Nutz - Mystery pickup on a P Bass

[gearHed289]

I was just reminded about these guys by an old high school buddy. Really good 70s rock and roll band. Take a look at this humbucker added to a P. Also, what is that guitar the singer is playing? Looks like it might have some kind of sliding pickup setup.

[Highlander]

The guitar's a Dan Armstrong isn't it...? The solid version of the plexi variant...? No idea about the bass pup, mind you... saw them as a support one time but not sure who it was with... Sabbath...? Might have been the Technical Ecstasy tour... (looked it up, it was)

[Dave W]

Dan Armstrong Model 341.

I don't remember the band. Nice song.

[Highlander]

Don't know much about them other than dubious LP covers from the time... never had any of their output...

[uwe]

They became Rage (UK band, not the Kraut heavy metallers), here with a (heavy-handed) Joe Lynn Turner/Fandango song:





I stumbled across this just now, never knew something of that audio quality was available of JLT's early days! And I have to say with all the derision the guy (not always unjustly) gets, Fandango were a great live band with a lot more ooomph than on their four studio albums - smooth AOR you Yanks excel at! Not a bad guitar slinger either, our Joe!! The (likewise excellent) slide player is the late Rick Blakemore (yes ..., but no relation, just a coincidence - or even fate?  - and spelled without a "c" and with another "e").

[TBird1958]

On the West (Best) Coast this was the one song that I heard on Seattle FM back in the day.....

I did buy the album, may still be upstairs somewhere

[Pekka]

The guitar is a Dan Armstrong London (as Dave had already mentioned...). Jack Bruce played a London bass  circa '75 and Alan Mair used one too with The Only Ones. The bass was available as a long and short scale versions. Kinda ugly but cool, would like to try one.

The bass pickup looks like a custom job.

[lowend1]

They became Rage (UK band, not the Kraut heavy metallers), here with a (heavy-handed) Joe Lynn Turner/Fandango song:

Uncle Ted's take on it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnX0HE3Cys8&ab_channel=TedNugent-Topic

[lowend1]

And then there's some things known primarily to us Northern NJ natives who attended high school dances in the 70s...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwl3bvOqM68&ab_channel=Dabbitt353

[gearHed289]

Wow, good history, thanks guys! 

[Dave W]

Forgot to add: the humbucker on the P looks like a regular guitar humbucker to me.

[Highlander]

Didn't know of any of those alternate bands but knew the Nuge version... even saw the tour when he came over here for it...

[4stringer77]

Forgot to add: the humbucker on the P looks like a regular guitar humbucker to me.

The coil closest to the neck looks like it only has four pole pieces to me, like a single coil Precision pickup. Seems like an amateur's Frankenstein experiment.

[lowend1]

The coil closest to the neck looks like it only has four pole pieces to me, like a single coil Precision pickup. Seems like an amateur's Frankenstein experiment.

Typically, humbuckers with three adjustment screws are Schallers, but I can't find any that look like this one.


Maybe...

[Alanko]

I have a theory that it might be a Guild bass humbucker, without the chrome cover. I'm thinking of the pickup that replaced the Bisonics in Guild instruments.

What makes me think it might be one is the 2 + 1 screw arrangement, the row of screw pole pieces and the row of flat, rectangular poles. Also the pole spacing is tighter on the Nutz humbucker than the string spacing, even down at the end of the neck of a Fender bass. This is consistent with the tighter string spacing of Guild basses.

Here is a naked Guild pickup, as bodged into a Peavey bass:



The problem here is that I've only ever seen these pickups with cream flatwork, whereas the Nutz pickup is clearly black. The poles also look bigger on the Guild pickup than on the Nutz bass. At a push the modder sprayed the pickup black to make it stand out less, and there is overspray on the poles.