Musicman copy / split coil humbucker

Gavin Wheeler

Hi all , I recently put a deposit down on a Vintage EST96 ( musicman copy ).
Its a great sounding bass . There's one or two mods im curious about carrying out .

Can the humbucker be coil tapped or do I need to get an upgraded pick-up?A mate mentioned something about the amount of wires the pick up has .
Would I need to change the tone circuit along with that ?

Its an active bass , can a switch be installed so I can go from active to passive ?
If yes to both could both the switches be in the form of those pots that pop in and out , the pull/ push type ?

I tried out a cort bass ( gb 34a , gb 74a ) and on the gb 34 the volume knob popped up which switched it from passive to active and on the gb 74 it had a switch splitting the coil on the humbucker . I just thought they were pretty cool especially the volume pot which popped up and down .

Is there a way of finding this stuff out without taking my new bass apart !!

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]EST96SSB
Sunburst
£319.00 [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]LEST96SBA
Sunburst L/H
£319.00 [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]EST96BA
Black
£319.00 [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Vintage®EST96ActiveSeries[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Body: Eastern Poplar
Top: Flame Maple (AF)
Neck: Maple – Bolt On
Fingerboard: Maple
Scale: 34”/864mm
Frets: 21
Neck Inlays: Black Dot
Tuners: Wilkinson® WJBL200
Bridge: Adjustable
Pickups: Wilkinson® Humbucker x 1 (B) WSM4 – 4 string
(B) WSM5 – 5 string
Hardware: Chrome
Controls: 3-Band Active EQBass 12dB ± 5kHz / Middle 12dB ± 2kHz / Treble 12dB ± 100Hz 1 x Volume[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]EST96 Pick Up
The substantial-looking Wilkinson® WSM4 bass guitar pickup offers equally substantial bass sounds. Large diameter polepieces arranged in humcancelling double coil format offer the bassist a meaty range of solid bass tones.[/FONT]

Theres a picture and some specs if its any use .

Any advice is much appreciated , cheers

Gavin Wheeler

Dont know why the pictures came out on top of each other like that !!

eoin5

I couldn't find any info online about how many wires its got. Basically if it only got 2 or 3 wires coming from the pickup its probably not worth it. If its got 4 or 5 its got a much better chance although it might not be easy depending on the active setup. Its very easy to check, you just need to take off the plate but I guess since you dont own the bass yet its not straightforward.

Gavin Wheeler

Cheers for the reply , I didnt realise that it being active it woould make it more difficult .
How about the idea of putting an active switch in , would that be ossible ?

Do you know of any websites for parts like tone pots / pick us / tone circuits etc . I'm interested in doing a bit of geeking out on this stuff .

Cheers

eoin5

It might be possible, again youd need a look inside. Theres plenty of sites to look at, seymour duncans wouldnt be the worst. You can find out stuff on talkbass. Also http://www.guitarelectronics.com/ . Ah theres loads, get your google on

Gavin Wheeler

Cheers man , Checked out and e-mailed guitar electronics . Its a seriously comprehensive website ! I also e-mailed all the pick up makers I could find plus a bunch of shops and luthiers . Joined talkbass or some bass forum like that . Guitarfetish.com had two pick ups which might suit , at a good price too . The aul internet machine has its moments ;

reniwren

Looking at pictures from the internet its a standard dual coil humbucker with 2 wires so its more than likely more hastle than its worth, I have a triple coil in the same position as on that bass, coil tapped in one of my basses and to be honest the only different you'd notice is a drop in volume

Gavin Wheeler

Cheers for the reply . Thanks for the advice , I was starting to think maybe im getting overexcited at the thought of just having the push / pull pots !!
Apart from the drop in volume is there no change in tone at all?
Do ya reckon being able to go from passive/ active would be handy ?
I know the amp I use at home hates active basses .
Thanks again -Gav

reniwren

Just not enough of a change to warrent puttin in a coil tap, also might end up with a lot of noise it being just a humbucker, in a triple coil humbucker the 3rd Dummy coil is used to stop the hum when the pickup is tapped where as your'd end up with just a single coil on its own,
I also have a bass that switched from active to passive the pickus werent suited to passive really and i had them changed