I recently revisited my Soundcloud account and went through the old recordings I had on there for the first time in a long time... when I came across the mediocre comparison of the original Hagstrom Bisonic pickup from my 1970 Starfire bass and a Newark Street BS-1 pickup.
Please note, my recording set-up was rather primitive at the time, so I just did the best I could with the equipment I had. Therefore, take this with a grain of salt, but still worth listening to. Even though I did my very best to get the driest signal possible with minimal EQ, compression, etc... primitive recording setups will inherently do a bit of coloring. In person the difference was very notable and I feel only some of that difference was captured here.
*Also worth mentioning, there was some confusion that came up around this recording because somebody who I considered to be a very reliable source of truth told me that they were 100% certain that the vintage pickup from my 1970 Starfire was in fact not a Hagstrom, but an early Fred Hammon Dark Star pickup. I was at a loss, because the friend I got the bass from, who knows his Guilds and Bisonics and owned it for a long time.... definitely would have no reason to knowingly lie about the originality of the parts, especially since he gave me a super good deal on the bass, but alas, I did end up making a public disclaimer post since I didn't want to spread any misinformation... ANYWAY, fast-forward a few years and I had a chance to chat with Fred Hammon about this particular pickup. When he saw the photo, he said he was 100% certain that was a legitimate, original Hagstrom pickup, consistent with what would come in a late 60's / early 70's Guild bass. Sure enough, when I acquired my 1970 M85-II bass with 2 original Bisonic pickups, they were essentially identical to the challenged specimen in my Starfire... so the person I thought was a very reliable source of truth on Bisonics, turned out to be wrong. All that to say, even though the legitimacy of my pickup was challenged, it is conclusively confirmed to be a 100% authentic Hagstrom Bisonic, beyond any and all doubt.
