I hesitate to post this. $45 Thunderbird pickups.

[slinkp]

Yeah, with!

[lowend1]

With.

[Nocturnal]

With!!

[Stjofön Big]

With! Absolutely!

[Alanko]

As Beyoncé tells us; (Shoulda) Put a Ring on it! 

[gearHed289]

What do you think, with or without ring?

You really have to ask???  WITH! Love that red.

[lowend1]

Love that red.

Yep. It's got me GAS-ing too. Might have to peel off a couple things...

[Alanko]

This is my handy work.



The pickups sound a lot better than the hotrail things Hagstrom had fitted. They are a tad microphonic, but I feel this works in their favour. 

[Pilgrim]

Very nice indeed!!

Replacement bridge, too?

[Rob]

That is hot looking

[Basvarken]

Nice! 

[Alanko]

Very nice indeed!!

Replacement bridge, too?

No, that is the stock bridge. The bass is a reissue Hagstrom, not the original which had the same bridge as the Starfire basses, but with adjustable saddles per string. This bridge only allows adjustment per string pair, so intonation is a bit of an issue. I could upgrade to a Schaller bridge, but that is a bit of coin for something I'm not entirely convinced isn't just a bit of a novelty...

The same bridge turns up on this feat of Chinese luthiery marvel;

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Arrival-China-8-String-Electric-Bass-Guitar-8-strings-Bass-Red-130109/32362884010.html?spm=2114.30010308.3.42.Q851wn&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_2,searchweb201644_1_505_506_503_504_502_10001_10002_10016_10017_10010_10005_10011_10006_10003_10004_10009_10008,searchweb201560_3,searchweb1451318400_-1,searchweb1451318411_6451&btsid=0f59385e-30c4-47b6-895f-fa2827ceddea

[drbassman]

Wow, they look great in there!

[Alanko]

I stuck the pickups and rings on there as a goof whilst I had the electronics ripped out. The bass came with two hotrail humbuckers that were too hot and too mids-forward to really work in an 8 string bass. They were wired to some illogically sequenced 6-way rotary switch that felt cheap. I decided to rewire the bass with a 3-way, volume and tone control, and just took off from there.

[gearHed289]

Looks great! I bet it sounds great too. I use an 8 string quite a bit and spent a good chunk of money to get an 8 saddle bridge. Definitely made a major improvement in intonation, though visually, some of the saddles look almost even. More noticeable on the E and A pairs.