DIY beatle bass pups

[kiramdear]

Hi Sergio

I've been thinking it would be a fun project to make some vintage hofner style pickups for my Turser beatle bass. It's a surprisingly good instrument with a good fat acoustic tone but the cheap modern pickups are the weak link in the chain. They have way too much gain and sound quite unlike the good old ones. Can you shine a light on my plans to build pickups of the c.1960 hofner era? I never tried to make a pickup, but I'm pretty handy with soldering and metalwork.

[rickcrazy]

Hi Kira!

As odd as this may sound, I'm not up on the exact early '60s Hofner bass pickup specs. Even though I've rewound a good deal (!) of them, I can't remember to what specs Having said that, I believe the Hofner tone to come not as much from the pickups proper but rather from both the instrument itself and the rather ingenious Hofner passive tone circuit. In other words, putting a Hofner pickup on a Rickenbacker bass, for instance, won't make the latter sound like a Hofner instrument. So, there you go.

I believe I have a couple original Hofner brass pickup baseplates + polepiece blocks somewhere around here. If you can use them, I'll gladly send them your way for free.

[kiramdear]

I agree with you, my bass has that acoustic hofner sound even with the cheap pickups. I think the instrument itself is the most important element of tone, then strings, then the pickups. I'll PM you for your generous offer.

Can you describe the ingenious tone circuit for me, Sergio?

[rickcrazy]

Just sent you a PM, Kira.

Well, the Hofner passive tone circuit consists of a number of capacitors and resistors and three sliding switches which effectively alter the tone of the instrument - from thumping bass to crackling treble (Hey, that could describe the tone from a good, old 4001 bass I guess )

I don't happen to have the specific 500/1 bass tone circuit schematics though. Maybe you'll find it on the Hofner site.

[kiramdear]

One can find all the diagrams and schematics for Hofner instruments here:

http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/cont.html

[kiramdear]

Yay! Sergio's gifts have arrived and I'm starting in to try to learn something and to make something from them.

Here's a real hofner pickup of the type I wish to build (yes I see it's a guitar pickup, but it's the only example I could find of a similar architecture):


I guess first thing I need is some bobbins and wire. The real bobbins look like this:
but I may have to fashion them from existing materials.
Anyone have an idea what gauge wire I should use?

Please feel free, anyone, to jump in here before I make a mess of things

[johnallg]

You probably want to stay with #42, #43, or like RIC #44 wire.

I found this site also:
http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/hofnerfs ... s/cav.html
http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/hofnerfs ... s/pup.html
http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/

[rickcrazy]

You can't go wrong with #44 wire - more output, and much easier on the somewhat frail Höfner bobbins.

About a year ago I rewound a 1974 J-Bass pickup set using #44 wire (stuck to the original ohm rating though), thereby achieving a noticeable difference in output. This guy was way overjoyed with the result! So, again, stick with #44 wire. Cheers!

[kiramdear]

Thanks for the links, John. The dating guide is interesting. The link to Bird amps is cool too.

And Sergio, thanks again. It's going a little slowly with the pickup project because I've got a lot on my table with the music right now, but we'll sort it all out in good time. .44 it shall be for the winding.

[soundmasterg]

Sergio,

Wouldn't 44 gauge wound to the same DC resistance as 42 gauge result in a thinner coil with less wire since 44 gauge will build up resistance faster than 42? I would think that would give you a weaker sound with more trebles and more compressed?

Greg

[rickcrazy]

Hey Greg!

A thinner coil? Definitely, and desirably so - the closer the entire coil is to the polepieces, the better: noticeably more output is achieved. #44 wire is the way to go - just ask RIC!
Many years ago, I re-wound a 4001 treble (= bridge) pickup with #42 wire for installing on one of my now-gone 4001 basses with the treble-pass capacitor still on. I could only cram a mere 5.5/6.0 K into the bobbin, and once I put the pickup on said 4001 the output was less than exciting...
Once re-wound again with good old #44 wire to 9.0 K, though, the pickup had so much output - even through the .0047 cap - it sounded louder than the stock neck one!
There you go.
All the best.