PickUp wiring help ...

impmann

TTony said:

Funkfingers said:

1) The pickups may be more valuable than first imagined.
2) As good as they probably are, the sound might not be what you had in mind for your project bass guitar.

OK, you've got me a little worried now.

If they have some sort of collectible value,  I wonder whether I should actually use them!

TBH, few people except nerds like me will get excited about KA pickups, more the pity. The last pair of handwound Kent Armstrong Humbuckers I had sold for less than £100 the pair... they are rare, but valuable... not so sure.

TTony

impmann said:

. they are rare, but valuable... not so sure.

I've got a lot of guitars that fit that description

rpr

Sky pickups were a range designed by Armstrong, but made in the far east.  Came out in the late 90s, early 2000s. Budget brand about £30 apiece IIRC. Bandmate had them  in a Telecaster copy, sounded  pretty nice. Local guitar tech supplied and fitted them - Never really seen them in the shops,but they did appear in the WD catalouge at the time

ICBM

impmann said:

8KT - 8k ohms Total.

Or 8000 turns?

Bridgehouse

ICBM said:

impmann said:

8KT - 8k ohms Total.

Or 8000 turns?

Is a turn the same as a wind, or is a wind 2 turns? Is a turn 180 degrees or 360 degrees?

TTony

ICBM said:

impmann said:

8KT - 8k ohms Total.

Or 8000 turns?

They measured 4.8k each for 9.66k as the pair.

normula1

I've a couple of his far eastern SKY models sat in a box somewhere. They're more than acceptable and I was planning to use the Strat one in the partscaster in my recent GK3 butchery thread.

I met him at one of  the Guitarist magazine shows in the early nineties and he came across as a nice guy.

impmann

ICBM said:

impmann said:

8KT - 8k ohms Total.

Or 8000 turns?

I think that's more likely - tbh, I meant to put a question mark at the end of that, as I didn't know.  I wonder if the other number relates to the wire gauge?

TTony

I've emailed the man directly, so if he replies with any info, I'll post it here.

normula1 said:

I've a couple of his far eastern SKY models sat in a box somewhere. 

I *think* these say "6KT" and "8KT" respectively rather than "SKY", but hopefully I'll get some clarification in due course ...

Bridgehouse

TTony said:

I've emailed the man directly, so if he replies with any info, I'll post it here.

normula1 said:

I've a couple of his far eastern SKY models sat in a box somewhere. 

I *think* these say "6KT" and "8KT" respectively rather than "SKY", but hopefully I'll get some clarification in due course ...

Definitely KT from your photo - esp on the Jazz

Sesh

TTony said:

Funkfingers said:

1) The pickups may be more valuable than first imagined.
2) As good as they probably are, the sound might not be what you had in mind for your project bass guitar.

OK, you've got me a little worried now.

If they have some sort of collectible value,  I wonder whether I should actually use them!

They're no good in a box. Best strap them to some wood and wobble some wire in front of them.

TTony

Sesh said:

. Best strap them to some wood.

I thought I'd use some screws. 

And probably some solder  at the other end  too.

Bridgehouse

TTony said:

Sesh said:

. Best strap them to some wood.

I thought I'd use some screws. 

And probably some solder  at the other end  too.

You just have to be different, don't you?

Sesh

TTony said:

Sesh said:

. Best strap them to some wood.

I thought I'd use some screws. 

And probably some solder  at the other end  too.

Fancy, indeed. I expect you'll tune the wobble wire too.

TTony

Sesh said:

. I expect you'll tune the wobble wire too.

Don't be daft - it's a bass.

Bridgehouse

TTony said:

Sesh said:

. I expect you'll tune the wobble wire too.

Don't be daft - it's a bass.

And let's face it there's a load of guitarists that don't bother either..

Roland

Tony. Why don’t you put them up for sale, and buy a set of bass pickups which suit your preferred sound?

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

Is a turn the same as a wind, or is a wind 2 turns? Is a turn 180 degrees or 360 degrees?

Turns = winds.

TTony

impmann said:

Wow... Tony... rare pickups. Those are hand wound units by Kent himself back in the day (probably 80s) when he was based near Ashford, Kent.

@impmann ;
Just had an email reply back from Kent, saying that he's forwarded my enquiry to his son Aaron - who's still in@ ;

Hopefully I'll get some definitive info on the when, what & who of these units.

TTony

Just to finish this thread ... Had a very helpful reply back from Aaron Armstrong;

    To wire in series, link 1 and 4 then join X to 3 and run to earth, use 2 as the live. With the p-bass just use the big tags as the earth along with one of the small tags, use the remaining tag on that half to link it to the same tag on the other half. Then use the last small tag as the live out.

    The pickups are hand made by me by the looks of the hand writing, although my dads hand writing is pretty similar to mine (pretty un-tidy!). The p-bass pickup has a slightly thinner gauge wire than a standard p-bass, and slightly less turns with a ceramic magnet, this should give you a bright punchy sound. The jazz pickup is an SS humbucker (2 coils are on their sides with magnets in them and a blade of steel running down the length of the pickup. This should give you good attack but not the usual unwanted back ground hum of a jazz bass.

(His references to 1, 4, X, etc refer back to the pics I posted in this thread).

All the parts (pots, knobs, etc) arrived from axesrus yesterday, so, off to do some wiring today and hopefully get the thing put together.