It has a two piece alder body, twin truss rods, carbon fibre stringer and a six bolt neck joint.
I used Dimarzio DP123 (Model J) pickups at the time, as that was what was available.
Did pleanty of gigs, loads of fun!
The Dimarzios had a fair growl but tended to be one dimentional sounding and it made little difference playing with the controls. The brutish nature of this well dressed bass earned it its name, "Hannibal"
Some years later I wanted to make it sound a bit more pretty, so in went EMGs. I traded one dimension for another and I could never make the EMGs sit nicely in the mix, and the sound did not sit nicely on my spine... However the EMGs were studio quiet so It stayed this way for a few years...
The EMGs eventually annoyed me enough and the Dimarzios went back in with a fresh harness, by this time the bass was getting on to be about 12 years old and was starting to season really well.. However once again the lack of colour was enough for me to give it one last shot..
I wanted a tradational Alnico pickup and with little funds I purchased some Giovanni J pickups (that was Artecs vintage spec line)
I fitted a steel load plate under each pickup (like a Telecaster) as Alnico pickups love a lump of steel to keep them fresh, it also will stretch the magnetic field a bit (like a P90 pickup) and can deepen the tone a little.
While I was in there I shielded everything...
I got more than I bargained for…
Good grief it is loud! It is louder than my Music Man. They are just 7.5-7.8kohm pickups but either the steel plate or something else rendered it with a monster output. But how is the tone?
To be honest it is very colourful with heaps of variation. The neck pickups has a touch of Precision in the low end and has a bit of Rickenbacker toaster in there for good mix. The treble pickup is really useable as well. The blend gives you all sorts of stuff that the other pickups simply wouldn’t
Overall the sound is thick, edgy but with a touch of angelic chime (not the ceramic nasty treble) and the tone control takes the hair out of it without going too dull.
So… Cheap Artec pickups can give you some nice surprises, and are well worth a shot…
Eden.
