Two of three Covid area prohects

[Happy Face]

The one was a Ricky ChrIs Squier bass tobacco stained to fine patina. Unremioveable as both the seller and I found. Plus some issues that only the Mellow one might find interesting. The guys at Acadia studio took it off my hands.

These two are a dilemma. The Guilembric on the left just feels so perfect in my hand. The Steinie was an XP -2 when I bought it. It's now an XP-2a thanks to new pickups from Don at Headless USA. The "a" means active.

This is my third XP-2a and by far my favorite. I've bought and used five or six XL models as well. I've come to prefer the XP because it's a bolt on. The gent suggested a slight reset which further improved on my two day battle with the Steinberger tailpiece and claws.

Now I have two more basses where one or none would have sufficed. I am blessed

 

[lungimsam]

They both look like fantastic basses!!! Congrats!
What were the other issues of the Ricky CS bass? Those are super rare.

 

[Happy Face]

They both look like fantastic basses!!! Congrats!
What were the other issues of the Ricky CS bass? Those are super rare.

Previous owner yanked the cover off of the bridge pickup. Common practice. But he just stuffed the pickup back in without securing it. It fell out and unraveled like a Brillo pad.

They were made with faux horseshoe pickups. Faux because the shoes were more ornamental than functional.

I eventually sent the original pup out for rewinding, but in the interim I bought a horseshoe replica made by a gent in Latin America. The construction quality was superb and it sounded just fine. Impressed me enough that I bought another to perhaps install in my Tuxedo bass.

An interesting thing is that the shoes are slightly magnetized when a cord is plugged in. Not sure if that means anything or not.

 

[Nuuska]

An interesting thing is that the shoes are slightly magnetized when a cord is plugged in. Not sure if that means anything or not.

First thing to pop in my mind is that there must be some DC involved. Either battery-operated onboard preamp or DC in the input of the amp.

Especially if it is the latter I'd check quick for that and rectify the problem before smoke exits.

 

[Happy Face]

First thing to pop in my mind is that there must be some DC involved. Either battery-operated onboard preamp or DC in the input of the amp.

Especially if it is the latter I'd check quick for that and rectify the problem before smoke exits.

Thanks. Its always good to learn about potential issues. But the magnetic field is very weak, so I assumed the magnetic pull was in line with the 60s horseshoes which did have magnetized shoes.

FYI, the pickups sport blade rather than post magnets. If that means anything in this case.

 

[lungimsam]

Are they toasters? You can use toasters in either position. The neck version for the neck. The guitar version for the bridge pup. They are identical except the mounting holes on the pup covers are different. The neck version has threaded holes so the mounting bolts can thread in under the pickguard. The guitar version has no threaded mounting holes since it gets direct mounted to the carriage in the bridge pocket.

 

[Happy Face]

The neck pickup on my Magic Tuxedo has a knock-off toaster on board. The horseshoe knock-off was created from scratch.

When I A/B'd the CS and Tux, the CS sounded a little better. I narrowed it down to the toaster in the neck spot so I put one into the Tux.

 

[lungimsam]

Interestingly, a Bisonic is just as bright and present as a toaster. They look totally different but provide that single coil presence really well.