Hi fellow bassists. Heres my story on a long long journey of getting a bass exactly where you want it.
I've had my Squier Cabronita bass for the past 7 years or so (when they came out)...I love the look of it, sounded good out of the box, but as many Squiers out there, got a pickup swap and some other mods. I got the coveted TV Jones ThunderBlade pickup for it, which would be a direct replacement. I did the swap myself. The bass had issues, maybe my wiring was never good. The pickup itself is great, great reviews and awesome demos, heck...serek uses them on their basses. It just never sounded good and got gigbagged for years.
This year, amidst a pandemic and staying in, which meant more practice time...I bumped into Epics custom shop pickups. And I thought to myself, why not try having them make me a custom pup to fit the filtertron route? And so I sent the guys an email. Took a while for them to get back to me, but as soon as I did, the ball started rolling.
The Process:
Lot of back and forth with Ruiqui Chen or Reech, talking bout options and limitations from the actual route. He uses acrylic plastic as flatwork, so I lile how the coil(s) are visible, if you don't use a pup cover. So i had the idea of doing what serek does....a single coil pickup, with bigger magnets in the sweet spot, and no pickup cover.
So the prototyping started. Honestly they were a little bit slow on the replies, but surely enough they would get back to me with either more info, requests of measurments and or computer renderings of the pickup. Awesome!
FINAL PRODUCT, INSTALLATION & SOUND:
Once measurments were given and everything was approved so to speak, I got the invoice from Reech....it was south of $90dlls for all the work. I mean, thats an awesome price! Got the pickup with 1/4" magnets and a little bit overwound with plain enamel wire...or what they call their "black gold" type pickup. It arrived in less than a week. The whole process took a month or so btw. The wiring was done in the ol' P bass manner, two 25pk pots, .047ų cap and jack. All push back wire (vintage style) was used (epic uses push back, and I had a lot of it so it was used). Strung it with some old stainless strings I had.
The sound? Wow. I was shocked at how good and different the bass sounded. It was honestly as if I had another bass in my hands. The bass I always wanted. Loud punchy, bright! Take a SPB-3 from seymour duncan and make it a little bit brighter and lively, not as dark and muffled. I'm so so so happy with the finished product. Honestly.
For sake of disclosure...these aren't boutique pickups, they are rough around the edges. The flatwork is not perfect, the wiring and coils are, but esthetically rough. Magnets look good though.
Final words:
I will continue to buy from Epic if I need passive pickups. Reech or Ruiqui are doing really nice pickups for a ridiculous price.
I've had my Squier Cabronita bass for the past 7 years or so (when they came out)...I love the look of it, sounded good out of the box, but as many Squiers out there, got a pickup swap and some other mods. I got the coveted TV Jones ThunderBlade pickup for it, which would be a direct replacement. I did the swap myself. The bass had issues, maybe my wiring was never good. The pickup itself is great, great reviews and awesome demos, heck...serek uses them on their basses. It just never sounded good and got gigbagged for years.
This year, amidst a pandemic and staying in, which meant more practice time...I bumped into Epics custom shop pickups. And I thought to myself, why not try having them make me a custom pup to fit the filtertron route? And so I sent the guys an email. Took a while for them to get back to me, but as soon as I did, the ball started rolling.
The Process:
Lot of back and forth with Ruiqui Chen or Reech, talking bout options and limitations from the actual route. He uses acrylic plastic as flatwork, so I lile how the coil(s) are visible, if you don't use a pup cover. So i had the idea of doing what serek does....a single coil pickup, with bigger magnets in the sweet spot, and no pickup cover.
So the prototyping started. Honestly they were a little bit slow on the replies, but surely enough they would get back to me with either more info, requests of measurments and or computer renderings of the pickup. Awesome!
FINAL PRODUCT, INSTALLATION & SOUND:
Once measurments were given and everything was approved so to speak, I got the invoice from Reech....it was south of $90dlls for all the work. I mean, thats an awesome price! Got the pickup with 1/4" magnets and a little bit overwound with plain enamel wire...or what they call their "black gold" type pickup. It arrived in less than a week. The whole process took a month or so btw. The wiring was done in the ol' P bass manner, two 25pk pots, .047ų cap and jack. All push back wire (vintage style) was used (epic uses push back, and I had a lot of it so it was used). Strung it with some old stainless strings I had.
The sound? Wow. I was shocked at how good and different the bass sounded. It was honestly as if I had another bass in my hands. The bass I always wanted. Loud punchy, bright! Take a SPB-3 from seymour duncan and make it a little bit brighter and lively, not as dark and muffled. I'm so so so happy with the finished product. Honestly.
For sake of disclosure...these aren't boutique pickups, they are rough around the edges. The flatwork is not perfect, the wiring and coils are, but esthetically rough. Magnets look good though.
Final words:
I will continue to buy from Epic if I need passive pickups. Reech or Ruiqui are doing really nice pickups for a ridiculous price.
