Been using a little art valve preamp on the last few gigs and it's made all the difference to the overall volume and tone. It's now got me wondering wether I should add an active circuit preamp? To be honest I didn't really want to turn this into a bass that had lots of money thrown at it, after all I went cheap just so it could get beaten up at gigs. Anyway enough waffle, it's going well, have played it lots at gigs and just written 4 new B lines for the next album on the SII. I tell you what, you don't appreciate how nice a graphite neck is until you've been away from one for a while!

He'll never do well in America with that attitude!

Here is Robs response.
Hi Danny,
The individual pickups can't be out of phase but it is possible to have one out of phase with the other. This would give a big drop in volume and very thin tone when both pickups are on.

There is only one red + wire on the pickups so it's not easy to get it wrong. The earth has to go to the earth and the live to the solder terminal on the pot where the original wire was.

The output should be similar to the original pickups but may be a fraction lower as I prefer the quality of tone rather than quantity.

Best regards, Rob Green An answer within 1 day!! He's the man!

Is that similar to the prolapsed clapper valve? Normally used by 40 yr old plus male bassists? Not sure Status stock them but freely available on the net.

Have you tried a reverse koogat intinuator?

So, ok now the gig is done I can report no major mishaps. However, as good as the new pups sound, they're not very loud in output. Now this could possibly be some impedance type thing I know nothing about or maybe I need to upgrade the pots or remove the resistor thingy? I am over the moon with the tone still but really need to get the volume or output up. Any ideas, I could use a pedal preamp but I just kind of want to go straight in the amp.

Well done Danny!

P.S. I will forgive you based on the beer sent my way....

Thanks, hope I haven't offended any Status purists by joining the two in holy matrimony!:D

Nice work buddy.

:)

Ok, lame, I didn't do enough pictures but you'll get the gist.
Iv'e kind of retired the S2 from the live work for a bit, it's had over a year on the road and I was getting fed up of near misses. So for now she's retired next to my Streamer! The look and sound of the band is a bit retro anyway and my Red Status necked P bass has been awesome. Last month I saw a 'Steal' a 5 string Esquire P bass special with Jazz Pups for £100...deal done. The pick ups were shite and the output worse! So in a nut shell, here's how this afternoon started...
Followed by a bit of screening, to be redone when my copper tape gets here.

The difficulty in fitting the new Status ones was, although wiring diagrams are readily available most 'Fender' wires are black and white, the Status ones are red

...no paper work comes with them, something I will address with Rob! It was pure guesswork from herein knowing what wires to solder. After a little persuasion with a chisel the bridge pup sat in sweet and off I soldered. By the way I was tempted with these as well as Delano, Bartolini's...these are by Q -Tuner, quite impressive. So after some swearing and realising I hadn't recorded a comparison file for you all Doh! I finished with a minor earth hum that I attended to. Plugged in and an amazing tonal difference, very thick bottom, bright top. Very Status but missing the zing and resonance of the Graphite neck, but I'm well happy, going to gig the bad boy tomorrow night.

So I eventually went Status, when all's said and done, you get a great product and a great service! Dawn called me today to say they are in the post, I will see what improvement they do to our old 'driftwood' p bass special! I will photograph the hatchet job and post it up, maybe even a sound test to compare!

I have pm'd you Jacko.
Rob replied, all be it short and sweet. Status 'j' pups use the blade magnet system, basically it is the length of the pup. I need to get this done very soon so I will have to make a decision. When I do the exchange I'll take some pictures of my soldering skills:D (No foundry or welding pictures please guys);)

if you want i can ask one of my bass builders in germany that are buying a lot of Delano if they have any in stock but you have to send me the model

Still searching at the moment, I have narrowed it down though to a few specific models, the Bartolini's, the Status and the Delano's. In fairness the Status are the most cost effective at £51 each making it £102 for a pair whereas the other two are around the £140-160 mark for a pair. There are some great European deals as there are American but it's that blasted import tax, I got stung before on a mic I bought. German websites offer some good prices on Delano's but not much saving. I did get through to Dawn but it's really a Rob thing so I am awaiting his response. Has anyone added some status pups to a stock bass before?

Well , if you like them & the price is right , you know them anyways , I ll go for them

Lol I gathered! Didn't expect the market to be difficult to define, between the two specific string sets. The Bartolinis look great but very expensive and after all this is really just to ramp up the output of the bass without dragging preamps along to every gig. It worked for my other statii p bass, I put quarter pounders in that and it has huge fatness and volume, I just want to do the same on this bass!

Woops , 4&5 string i meant

As for the materials for the magnets , this is something else . You can have Alnico 2 , Al 5 , ceramic (louder than Al & cheaper too ) Cobalt Samarium magnets & so on , Aero Instrument uses Alnico 5 on their PUs ( Used by Fodera as an example ) , but @ the end , it s your tastes

It s the same specs for 4 7 5 string PUs buddy

Thanks guys, I have but I haven't checked them out.
As ever I am fairly loyal to status as the products are great and very competitively priced(apart from postage costs!) Rob never produces shite and would never put his name to them, even if the product is outsourced.

There does seem to be several designs out there, ones with 5 pole piece magnets, some with a magnet bar running the length of the pick up, some using different magnet material (cobalt?) and different winding specs to vary outputs. I think I will try the Status J's but the information on the site is a little bit non descriptive. I will try and phone again to try and ask Rob if he is packing 5 pole magnets into the 5 string J's.