Couple of Jack Casady questions!

[Alanko]

The air is thick with the smell of Isopon P38 body filler. Every last dink, dent and abrasion is being lovingly filled with car body filler.

I'm going to pick up Fender Coronado II reissue to fulfill my hollow bass needs for the next little while.  I know the Coronado is a very different (and heavy) instrument, but they look like a lot of fun.

[steveonbass]

The Guild reissue pickup is certainly truer to the original than the Dark Star.

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.

[Alanko]

From what I gather the DarkStar was hotter than the original BiSonics.

[copacetic]

The Dark Stars were hotter than the original Hagstroms. That Crown of Creation' sound tone will require you to get a Versatone amp. No way around it.

[Alanko]

I have a Line6 *thingy* (Live X3, or something like that) which apparently has a Versatone Pan-o-Flex modeled in it. I just can't work out which model it is. They've not modeled the actual Pan-o-Flex function of the original amp as far as I can tell.

The tone on the track 'Crown of Creation' is something to behold. The way Jack clings onto those notes at the end, right to the point of feedback, is brilliant.

[Dave W]

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.

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]

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.

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]

I didn't say overdrive the pickup itself....

True, but steveonbass did!

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.

[Dave W]

True, but steveonbass did!

Pretty sure he's just talking about the pickup being more responsive than usual to plucking/picking hand touch. At least that's its reputation.

[steveonbass]

Pretty sure he's just talking about the pickup being more responsive than usual to plucking/picking hand touch. At least that's its reputation.

That's exactly what i meant.  The output is very dynamically responsive to right (in my case) hand touch.

[Alanko]

That's exactly what i meant.  The output is very dynamically responsive to right (in my case) hand touch.

That sounds good! I liked the stock Casady pickup but it wasn't the most dynamically responsive.

[BTL]

I think a dummy coil might rob too much of the magic from the Bisonic. I have a dummy coil in my PJ bass, and it has robbed that bass of some of its magic.

Anyway, now I'm here:

This is going to be a really cool instrument when completed.

I know that two of the guys who own Primaluxes fitted with the Guild BS-1 absolutely love them.

They are local to each other and had the opportunity to A/B them together with the Fralin Big Single (my favorite), Lollar Thunderbird, and TV Jones Thunder'blade.

One is the company rep for the Class D power unit that most of the big bass amp builders are using, and can own and play nearly anything you could imagine.

He has scaled his gear back significantly, and yet he's keeping the BS-1 equipped Primaluxe.

[the mojo hobo]

The air is thick with the smell of Isopon P38 body filler. Every last dink, dent and abrasion is being lovingly filled with car body filler.

JB Weld has a product that acts like car body filler but is made for wood. Can be found at any home improvement store. I used it on a crack in the front porch, I think it is stronger than the car filler.