Current-production Guild Bi-Sonic neck pickups...

mellowgerman

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Hmmm, perhaps the difference is just the mounting ring... maybe a bit shallower or shaped to accommodate the slope of the body's arched top closer to the neck? If it is consistent with vintage specs, I'm pretty positive that there should not be a difference in string spacing. Though perhaps this is just so that one can purchase an RWRP set for hum-cancelling operation, when both are engaged
 
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fronobulax

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Looking at the specs and relying on the belief that the neck and bridge pickups in vintage instruments were identical, I'd say that the (new) BS-1 pickups are identical and what makes one a neck or bridge are the mounting accessories.
 

mavuser

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my (very) uneducated guess is the only difference is that the neck pickup has a longer wire to connect it to the rest of the circuit. and the bridge pickup wire is long enough but not too long, so as to be installed easilly/neatly.
 

wisconsindead

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I would bet the only difference is the mounting ring.

Minnesota Flats, Are your pickups at roughly the same height on your Newark St Starfire? I'm curious as my bridge pickup is significantly higher on my 67/68 starfire.
 

mellowgerman

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The more I think about it, the more I am willing to bet they are RWRP. If they were internally the same, they would not cancel out hum on the NS SFBII. I'm sure they do though, since it's an easy thing to make happen and pretty much every single modern day bass with single coils does -- as well as the majority of vintage SFBII/M85II basses, potentially only with the exception of very earliest of two pickup models (I feel like I remember a few specimens coming up like this)
Also, most likely the pickup mounting ring differnce
 

Minnesota Flats

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I think that you fellas have probably answered the original question.

"Minnesota Flats, Are your pickups at roughly the same height on your Newark St Starfire?"

The black plastic bridge pup mounting ring is significantly different from that of the neck pup. It is both thicker overall (double to triple) and the base of it tapers, increasing in thickness the closer it gets to the bridge. Both rings have a slight curve to them to match that of the top, the bridge ring having more curve than that of the neck.

The RWRP and wire length notions, though not as readily verifiable by quick, visual inspection, make perfect sense.
 

lungimsam

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My 2016 Ric 4003 isn't RWRP. Those pups are noisy.
But since guild is under the fender brella and Jbasses are rwrp, maybe the SFII will be.
 

lungimsam

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Flick your selector switch from bridge to both to neck pup.
If the pickups are humming in the bridge and neck positions but the humming stops when selector switch is in the middle position, then one of the pups is probably rwrp.
 

fronobulax

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But since guild is under the fender brella and Jbasses are rwrp, maybe the SFII will be.

Ummm. Fender sold Guild a few years ago. I don't think there is any evidence either way, that the NS SF II available today was built to specs developed while Fender owned Guild.
 

wisconsindead

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I think that you fellas have probably answered the original question.

"Minnesota Flats, Are your pickups at roughly the same height on your Newark St Starfire?"

The black plastic bridge pup mounting ring is significantly different from that of the neck pup. It is both thicker overall (double to triple) and the base of it tapers, increasing in thickness the closer it gets to the bridge. Both rings have a slight curve to them to match that of the top, the bridge ring having more curve than that of the neck.

The RWRP and wire length notions, though not as readily verifiable by quick, visual inspection, make perfect sense.

But is their a noticeable difference between the strings at either pickup? The bridge pickup is much closer to the strings on my bass, I'm wondering if this is the case with the remakes.
 

Minnesota Flats

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"The bridge pickup is much closer to the strings on my bass, I'm wondering if this is the case with the remakes."

The body of the bridge pup is noticeably closer, but I raised the pole pieces of the neck pickup closer to the strings so that, at least on my bass, they are about the same distance from the strings as those of the bridge pup. I raised them "by ear" to try to more or less equalize response of the pups.
 

wisconsindead

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"The bridge pickup is much closer to the strings on my bass, I'm wondering if this is the case with the remakes."

The body of the bridge pup is noticeably closer, but I raised the pole pieces of the neck pickup closer to the strings so that, at least on my bass, they are about the same distance from the strings as those of the bridge pup. I raised them "by ear" to try to more or less equalize response of the pups.

Well at least we know they really did what they could to make the reproductions accurate. I was hoping they fixed this issue. Thanks.
 

mellowgerman

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I actually removed the mounting ring from my 1970 SFB-I. Will keep it safe and on-hand of course, just like the tone-suck circuit that I removed, for the sake of keeping all of the original parts around, however... the face of the pickup bobbin was previously practically level with the fretboard, which is fine for playing with a pick and/or very soft fingerstyle playing, but if you have a more dynamic range of fingerstyle attack, the height of the neck pickup can result in some ugly clankiness when digging in a bit. Removing the mounting ring, thereby lowering the height of the pickup, and then raising the pole peices a bit, makes the bass much more friendly my playing style 90% of the time -- fingerstyle with dynamic attack, hand floating between the butt of the fretboard and the half-way point between there and bridge.
On a side note: I realize that players whose hands stay near the bridge or those who use a pick might be stoked to have the pickup with the mounting-ring/shim where it was and that's cool too! Different strokes, fer different folks!
 
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