What's Up With These 'Mudbucker-like' Pickups?

[MARICOPAA]

These started appearing a about a week or two ago on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Chrome-Neck-Pickup-for-Gibson-EB-0-3-Bass-Guitar-30k_W0QQitemZ350060187779QQihZ022QQcategoryZ22670QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

One comes up...sells...another comes up. The 30K ohms is what has me interested. Also...the construction looks fairly accurate.

Never having seen under the hood of a newer Epiphone look-a-like neck pickup from an Epi EB-O or Epi Rivoli II...I'm curious if that's what these are?

Does anyone have the output of an Epi version of this pickup? Is it 30K ohms (plus/minus).

Lastly, does the construction of the Epi pickup look the same as the one in this auction?

All I've ever heard is that while they look similar to a Mudbucker, the Epiphone neck pickups just don't have the same characteristics. Some folks like that and some don't. Maybe someone can post a picture of the Epi pickup and output for comparison?

[shadowcastaz]

It looks like one i just got to put in an eb3 carcass I have. There are some posts about it on http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1627&highlight=artec    have not heard it yet tho.

[Dave W]

Yep, that's the same Artec pickup we discussed at Jules' place awhile back, just from a different seller. And it's definitely not the same pickup as the current or any recent Epis.

IIRC the Epi also is a sidewinder but the output is way lower and it sounds nothing like a vintage mudbucker.

The Artec at least ought to sound close.

[Chris P.]

Bart from Belgium has recently joined us. He has an Artec in his reissue Rivoli. I believe he's very happy and he posted somewhere here.

[doombass]

I'm pretty sure those are Artec pickups. I have one but I have'nt tried it yet. They have about the same sound as the original though. Listen here:http://www.lindersson.se/BASS/jazz_mudbucker.htm Epi's have less output and oompf and are wound to approx 1.2 k (probably use thick wire).

[Chris P.]

Bart (not Bart!) aka 'Farmie' wrote this in the 'Epiphone Rivoli' thread:

I have an artec pickup EBC4 since a few days in my 90's epi rivoli. What a change!
I NEVER had a bass that can go this deep !!!
The switch is a nice feature with this pickup.
The only thing that surprised me is that the pole piece alignment was not so accurate.
Strange: I thought the Artec EBC4-CR was made for this bass?

[Dave W]

Right, I had forgotten that. The post is here.

[ramone57]

I measured the epi dudbucker from my '95 rivoli awhile back and it was nowhere near 30k.  iirc it was closer to 10k, maybe a bit less.

[sniper]

whats the string spacing on these pups?

[sniper]

poke around this site for a bit:

http://artecsound.com/

[gweimer]

That's why I got a real Gibson bucker to put in my EB-1.  In a month or so, it's going off to Jason Lollar for rewinding.

[Dave W]

poke around this site for a bit:

http://artecsound.com/

Interesting. There's a nice wiring diagram "book" in .pdf  in the magnetic pickup section.

It's not immediately obvious but if you click on the "pickups for guitar factory" and then click on the number 30 up at the top, you get several "metal 4 bass pickups" including this one and a Gretsch style.

[Chris P.]

That page was posted here already one. I like the Gretsch style pick ups too!

[sniper]

from the sound clips on jule's site it sounds pretty close and it is more than we had available a year ago in repopped mudbucker pups!

from what i've been able to glean it looks like it has a bit wider string spacing than a mudbucker (1.093" eyeballing the tape) and these are listed as 2 1/16" or 2.0625 (believing the seller's eyeballing). thats close to a DS2 Dark Star spacing.

those chrome thingy's look kind of narrow though with their 43 and 45 mm spacing. it would be interesting to hear some sound clips from them.

whats the spacing on an LP basses pups?

[Dave W]

Maybe farmie or shadowcastaz can measure the Artec exactly for you.

The pickups from the recently discontinued LP standard are blade pickups, so no there's no spacing issue. They're standard Gibson guitar-size humbuckers.