvarken]

Quick demo of the BaCHbird with the HongKongbuckers.
Bit sloppy playing here and there, but you get the idea of the sound 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-G28KIqxk8&feature=youtu.be

[Denis]

Sounds pretty damn good!

[Dave W]

Quick demo of the BaCHbird with the HongKongbuckers.
Bit sloppy playing here and there, but you get the idea of the sound 

Based on this and your other video, I think I like the HongKongbuckers better than the Artecs.

I earned a warning over on TB for this!

In short, some teenage dude had some sort of PJ bass, and the J pickup route was only wide enough for pickups with what are traditionally considered neck pickup dimensions. I pointed out that he could route ~ 2 mm on each end of the pickup cavity. No dice. I pointed out that with a sharp chisel it would be 2 minutes' work. No dice.

Okay. Why not just buy a neck pickup then? According to kiddo, neck pickups are completely different animals to bridge pickups. You wouldn't fit the neck pickup for a Telecaster in the bridge slot, right? (Some do, but never mind). An all round stupid suggestion. Why? Because Jazz bass bridge pickups are about 500 ohms hotter than their neck counterparts.

I then asked, why not simply buy a hotter neck pickup? Find a high output Jazz set and use the neck pickup? No, not possible, because you never use a neck pickup as a bridge pickup.

I then pointed out that early MIM Jazz basses shipped with two pickups of the exact same dimensions. Still no dice, kiddo didn't want to learn and I kept getting "why does it matter so much?" thrown right back at me. Just about the dictionary definition of wilful ignorance. I eventually called him wilfully ignorant, and got a ban!

Having said that, I just had my arse handed to me on TDPRI for asking why guitarists rigidly use microfarads as the single unit for capacitors (0.0047 uF looks idiotic) and tend to not include the unit. Therefore you get some old hick on there saying "well I find a 0.022 sounds a bit more buttery than a 0.047, praise Jeebus and Waylon Jennings". As far as I'm concerned if you pay well over the odds for standard electronic components because you have a tortuously anti-intellectual approach to guitar technology then you deserve all you get. This is why Stew Mac are in business, right?

You know, it's possible for almost any change to influence tone even if it's only in some small way. But when guys who don't understand how a capacitor works in a passive guitar tone circuit start talking about buttery tone, you know they're blowing smoke out their orifices. Likewise with guys who don't understand pickups.

Stew-Mac isn't the problem. They're still basically a guitar building and repair supplier. They carry a few boutique components b/c of demand, but that's nothing compared to suppliers whose whole business models are based on peddling voodoo.

[Alanko]

I saw a video posted up yesterday with a shootout of various capacitors. Those things annoy me anyway because nobody bothers to actually read the capacitance of the individual unit, just the reported value. They then play guitar six different ways for six different capacitors and then some deaf guitard goes "see folks, if you can't hear the difference in capacitor types then you just aren't as blessed with as good a pair of ears".

This latest shootout video was posted by Stew Mac, who sell a range of capacitors at different price points. How impartial are they honestly going to be? Ditto the guys on the Les Paul forums that sing the praises of obsolete paper and oil capacitors, claiming they have more warmth/sparkle/roar and who just happen to sell aftermarket wiring harnesses looms on the side. Some sod running a company out of their garage called "Blues Tone Vintage Luthiery ltd" or something naff like that. 

Arguing with these sorts of folk is basically akin to playing chess with a pigeon. You easily win the game, but the pigeon will still knock over all the pieces, strut about and shit all over the board as though it won any way.

[uwe]

"who just happen to sell aftermarket wiring harnesses looms on the side ...".

He's learnng, but still has relapses. 

[uwe]

Quick demo of the BaCHbird with the HongKongbuckers.
Bit sloppy playing here and there, but you get the idea of the sound 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-G28KIqxk8&feature=youtu.be

I'm missing the silly "Waiting for an Alibi" harmony guitars! 

But the Bach sounds nice with those HK pus.

[Nocturnal]

Those pickups sound great to my ears. Looking forward to hearing the 9k versions.

[Dave W]

I saw a video posted up yesterday with a shootout of various capacitors. Those things annoy me anyway because nobody bothers to actually read the capacitance of the individual unit, just the reported value. They then play guitar six different ways for six different capacitors and then some deaf guitard goes "see folks, if you can't hear the difference in capacitor types then you just aren't as blessed with as good a pair of ears".

This latest shootout video was posted by Stew Mac, who sell a range of capacitors at different price points. How impartial are they honestly going to be? Ditto the guys on the Les Paul forums that sing the praises of obsolete paper and oil capacitors, claiming they have more warmth/sparkle/roar and who just happen to sell aftermarket wiring harnesses looms on the side. Some sod running a company out of their garage called "Blues Tone Vintage Luthiery ltd" or something naff like that. 

Arguing with these sorts of folk is basically akin to playing chess with a pigeon. You easily win the game, but the pigeon will still knock over all the pieces, strut about and shit all over the board as though it won any way.

You apparently missed the point of the Stew-Mac video.  It wasn't meant to be a tone comparison test between the capacitors they sell. He was just showing you how to rig up a tone cap tester yourself so you could test several different capacitors without having to solder and desolder each one in and out of the circuit. That's why the Stew-Mac email was titled "How to let your ears find the best tone cap for your guitar."

I do agree with you that it's futile to argue with tone voodoo peddlers and the customers who swear by them, but IMHO Stew-Mac doesn't fall into that category at all. In any case, life's too short to worry about what other people do with their hard earned money, so I never try to argue with them.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go put some boutique saddles on my Tele bridge. Let's see, I'll need a brass one for the B/E, aluminum on the D/G for more twang.... 

[amptech]

Voodoo caps are annoying, but I'm glad stumac includes and informs about such products. They'd be out of business if they they stuck only to sense and tradition. Even though I do not repair many guitars, I am amazed how many of my amp service customers asking about caps and pots and stuff. Even pro players at decent age who posesses a good tone suddenly feels that this 'shitty original cap' in the guitar ruins their tone, all of a sudden. Even if the tone pot is always at 10. They come with piles of different oil caps purchased at ridiculous prices. End of the story for most of them is that they do not hear much difference, of course. If I just laughed at them, what good would that do for my business?

Nevertheless, people talk about it and get their opinions through practical experience and those who think their life is more meaningful with toiletpaper-in-oil caps well who cares. I think we just have to wait for this to die naturally, like cryogenically treated strings, active pickups, alu cone speakers and black hardware

[Alanko]

You apparently missed the point of the Stew-Mac video.

There wasn't much of one. Basically the message I got was 'your ears know best' and not to listen to anybody else... great advice, but guitarists listen with their eyes half the time.  Why else would Stew Mac employ a middle aged bloke with a CS Les Paul (and phoned in blues licks)? I'm meant to watch that and go this guy gets me, maaaan. The experiment with the cheapest ceramic capacitor on one side of the switch and the swanky Emerson PIO cap (that Stew Mac just happen to sell!) looks a lot like upselling. I didn't notice anything much in terms of tone with that guy's demonstration. He hadn't mic'd up the amp and, heck, he was using an amp in the first place. Why not plug that Les Paul straight into a nice DI box and run it through some studio monitors for minimal tonal colouring downstream of the guitar? There are way too many variables at play here.

I had a laugh yesterday when I found the following link:

http://www.martinsixstringcustoms.com/collections/prewired-gibson-wiring-harnesses/products/prewired-les-paul-holy-grail-harness

I see they've all sold! Yesterday there was drop-down boxes with options. I could have purchased a pre-aged harness. Does that means the pots crackle and the caps have drifted off their reported values by ~ 50% or so?

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Ditto the guys on the Les Paul forums that sing the praises of obsolete paper and oil capacitors, claiming they have more warmth/sparkle/roar

Paper in oil caps have different equivalent series resistance than other types and do bleed high frequencies easier because of it. Given a choice, they're what I use for bass tone circuits because I have VERY hard attack and my tone is very bright and needs the taming. Modern poly caps are "more efficient" at what they do and their lower ESR lets more midrange through. There IS science behind it, but I get what you're saying about the know-nothings who are simply repeating what some *dood*  said on a forum. Stew Mac sells some overpriced stuff, but most of their stock and trade are specialty tools for guitar repair that are VERY hard to find elsewhere. When I ran my shop, I kept a whole bunch of current catalogs from Stew Mac Digikey, Mouser and a few others. There are WAY worse folks out their making bigger bucks off of PURE bullshit. (Care to talk about tubes anyone?)