The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs => Topic started by: wagdog on February 13, 2011, 04:06:39 PM
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Hello everyone.
I bought a Gotoh EB-1 pickup years ago hoping to get some mudbucker goodness but then never got around to doing anything with it. Well I recently decided to give it a try in my 'log' but was surprised by how reserved it was. Let's say I was underwhelmed. The low E was anemic at best. I then hooked to to my meter and this is what it shows. Am I really reading this right, 1.9k? It was advertised as being 30k. Anybody know anything about these pickups?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/wagdog/Bass/DSCN0249.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/wagdog/Bass/DSCN0252.jpg)
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I thought these were pretty heavy too.
See David Schwabs comments on this old thread
http://music-electronics-forum.com/t3162/
I wonder if you have a short within the wires or to the case??
Rob Francis
Just as a side note can you meausre without the connector. . . . right at the solder joints on the pick up?
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Thanks for the link Rob, that was an interesting read. And that's a good idea too about checking at the solder points. Unfortunately, they are buried under lots of wraps of tape so I'll need to do some careful unwrapping first.
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I took the pickup apart and checked each coil which read 1k individually. Weird, I guess it is supposed to be a 2k pickup although I don't know why and it's certainly not as advertised. Maybe I'll rewind it to 30k myself just for fun.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/wagdog/Links/DSCN0263.jpg)
As a reality check I tested my SG RI neck pu - 8.6k.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/wagdog/Links/DSCN0264.jpg)
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It could be wound using much thicker wire which would fill the coil and yet have a much lower reading.
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mmm this is suspicious-i had an alparts mudbucker,im pretty sure it read 30k when i was using it,i took it apart with the idea of adding a coil to my eb2 mudbucker which was missing one.i didnt, because when i measured it the coil was about 1 k.
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Tubehead, that sounds like what I'm showing - each coil is 1k. And when hooked together in series the pickup showed 1.9k. I wonder if the AllParts are just re-branded Gotohs? I wish I understood how all this works a little better because this just doesn't seem right.
Dave, that makes sense but what gets me is I remember it being advertised as 30k.
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Allparts does not have manufacturing capability. They sell stuff they source, mostly in Asia. Judging from what they catalog, their "Mudbucker" probably comes from Gotoh.
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Tubehead, that sounds like what I'm showing - each coil is 1k. And when hooked together in series the pickup showed 1.9k. I wonder if the AllParts are just re-branded Gotohs? I wish I understood how all this works a little better because this just doesn't seem right.
Dave, that makes sense but what gets me is I remember it being advertised as 30k.
Allparts does not have manufacturing capability. They sell stuff they source, mostly in Asia. Judging from what they catalog, their "Mudbucker" probably comes from Gotoh.
I doubt the Allparts mudbucker is a Gotoh. Allparts lists Gotoh pickups separately, and the mudbucker they sell is not shown in the Gotoh section. Who knows how many Asian factories might be making mudbucker copies.
If it was advertised at 30k and it's really 2k, that's just false advertising, whatever factory it came from. I wasn't aware that Gotoh ever manufactured a mudbucker copy anyway. Are you sure yours is a Gotoh? Any markings or a part number? Or is that just what the seller claimed?
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Dave:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/wagdog/Links/DSCN0250.jpg)
Unfortunately, I bought it years ago on Ebay and then put it in my parts box without ever checking it.
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the base of my pickup looks like this.definitely reads 1 k per coil.
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tubehead - looks like our pickups are essentially the same.
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Well, that's a Gotoh all right!
The only bass pickups listed in their catalog in recent years are P and J types.
I found this interesting. From the description:
A home-made bass featuring a Gotoh EB-1 humbucking pickup. An ugly duckling, that sounds better than it looks! This was recorded into my humming Boss mixer (which is a bit rubbish!) and then into the PC with no effects. The demo consists of a passage with the tone control fully open, and then fully closed.
Maybe you just need to drop it into a J-type to hear it shine! ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMa97ap4z7U
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My original intent with this pickup was to drop it into my SX Jazz just like the video but have it located where the neck j pickup is normally, sort of 'tractorish'. I was all set to start routing when it occurred to me that maybe I should stick it in my 'log' bass first just to hear what it sounds like. I was assuming it would be full of 60's 30k mudbucker goodness but that's not what I got. I'm glad I didn't start carving first! I could almost live with the tone in the video but mine was definitely much thinner sounding. Oh well, maybe I'll continue to experiment with it.
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My original intent with this pickup was to drop it into my SX Jazz just like the video but have it located where the neck j pickup is normally, sort of 'tractorish'. I was all set to start routing when it occurred to me that maybe I should stick it in my 'log' bass first just to hear what it sounds like. I was assuming it would be full of 60's 30k mudbucker goodness but that's not what I got. I'm glad I didn't start carving first! I could almost live with the tone in the video but mine was definitely much thinner sounding. Oh well, maybe I'll continue to experiment with it.
Sort of the silicone equivalent of the real things? :o
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:mrgreen:
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i was a bit underwhelmed with the tone from this pickup- not suprising if,as i suspect, its underwound with a small section of high impedance lead out wire.anyway now that i know it has low impedance coils im going to try putting it through an impedance matching transformer and see what that sounds like.the only problem is that i have just finished getting my eb4 and eb2 exactly how i want them for pickups and wiring and i dont really want to pull one of them apart right now(how typical)i think this approach might work well though.
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Interesting idea about adding a transformer. Isn't that how the low impedance LP pickups work?
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I own an old Gibson Mudbucker that was also barely 1k but it keeps up with the other basses!
No low output, just like a mud but with a lot more clean air. And a very tight E
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I thought these were pretty heavy too.
See David Schwabs comments on this old thread
http://music-electronics-forum.com/t3162/
That would be me!
What's going on here is this Gotoh pickup is wound with very heavy gauge wire, so it's really a low impedance pickup. I'm not sure why they would do that, but I had heard that the early Gibson or Epi (I forget which) reissues had these 2K pickups. This made me think they were doing this because of the reissue LP Signature (Jack Casady) bass using the same gauge wire. I guess they wanted a cleaner tone out of it.
I have a 70s EB-0 pickup that I had rewound to about 12K. I had it in my '73 Ric, and it over powered the bridge pickup. Rewound it still had a similar tone, but was a little more open sounding. It wasn't super bright though. My pickup read about 30K before I rewound it, as did the pickup in the EB2D I used to own.
The real Mudbucker is wound with standard 42 AWG wire, and has a whole truckload on each coil. You can have that one rewound, but it would be more expensive than the Mudbucker sold at www.guitarpartsresource.com, which is listed at 29k.