Gear Discussion Forums > Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs
Couple of Jack Casady questions!
Dave W:
--- Quote from: steveonbass on December 02, 2017, 01:07:09 PM ---Have you tried them both? I thought Fred Hammon really nailed the Hagstrom Bisonic pickup with his Dark Star design.. If i remember correctly, It's a hand assembled copy made to spec. If so, what did you find the difference to be.
I've played originals and the DS and found them to be an excellent representation. I have a set in my 70's Starfire and i love them - you can really get the wide dynamic of input based upon right hand attack - just like the original.
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Yes, I've tried them both.
To add to copacetic's post: Fred's stated goal was to reproduce the Bisonics that were hot-rodded by Rick Turner -- not the stock originals. That's exactly why he consulted Rick Turner during the time he was developing them. I'll leave it to others whether or not he succeeded, but his pickups were not the same as the originals and weren't intended to be.
Dark Star fans always talk about the wide dynamic range of the pickups. That's fine but it means nothing unless you like the tone. EMGs are remarkably wide range too, and I don't like them at all.
steveonbass:
--- Quote from: Dave W on December 02, 2017, 01:58:56 PM ---Yes, I've tried them both.
To add to copacetic's post: Fred's stated goal was to reproduce the Bisonics that were hot-rodded by Rick Turner -- not the stock originals. That's exactly why he consulted Rick Turner during the time he was developing them. I'll leave it to others whether or not he succeeded, but his pickups were not the same as the originals and weren't intended to be.
Dark Star fans always talk about the wide dynamic range of the pickups. That's fine but it means nothing unless you like the tone. EMGs are remarkably wide range too, and I don't like them at all.
--- End quote ---
Cool. I love the Dark Stars but different strokes... They are the only pickups I've tried that i can really overdrive with my right hand. Definitely worlds better than the Guild mudbuckers that followed the Hagstroms in the Starfire (but what isn't?).
Alanko:
How do you overdrive pickups themselves? Surely that is impossible.
Jack Casady used to add a second magnet to the Bisonics back in the day. Some came from Hagstrom with two magnets on the back, and some came with only one. Jack had an extra magnet added to one half of his signature Epiphone's pickup as well. Jack definitely seems to think that magnet strength alone is enough to change a pickup favourably.
For reference my repro Guild BS-1 (I wonder who made these? Artec? G&B? There is a Far-East OEM feel to this pickup), has two magnets, and is a 'bridge' pickup.
And that quick connect thing can get in the bin.
I thought the Bisonics in Jack and Phil's basses were stock, and it was all the downwind primitive active stuff that was the unique bit. Phil, Jack and the proto-Alembic crew favoured the Bisonic because it had quite a flat, even response and wide bandwidth. It made a good pickup platform to start shaping tone with active systems, because it provided such a 'blank canvas', tonally. That is why I can't quite drink the Dark Star/Bisonic KoolAid. The Crown of Creation/Live Dead tone is the product of uniquely modified basses with other stuff going on in them, rather than the tone of hotrodded Bisonics. Live Dead was an EB-3 anyway, with some unusual looking pickups going on that might have been rebuilt Bisonics and might have been something else.
Phil started off with a bone-stock Starfire II bass:
But by the time the Alembic guys were done with it it had turned into this:
The Bisonics are gone!
Dave W:
I didn't say overdrive the pickup itself, I said hot-rodded. That's how Fred described it (and Rick probably did too, I can't remember). It could be using more iron or steel, stronger or different magnets, hotter windings or a combination of these things. Fred explained what he did, unfortunately his website is long gone.
Alanko:
--- Quote from: Dave W on December 03, 2017, 12:08:30 AM ---I didn't say overdrive the pickup itself....
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True, but steveonbass did!
--- Quote from: steveonbass on December 02, 2017, 02:18:24 PM ---Cool. I love the Dark Stars but different strokes... They are the only pickups I've tried that i can really overdrive with my right hand.
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8)
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