Printable View
Hi fellow builders, I'm seriously thinking about making the ESB-4SC but I would like to get gold hardware. So the humbuckers in the description have to go, (amongst other things). I'm wondering if any of you have built this bass and if so, can you tell me what size pickups I should be looking at ie: guitar sized humbuckers, mini-humbuckers, P-bass size etc. etc. I just want to make sure I can get the right gear for the build, before I layout the cash :)
Thanks.
The pickups in the picture are copies of Hofner 'staple' bass pickups. Hofner do a gold version (H511B-G) in a style where the pickup surround (H512B) sits on and then screws into the top, with the pickup held in place by 4 grub-screws on the side of the surround. To use these, you'd first need to know whether the Hofner pickup surrounds would fully cover the existing cutaways, and you'd then need to glue some extra tabs of wood into the cutaways so you can drill mounting holes for them. Not a hard task, a few bits of strong ply, a bit of epoxy and a small clamp and you're there. However, it would make the pickup openings smaller, and thus harder to get your wiring harness in and out, which may be an issue.
But the cutouts should fit standard mini-humbucker sized pickups, or you could enlarge them to fit any bigger pickup that has a mounting ring surround. But you aren't going to be able to fit Fender P or J style pickups or any soap-bar styles designed to screw directly onto a body.
Thanks heaps Simon. Absolute gold. ;)
G'day nDro1d, mini Guitar humbuckers might fit but being 6 pole vs 4 for Bass could sound weird.
I think Dedman asked this question a month or so ago as he was looking at what replacement PUP's would go into the Hoffner Kit. From memory I think Seymour Duncan do something but most of what I have seen are chrome. Plenty of Rickenbacker Neck PUP clones out there too that should fit but again they tend to have a small amount of chrome on them too. Might need to consider soapbar styles made by EMG or Bartolini which tend to look like black blobs of plastic, but hey, at least no chrome? EMG's would be the cheapest if going down that path and they do make passives if you don't want to be mucking around with actives and batteries.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/...humbucker-neck
http://www.emgpickups.com/bass/thund...tbhz.html#info
http://www.hofner-guitars.com/guitar.../pick-ups.html
Looks like Hofner do make a Gold set but you would have to order them through an authorised dealer plus photos to not show any side tabs for mounting the PUP's.
On closer look the kit has a mixture of Hofner and Gretsch influences (just posted a comment in Feedback as the kit is most certainly not ES-175 influenced as described). So you could look at Gretsch bass replacement pickups as well.
If you had the cash, TV Jones do gold finish Gretsch style replacement pickups that would fit.
I saw the TV Jones ones. They look lovely and would fit the bill nicely, but, yeah, that would set me back $440AUD or there abouts. Definitely out of my price range. :(
I guess the remaining 2 easiest options (for fitting) are the Hofner style or Rick style pickups.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Gretsch-B...sAAOSwOVpXYI5u
Check these out. I put a similar Gretsch pickup in my RC-4 and I'm very happy with it. P.S. From what I have read Gretsch pickups are made by TV Jones.
Geez they look the biz Pabs and priced well too. Just a pity we are sliding down against USD at the moment.
Hard to find ones with a gold finish though.
Yeah, shoot. I missed the gold part.
If you found some reasonably priced and sounding pickups with chrome or nickel plated covers, it would be possible to remove the covers and have them gold plated. There should be quite a few companies around offering a plating service. Probably a lot cheaper than buying the only premium pickups you can find just because they've got a gold finish. It could be done with the stock pickups, but you might want to see how they sound first before going down this route.
these in gold rings would be close-ish
http://www.rockinger.com/index.php?c...&product=DB15S
You could always brush up on your High School Chemistry lab experiments and have a go at Gold Plating. There are a few different ways to do this and the cost can be on the high side but this one works by brushing on a solution and there was another one on Amazon too. Alternatively you could go the full electrolysis method but that requires nasty chemicals and the donor gold may blow the budget. Plenty of info to be found on the internet.
http://www.goldplating.com/chemicals...oldPricing.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Platin.../dp/B002SHS6M2
You could of course fit all-black pickups but then use gold plated rings (as Dedman suggested) in a simple reverse of gold pups with black surrounds.
Wow, thanks guys for all the info. I do like the idea of gold plated rings with black pups. And thanks for the idea of DIY electroplating - but I think I'll ask around if anyone else does it first. If not, then because of budget constraints I may have to compromise and go with the black/gold setup, or even chrome - which I was really trying to avoid. I was hoping for the Gretsch White Falcon bass look. Kind of. ;)
Never owned an axe with gold hardware but have seen many LP guitars that friends owned where the gold had been worn off or become badly pitted and corroded from perspiration. Seems like it could be very hard to keep gold hardware looking good if the axe gets played regularly.
A lot depends on where you put your picking hand when playing and how acidic your sweat is. My 21 year-old LP still had 99% of the gold left on the stop bar, but maybe 50% left on the bridge. The tuners had a little bit of gold worn off on the edges but still look gold. OK, I've only just removed all the gold hardware and replaced it with nickel, but the tuners at least will be re-used on my ES-3 build. The pickups had exposed bobbins with gold polepieces, and they were still OK, though covered pups might have suffered a bit more damage - though again, it does depend on your playing style and hardness of pick etc.
Here it is pre-hardware change:
Attachment 15436
Nice axe Simon.
Out here the humidity can also play it's part with corrosion too. Where nDRo1d lives it does get quite damp & cold in winter and generally a lot drier heat in summer but still an area where most of the severe thunderstorms come from which also builds up the humidity.
Like most things, if well maintained and looked after it should be fine. Just a little bit more of a challenge in coastal regions where salt air will corrode anything metallic.
It will also depend on your house construction, and whether you've got AC. Brick-built houses have a lot more thermal mass than wooden ones, so internal temperature variations tend to be less (unless some form of fairly close temperature control is in operation). AC units can really suck the water out of the air, so it can end up very dry unless there's some form of humidification or a very humid make-up air supply.
But if you mainly keep your guitar in a case, that should protect it from sudden temperature and humidity changes. Having them permanently out on stands or hanging on the wall is probably not the best way to keep guitars in coastal locations.
That's why most of mine are in gig bags or hard cases. The only ones on stands are those still being worked on.