Retrofitting hb2 pickups

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 10:57 am

I figured out how to retrofit the hb2 pickups so they can cover a 2 3/4" string spacing. This could be a great benefit for 4004cii5 owners.

I went to radio shack a purchased 10 very small rare earth magnets and I glued them to the top of one single coil and one double coil hb2 pickups. The old HB2 pickups from the mid 80s were actually single coil pickups.

The neck pickup is a dual coil hb2 from a 4004cii5 bass ... the bridge pickup is a single hb2 ...

here's the hb2 neck pickup ...

and here are 2 shots of the bridge pickup ...

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 11:42 am

Well I tested it ... I get equal volume on all 5 strings ... but the G string has an alien tremolo flanging sound ... it is kind of weird ...

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:05 pm

Bad string maybe?
A cool idea. Painted black they'd hardly be noticeable.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:36 pm

nope I think the problem is even though those magnets are really tiny they are too string ... the magnetic field changes the way the string vibrates ... actually all of the strings have a tremolo problem but the bottom 4 is not very noticeable ...

I kind of suspected the rare earth magnets would be too strong ... but I couldn't find alnico 5 magnets that small ... I thought I could back off the pickup height enough to compensate ... but as I go up the neck the strings get too close to the pickups and the magnets cause artificial harmonics that are out of tune with the note being played ...

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:24 pm

That bridge looks really familiar.....and it will adjust down to a hair over 2 7/16"......which is really good for......making a 4004......a really great instrument......that is all...

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:27 pm

LOL!

Were the HB-2's only from the 2020/2060?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 4:50 pm

hb2 pickups were used on all of the 2000 series basses and 200 series guitars ... the first few years the hb2 were actually single coil pickups the somewhere about 1988-1990 range they switched to the humbucker version. Then they also used the hb2 pickups in the 4004cii5.

That is a schaller bridge in that picture adjusted to 2 11/16" ...

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:54 pm

Jeff, what about the plastic refridgerator magnets? You could cut them into circles, strips, any shape and play around with strength to see how much pull would be acceptable. Then worry about finding the magnets you want.

Also, you have mail.