The Bad-Sonics aka my home made Bi-sonic pickups

[tore00]

Here is my last completed project. I bought wome time ago a Peavey T-40 on ebay, without pickups. It was perfect for installation of a couple of Hagostrom bisonics or Dark Star, but I had no chance in finding them, so I decided to make myself two of them.
So I collected documentation to reproduce them and tried, however I found some great difficulties in two main points:
the lamination cores machining and the pole height adjustement mechanism.
I decided to give up with the pole height mechanism, the screws that you see are dummy, and replaced the lamination with ferrite beads, they should do the work of lamination, maybe even better.
I used 6 mm alnico poles, and alnico bars and handwinded single coil at about 5.4KOhm, (really hand winding, no coil winding machine of any type) and finally wax potted the pickups. Finally I created a wooden ring painted black including a classic humbucker height adjustement possibility.

Then I installed on the T-40, with series/parallel option.
My craftmanship skills are not great and actually the appearance is not the best, the main problem was removing the wax from the front of the PU, however the results was better that expected and the sound, well the sound to my ears is great!
I have no experience of the real thing however these pickups have a fat deep tone that I do not find in my other bass, and at the same time a great clarity. The volume is terrific, expecially in series configuration, and the frequency response great. I really like the sound that now is coming from this bass. I would be really curious to compare with some real Dark Star or Bisonic. Here are few pictures
I started this project about 5 months ago, and worked in the few spare time from work and during holiday,and used  a drilling machine and a router to make the job essentially from plastic sheets, forbon, ferrite beads, alnico poles and bars, and AWG 42 wire.

[exiledarchangel]

--double post please remove--

[exiledarchangel]

Very impressive! Got some questions thru. You wrote

I used 6 mm alnico poles, and alnico bars and handwinded single coil at about 5.4KOhm

You mean you used alnico rodes AND alnico bars under them? Sounds kinda overkill, especially for the neck pup. You must have some heavy string pull. AFAIK Dark Stars have iron rodes with alnico bars underneath them, kinda like guitar P-90 pups. Also, do you remember the number of winds? Both pups are the same?

You know we need clips, doncha?

[tore00]

Yes, I used alnico rods and alnico bars below, as the bisonics. They are not exactly the same. The bridge pickup is actually 5.6 KOhm (6000 coils) while  the bridge is 5.4 KOhms (5600 coils). I do not feel any particular string pulling. I will post some samples as soon as I can manage to connect the amp to the soundcard

[clankenstein]

wow.thats cool.yes indeed sound samples please.

[tore00]

Here are some samples. I am a mediocre bassist , expecially with the pick, please forgive the execution. Recording the samples I discovered that the pickups are quite microphonics, you can hear my children playing while I was recording. Next will be wax potted for longer time

Pick ups in phase





Pick ups out of phase

[Basvarken]

the pickups are quite microphonic, you can hear my children playing while I was recording.

Wow you built some great microphones! 

[dadagoboi]

They sound great!  There's a fine line between the right amount of wax and losing tone.  Just tell the kids to shut up!

[tore00]

It is very interesting the principle on which the Bisonics and the Dark Star are based. It could be applicable to any type of pickup (also Fender like pickups) but the construction would not be simple.

Now I am thinking about a new step forward: using neodymium magnetsin a Bad-Sonic. I know that you guys are alnico aficionados, but I winded several Jazz and Precision pickups using neodymium, and they are the best sounding pickups on my basses, not only to my poor and humble ears, but also to the ears of professional musicians that frequent my house. The drawback I see in using the neodymium in Bad-Sonics is the risk of string pulling, but I think thet I can handle increasing the distance.
I also use the neodymium pickups in a special configuration to improve the sound of Artec pickups in my Bach Thunderbirds, and ensure you that they are hot!

[sniper]

clone Fred and chain him to a workbench ... if one could get hold of him he might be willing to sell some parts?

[exiledarchangel]

I also use the neodymium pickups in a special configuration to improve the sound of Artec pickups in my Bach Thunderbirds, and ensure you that they are hot!

I'd like to hear more on this, pweeeeezzzzeeee!

[Rob]

I liked the texture of the sounds you pulled from your pickups.

[Daniel_J]

Nice! Very interesting tones with the out-of-phase options. Do you get a drop in volume when out-of-phase in parallel?

[tore00]

I'd like to hear more on this, pweeeeezzzzeeee!

I have realized a special configuration of neodymium magnets put one below a Artec pickup. Believe me it improves a lot how the pickup sounds. I will post some samples in the weekend from my Bach TB II

[tore00]

Nice! Very interesting tones with the out-of-phase options. Do you get a drop in volume when out-of-phase in parallel?

Yes, it is quite normal, however it is amazing how much the sound is different and in any case appealing. I personally prefer series configuration but my ears start be old and appreciating that growl....