Necro.
I just commissioned a bass and it has a Novak BS-DS in it. See
here.
In email conversation Curtis confirmed my experience that the Newark Street PU could sound more like a vintage Bisonic than it does. He also said that Fred Hammon's Dark Stars were actually not the same specs as a vintage Bisonic, but the difference was in the winding. So I ordered a PU with a coil tap that lets me choose between the vintage and DarkStar specs.
I will call the two options BS and DS although I have not confirmed which one is the tap and which one is the full coil so the label may be misleading. They are similar but different. Compared to the DS, the BS sounds thinner. Depending on the tone control the DS approaches "muddy" in first position on the E string. My sense though is that the differences do depend upon where on the neck I am playing and what the tone control is doing. I am still exploring. I also note that "muddy" played through 300 W 1x15 is pretty friggin' awesome and which setting I prefer is still very strongly influenced by the amp and speaker.
My reference tone is Jack Casady on Baxter's. The NS is sometimes in the ballpark. The '67 gets closer and I am willing to say the differences reside in my fingers, not my equipment. I have not nailed the tone with the new bass yet but what is lacking may be the difference between a solid and a hollow body. Quite frankly though, at this point I like what I am hearing so much that trying to dial it in to match something else is not high on my priority list yet.
The PU is extremely sensitive. I am used to running with full volume and tone all on or all off. At full volume it is picking up a lot of fret noise (thanks to my miserable left hand technique). I find I am rolling the volume off just a bit so I don't have to listen to myself.
I have not touched a Starfire since the new bass arrived which may be the New Toy Syndrome but says something about how well the pickup does.
I will eventually compare this with both Starfires through a headphone amp and perhaps become more articulate concerning the similarities and differences. Recording is a PITA for me but my bass teacher records his own stuff a lot so I will talk to him about some comparison clips. But that might take a while...