Nordstrand Big Splits

For features I recommend you check out the Nordstrand website pickup section: http://www.nordstrandpickups.com/bass-pickups/index.shtml.

These pickups replaced the stock Roscoe/Bartolini pickups in my 2008-ish Roscoe SKB6. I wanted to open up the sound of my bass, which in my opinion sounded too compressed. These pickups are wired to a stock Roscoe/Bartolini 3-band preamp--hi, low, two-way mid, blend, and volume.

I worked with Greg Bump of Rocket Music (http://www.rocketmusic.net/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?display=home). He was a consummate professional. Very helpful. He had me measure the distance from string center-to-string center and the distance from the end of the Bart pickup to the center of the B string. He then forwarded my information to Nordstrand. When the pickups arrived and were installed, I did not detect any problems with regard to the all-important alignment of pole pieces to strings. This was not so much of an issue with the Barts, I was told, as they are blade style pickups.

I should note that the pickups were installed by Andrew Henry of Henry Basses (http://www.henrybasses.com/). He is a graduate of the Indiana University String Technologies Department (and a graduate of the IU Music School). He has done work for me several times now. He builds his own basses from the ground up. I am very impressed with his build quality and look forward to one day commissioning him to build a bass for me.

With the Big Splits installed the highs now sound snappier, and the lows sound tighter. Think switching from rosewood to a maple fingerboard. That was my first impression. Even though my bass has always had a maple fingerboard, it's as though it suddenly sounded more maple-like. Moreover, I would add that with the Nordstrands the bass now sounds less hi-fi. The mids don't sound quite as squashed.

Before the switch I would often tell people my SKB bass sounded a lot like a giant P bass, though with less grunt and wolfiness. I also thought the bass sounded a little too "polite." With the Big Splits I get a slightly more aggressive sound, though I would still describe the sound as refined. Actually, with the Bart preamp and Big Split combination I now feel my bass sounds very similar to the F Bass BN5 I used to own. This is a good thing.

Very happy with the switch, not that the Roscoe/Bartolini pickups did not sound very good. I think most people would be completely satisfied with the former pickups; however, after playing my bass with the stock pickups for a year or so, I thought it was time for a change. I am very happy with the Big Splits and feel that I got very good advice from Greg Bump, the Nordstrand website, and from the reviews I read on the web.

The only downside is that buying new pickups and then paying someone to install them ain't cheap, but, hey, sometimes you gotta live a little. The only thing left I can think to mention is that Big Splits, with their two-pole-pieces-at-a-45-degree-angle-per-string layout look really, really cool. Definite style points there. You do, however, have to be careful that your Big Splits are not set too close to the strings or you will get unwanted noise from the strings coming into contact with the pole pieces. I did not experience this phenomenon with the Barts. Andrew lowered my front Big Split as the B string was making contact with the pole pieces when I really dug in with my right hand.