Dale Fortune made me a bobbin in the same style as the early '60s ones, and affixed it to the HS magnets and baseplate I sent him, which were culled from a (really, actually thrashed and unplayable, no really, I can prove it, I didn't hack up a good instrument, I swear!) lap steel. He wound it to right about 8K, to match well with the short-pole '60s toaster I had in there already. I got it yesterday and stuck it in there last night and went to rehearsal with a friend I play with, and I've been goofing around with it this morning/afternoon with my full stage rig set up in my apartment (sorry, neighbors!).
Verdict: it certainly solves the problem of not enough top end! It's bright and brash and extremely clanky - exactly what I needed to accentuate. There's a noticeable increase in the "boingy" response from the Rotos, and a lot of (very pleasant) harmonic distortion. Interesting phenomena: the pole pieces are actually much more sensitive to "directionality" than I would have guessed based on the physical nature of the HS magnets. Bending the strings off the poles, for instance, definitely results in a noticeable level drop, just like on a P-90 or other protruding pole-piece pickup. Also, as I suspected, it doesn't have enough "oomph" to drive my little "Jack Bruce" diode circuit I put in my switchbox. And I will likely need to readjust my other stage basses to get the treble pickups' overall output in line with this one. But boy, it really changes the whole character of the bass. Going as I do for the Chris Squire sound as a "base-line" tone (ooh, bad!), it does clearly put me in that ballpark immediately. If anything, I expect I'll spend even more time on stage with both volume and tone pots down to around 8, just to keep the last bits of "clank" in reserve. And yes, the .0047 cap's staying in - it also seems to have much greater effect with this HS than the old RI one. At some point I may try "jumpering" it just to hear the pickup in it's full unadulterated glory, but the cap's so much of what I rely on for my stage sound that I'm not messing with it now.
I also finally replaced my crummy voltmeter with a decent one, and read the old RI HS just to see, and it's wound to 13K! No wonder! I plan to unwind it before it goes on the next bass it's destined for (which is still unknown at the present....)
I know my conversion may seem backwards to some of you (weak pickups? Jeff Rath?
), or seem to be me misguidedly chasing something impossible or foolish (replicating a '60s bass with a '90s reissue doesn't, does it?), but it has given me a much greater appreciation for the original '60s basses and all their quirks, and how those basses in the right hands changed the sound of the bass guitar in rock music. Besides, this is as close as I think I'll ever come to the "real thing" (and the neck's sorta stable too!)....
Another reason to wish I'd grown up in CA. I've seen one Rick steel here. In really good shape.
