Question about Seymour Duncan Mosrite bass pickup

[guitarjangle]

Hi-I'm working on a custom bass and want to use a reissue Mosrite bass pickup. Does anyone have experience with the Seymour Duncan Mosrite bass pickup? I'm trying to figure out whether the cover can be removed/replaced so I can build my own cover for it. Thanks, Joe

[olrocknroller]

I've removed the chrome covers from Stewmac's humbuckers, and all I had to do was cut through the solder holding it on, and slide it off. If you discover that it's wax-potted, as I did, I put them in the toaster oven at 175 deg and watched, leaving them only long enough for the ugly stuff on the outside to melt... They look good now, and sound noticeably brighter than with the covers on.

[raygun85]

I have no experience with Seymour Duncan's Mosrite-style pickups but if they're put together like a typical Mosrite then you may not be able to get the covers off, because they're usually epoxied together. The epoxy has a tendency to dry out over time and sometimes the covers can slide off of the assembly with a little assistance, but I don't recommend it because you may damage your pickup cover. On a new replaceable pickup from a modern manufacturer, you may not be as concerned with preserving the plastic cover. So sometimes you can cut it with some sheers or dykes and gradually peel it off, just be careful not to damage the coil.

[oipunkguy]

why not have a pickup made from one of the regulars here on the forum and just have it made without the cover? I'd do it for ya if you wanted me to, im sure others will as well. seymour is great, but in my opinion mosrite style pickups should be left to the mosrite experts, i.e. The guys on this forum.

[vibramutant1965]

the duncan product is expensive, might as well buy from a mosrite supplier, these guys need our support, particularly these days......

[Bob Shade]

You may want to call Duncan if you are set on one of there pickups, however I do agree with oipunkguy and vibramutant.

Duncan has not studied the Mosrite pickup or made nearly as many as we have. I am hesitant to think you would get a better product there. There pickups are only would to about 8K ohms which is really more of a P90 sound, not Mosrite.

Best of luck,

Bob

[raygun85]

We've restored a few pickups that measured in the 8-9K range before - well, at least one was reported by the customer to have been in that range, the other we worked on was still getting a reading when measuring the resistance. They were also the regular styled pickups with the Mosrite logo embedded in them and exposed pole-pieces. Have you ever come across any like that, Bob? In that range? I've never been sure about their production dates. It was always my understanding that some of the early Mosrite pickups were wound pretty low, like the pre-Ventures era and maybe even a few of the early Ventures models. It seems like I remember seeing a Mosrite bass pickup on eBay a while back that measured around 8.5K, I think?

Anyway, my whole point is that maybe SD was copying early versions? I've always wondered about that myself. It seems logical that they would want to make the hotter versions, or at least offer an option. I'd be interested to know if they just slapped a P-90 style bobbin in there like most Mosrite pickup imitations, or if they actually replicated the vintage spec dimensions? But, seeing as how Seymour Duncan dominates such a wide market, I seriously doubt they're too concerned with a little niche market for Mosrite enthusiasts. I think the reason why a lot of Mosrite aftermarket and replacement parts and instruments are becoming available is because most of us got tired of waiting and decided to do it ourselves.

[Bob Shade]

Yes I have seen those weaker wound Mosrite pickups. Those were made after Mosrite purchased a automated winder from Micro-Frets when Micro-Frets went belly up and were selling off all of their equipment. This was in late 67 I believe and not long before Mosrite went bankrupt themselves.

Around the same time were the Mosrite pickups with an aluminum plate on the bottom. I am not sure if these were actually put into production or not but I have come across several.

Semie was attempting a way to make a pickup super fast so he had the aluminum plates stamped out to the exact measurements of the bottom on the pickup which included the height adjustment tabs.

These were the non bobbin variety coils with magnets and the bobbin quickly glued in place. They hardly weighed anything. It felt like you had almost nothing in your hand. They looked the same from the top though. I never thought they sounded as good. These measured out to apr. 10K ea.

Bob

[raygun85]

Interesting, that accounts for a few of those lower-output versions. Maybe Seymour Duncan was attempting to copy those. Depending on the thickness of the aluminum, it can be a real tone-killer. I've never come across one with the aluminum myself, but I have heard other people describe the tone as "very weak." A 10K pickup is certainly no slouch when it comes to high-output pickups, especially for the 60s, so I would imagine that the aluminum probably was a major culprit in sapping the output and resonant frequency. I think Bill Lawrence even mentioned that it can suck as much 60% of your tone, depending on the gauge of aluminum.

Ironically, Tony Hunt gave us a ring out of the blue today, just to talk shop. In between giving us some more tips on pickups, he told my dad that Semie used to wind a lot of those 'free coils' on a coke bottle, and that he only relied on the wooden centerpiece for lining up his screws. The coils below both measured just under 12K. He mentioned that Semie used to tap some of his coils the same way we do our Dual Tones. I sure would love to get a hold of a pair of those. I'd love to know what guitar(s) they're mounted on. If that's true, then Semie, once again, was likely ahead of his time since coil-tapping didn't really pick up any popularity until the 70's. Even then, it wasn't very common.