Bisonic pickup by Curtis Novak

mavuser

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Curtis, that is fantastic! Thanks for sharing the news.

I will add that Berry Oakley Jr. is a fantastic bass player (and vocalist) in his own, I've seen/heard him play a few times, and he has sat in with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater.

here's a vid of Jr. playing with a few Allmans/Mules/Crowes in a legendary Pink Floyd tribute band



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Happy Face

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I just sent a message to Curtis. Let's recreate the Jack/Phil transition basses.
 

Happy Face

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Defined as what - a Bisonic with active electronics mounted in a Starfire?

I don't really know. What can be done? From what I can see, Alembic pickups would not even remotely fit. So let's try something different!

Oh yeah, in a JS-II or M-85 body.
 
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mavuser

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I have seen a couple JS-2 basses pop up with the "stereo" feature. There is a toggle switch for stereo and mono.
Happy Face is this feature of any value to you? I don't understand how it works. I read you need a special cable to play it in stereo, but this is unconfirmed.

I also am not fully clear on the Alembic mods and active pickups. The regular Starfire sounds so nice. I guess Phil's bass is maybe hotter in the 69-70 recordings than the mid 60s. I'm really not sure though. They all sound somewhat similar to me. I think it is more the player but the Dead got into some wild tunes back then. No matter what though Phil always dropped bass "bombs"
 

fronobulax

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I have seen a couple JS-2 basses pop up with the "stereo" feature. There is a toggle switch for stereo and mono.
Happy Face is this feature of any value to you? I don't understand how it works. I read you need a special cable to play it in stereo, but this is unconfirmed.

I also am not fully clear on the Alembic mods and active pickups. The regular Starfire sounds so nice. I guess Phil's bass is maybe hotter in the 69-70 recordings than the mid 60s. I'm really not sure though. They all sound somewhat similar to me. I think it is more the player but the Dead got into some wild tunes back then. No matter what though Phil always dropped bass "bombs"

My understanding, as always subject to correction, is that you need a stereo Y cable that has stereo on one end and each channel to a mono jack on the other. Then you plug each mono jack into a different amplifier and you have a different signal chain for the bridge PU and for the neck PU. This is different from the experiments where each string went into a separate channel.
 

mellowgerman

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Soooo if you put on some good headphones or hook some good speakers up to your computer and go to www.honeyspine.com, you will hear the brand-spankin new studio recording of our song "Clyde's Lament" with yours truly playing my Novak-Bisonic'd-bass; should start playing automatically. Obviously, it's probably a bit colored by the amp (Peavey VB-2, all-tube) and the tone-knob was rolled off just a bit, but I think it's a good sound sample and you can really hear the pickup shine in the context of a band/recording. The strings were Fender flatwounds (gauges 55-105). The album comes out at the end of this month ;)
 

One Drop

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Soooo if you put on some good headphones or hook some good speakers up to your computer and go to www.honeyspine.com, you will hear the brand-spankin new studio recording of our song "Clyde's Lament" with yours truly playing my Novak-Bisonic'd-bass; should start playing automatically. Obviously, it's probably a bit colored by the amp (Peavey VB-2, all-tube) and the tone-knob was rolled off just a bit, but I think it's a good sound sample and you can really hear the pickup shine in the context of a band/recording. The strings were Fender flatwounds (gauges 55-105). The album comes out at the end of this month ;)

Sounds fabulous (great song, too).

I love the smooth growl, really lays an solid textured bottom for the other instruments to sit on.
 

Happy Face

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Not the style of music I'd seek out to listen to. But if you were up here in Portland, I'd certainly wander over and give it as listen since it is done so well.
 

fronobulax

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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...
 
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