Looking for information on building bass pickups

[Jim Bonnell]

I'm thinking of building another bass and would like to wind my own pickups for it. The only thing I seem to be able to find parts for is just the standard Fender P Bass and J Bass and I would like to build something different. I would like it to be fairly versatile. I've read a few books on pickups, but they don't have much on bass pickups. I would really appreciate any help on parts supply and any suggestions on specs. Thanks.

[Greg Robinson]

GuitarJonesUSA have Musicman and EMG bass covers that could be used with bobbins made from flatwork.
Mojotone has a wide range of covers, bobbins and flatwork for different styles of bass pickups.
A good source of magnet wire is to check the BAE magnet wire store on eBay, they don't always have the gauges we want available, but when they do, it's probably the cheapest source available.

This should help get you started, good luck!

[David King]

For magnets there's an ebay store and webstore under the name Addiction FX. Nice sounding mags in many alloys, diameters and lengths at reasonable prices.
Last I heard Guitar Jones (a division of WSC) stock was being slowly liquidated on ebay but Mojo has been taking up a lot of the slack. The Music Electronics Forum pickup page has years worth of bass pickup data you can dig through.
If you want a brighter pickup that has good fundamental I'd say start with HFV or HPN in 42AWG. Lower grade alnicos (II, III, IV) will get you sweeter mellower tones. The A5-8 will be a bit more in-your-face. Forbon is available from McMaster and Stewmac.

[Jim Bonnell]

Thanks a lot guys. That should be a good to start researching.

[David Schwab]

You probably wont get anything from GuitarJonesUSA. The last time I tried to order they canceled the order. Someone else has been selling off their pickup parts on ebay:
http://stores.ebay.com/gj-guitarpart-sh ... s-/_i.html

Mojo has most of the same style parts now.