Dark Star'd Epi EB3

[PhilT]

turned up on UK eBay. A Fred H special. Unless there's a lot of activity in the next 3 hours, looks like it could go for the cost of the pickups alone.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250319013322&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=015

I thought about it, but I'd probably only want the pickups to put in something else. And then what do you do with a routed Epi EB3 body?

[Basvarken]

Yeah I saw that too. If I had the dough I'd buy it...

[barend]

looks great with that pickups. Has anyone tried these pickups?
The epi EB3 is a really nice bass. I had one too (for only one month). Too bad it had terrible neck dive. It had to go for a real EB3.

[gweimer]

I've heard the DarkStar pickup used in a Fender Precision.  Nice and fat. 

[Dave W]

I remember getting some flak "elsewhere" for suggesting that Dark Stars were subject to the same laws of the marketplace as any other aftermarket pickup. You can't put $400 in pickups and expect the resale value of the bass to go up $400. It doesn't work that way. Unless you find just the right buyer, it's more likely that you'll reduce the resale value.

[chromium]

Has anyone tried these pickups?

I have them in my '72 Guild JS-II





They have very broad response across the frequency spectrum, compared to the original Guild-made humbuckers - which were huge over-wound pickups (33K!) and more mid-focused.  Those were actually great for dirty, overdriven, rock and roll and blues-type tones.

I'm not very good at describing sound in words, but the DSs are completely different animals from the Guild pickups.  They can be punchy, growl(y)  , or clear-and-present sounding, or combinations of those.  You can control a lot of their sonic character through your right hand position, and they seem very sensitive to dynamics in your playing.  I also really enjoyed the sound of mine with a pick (I've always been mostly a fingerstyle player, but there are just times when only a pick will do...).  I noticed this bass just springs to life with a pick now.  I think the pickups accentuate that sharp attack a bit.

Oh - and with these pickups - I could completely get by on just the neck pickup alone.  That is almost all I ever use.  You don't have to rely on the bridge pickup to compensate for lack of attack or clarity.  I know now that I could be happy with a JS-I or Starfire-I with one of these in it.

If you do buy a set, I would just consider them "portable" to other basses with similar string spacing.  Like Dave said, you probably won't recoup the money if you ever decide to sell the bass.  Best way to get them is probably buying someone else's bass (at their loss) - like this auction.  Between the DSs and the custom bridge, I'm now buried in this JS-II.  Luckily, I like it - so I don't plan on selling it.

I do think DSs sometimes get overhyped, but they are definitely a nice color to have in the crayon box.

[slinkp]

Sounds of the dark star, among other things...
Here's an edited sample of me dorking around with some pickups literally gaffer-taped into a really crap plywood bass.


Some of it is fingerstyle, some pick; with voice-over explaining what's what.

There is lots of rattling and clanking noise and crap from the pickups not being properly secured, and from the bass just being so bad (warped neck, etc).
The first sample is a flaky '76 Thunderbird pickup I got on ebay a few years ago.  The Dark Star in the bridge position appears around 0:50,  in middle position around 3:20.  Around 6:00 is the Dark Star as close to the neck as I could get it. Even with the bad playing and mechanical noises, you should be able to get an idea what it sounds like!

(Around 7:15 I switched to a Gibson LPB bass that I had just acquired, and around 8:50 I picked up a Danelectro.)

This is all preparation for a custom project bass that I was gonna have built, I swear some day it will get done, although now that I've got a kid on the way it may not be for another 18 years or so 

[barend]

If you do buy a set, I would just consider them "portable" to other basses with similar string spacing.  Like Dave said, you probably won't recoup the money if you ever decide to sell the bass.  Best way to get them is probably buying someone else's bass (at their loss) - like this auction.  Between the DSs and the custom bridge, I'm now buried in this JS-II.  Luckily, I like it - so I don't plan on selling it.

Hey Chromium, that looks like a really nice bass. Like the looks of the dark stars on a SG type bass.
BTW how does it sound with a choke? 

@Slinkp: thanks for the pickup experiment soundsamples.

[chromium]

BTW how does it sound with a choke? 

Hey now- don't get me started!   

[slinkp]

Lakland's new site has a ton of samples of the Dark Star model Decade.
The picture shows their new pickups, but it says "MP3s below are with Dark Star Pickups, Chi-Sonic MP3s are coming soon."
http://lakland.com/ac_decade.htm

[barend]

I like the vintage look of that bass. But it sounds less vintage and raw as I would have expected. Sounds a little bit like a jazz bass. It sounds good though but too neat for my taste.

[Barklessdog]

Sounds a little bit like a jazz bass.

stars are single coils?

[barend]

no but this bass has a jazz bass like sound

[bassobsessed]

Dark Stars are single coils just like the Hagstrom Bi-sonics. Someone must have posted this link already but check out www.hammoneng.com for background

[barend]

ok, didn't know that...but then I heard it right I guess.

Thanks for the link.