Bass humbuckers . . .

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:38 am

Sorry for the non-Ric-related topic. I posted this in the "Others" section, but thought I would ask here too, as everyone here plays bass (I assume), and that way I can get more opinions/advice/direction. Here's my original post:

"I've got a bit of a dilemma. I have a 1978 custom bass guitar (the brand is "Odyssey", it was made by a Canadian guy whose name I forget, who died in a car crash in the late '80s . . . he worked with Alembic for a bit, I believe) that I purchased off of eBay for approximately $300, including the original brass nut and bridge assembly, but sans the tuners, pickup rings, and pickups.

I just recently got a set of gold Grover Titan tuners and put them on the bass, and now I am looking to get the pickups (and the rings to go with them). The original pickups, which I did not manage to win on eBay (I have NO IDEA why this guy parted out the bass . . . he would've gotten a lot more for the intact bass than for the individual parts), were Bartolini Hi-A bass humbuckers. They're pretty much the exact same size as Bartolini's guitar humbuckers these days, only they were made for bass.

Does anyone know of bass pickups that have covered guitar humbucker dimensions, preferably black, and with those little side tabs allowing them to be attached to pickup rings? I found two: Schaller Bassbuckers, and Rio Grand Pitbulls. However, I have no idea where to get the Schallers, and they won't respond to my customer service inquiries. Also, Bartolini's website doesn't have an email I can reach them at, so I can't ask for a quote on custom pickups from them. I know nothing about the Rio Grande pickups. I can't find information ANYWHERE on humbucker-sized bass pickups; people always just respond with "Wait until you see some on eBay!" Unfortunately, I cannot and am not willing to do that."

I was told to check www.elderly.com for the Rio Grande Pitbulls, but they don't carry them. I have not emailed GuitarElectronics.com about Bartolini, but I would really prefer to be directly in contact with the people at Bartolini. StewMac doesn't carry Schaller bassbuckers anymore. Schaller has not answered my emails. I have no idea how ANY of these pickups sound, so even if I find a set, I don't know if it's any good or not.

HELP!!

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:48 am

Oh, and also, the pickups have to be passive, and preferably not EMG-HB pickups . . . I don't want EMGs in this bass.

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:47 am

Robert, many manufacturers are on holiday shutdown / vacation right now, so you might get answers after the holdays. It might take a while, I'm sure the manufacturers have several emails to go through when they get back after the holdays are over.

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:50 am

I think the Bass Place is an authorized Bartolini dealer, maybe they can help you.

http://www.thebassplace.com/

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:56 am

...I think Bass North West is also an aurthorized dealer
http://www.bassnw.com

...as well as Bass Alone:
http://www.bassalone.com

bigbajo60 · Post by **bigbajo60** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:06 pm

Odyssey basses, made by a man up Canada-way named Attila Ballogh.

FWIW, I do remember the pickup rings being polished brass.

Man, what memories!

When I was about 18 or 19, those Odyssey basses gave me some serious GAS!

I've got a picture of their top of the line model from back then, but I can't resize it to post.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:32 pm

Yeah, Atila Ballogh. That's him. It's a tragedy he died . . . this bass is absolutely gorgeous, and if it's any indication of the others, we're missing a lot.

The pickups for this bass were black Bartolini Hi-A humbuckers. I know there were several different models, all with almost completely different hardware; I saw one from a couple of years after mine that had a white DiMarzio P-bass pickup.

Also, I have the pictures of the bass that were posted on the eBay auction. It's completely stripped of hardware. Now it has the Grover Titans, which look amazing, but I don't have a recent picture of it.

Gimme a second and I'll upload the pictures.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:48 pm

Okay, here are the pictures. They make it look a little dull . . . in person, it's very much a shiny 'dark amber'-type color. The brass needs polishing. A LOT of polishing.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/rws10923/OdysseyBassApartCloseBack.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/rws10923/OdysseyBassApartClose.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/rws10923/OdysseyBassApartBack.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/rws10923/OdysseyBassApart.jpg

I saw it and I basically went "I NEED THAT BASS RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!"

edski · Post by **edski** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 5:19 pm

I can see that...

Should look nice when you get the parts for it. I agree the guy was stoooooooopid to part the thing out. wtf????

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:38 pm

Yeah. I found the auction for the body, and it said right there in the description that all the parts for the bass were in different auctions. I checked his other auctions, and sure enough, there were the tuners, pickups, pickup rings, and bridge assembly. I managed to win the body and bridge assembly, but the others were way too much money (except the pickups . . . they went for surprisingly little, but someone sniped me with like a minute to go). I asked him why he did that, and he didn't answer, though he answered all my other questions.