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Alembic Club » Dreaming... for now » Archive through October 06, 2007 » Archive 2004 » Archive through November 22, 2004 » Question about pickups « Previous Next »

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son_of_magni
Member
Username: son_of_magni

Post Number: 98
Registered: 1-2004
Posted on Monday, September 06, 2004 - 8:03 am:   Edit Post

AXY vs MXY pickups, is the only difference the shape/size? The sound and output is the same?
adriaan
Advanced Member
Username: adriaan

Post Number: 301
Registered: 6-2002
Posted on Monday, September 06, 2004 - 8:27 am:   Edit Post

Yes, the MXY is the same pickup. The housing of the AXY is larger than necessary, and IIRC they tried to make the housing look better on the newer body shapes (which in general are smaller than the older ones).

The FatBoys are the same size as AXYs, but they can't be made any smaller because they use the larger magnet also used in the Series pickups.
bkbass
Member
Username: bkbass

Post Number: 66
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 - 4:51 pm:   Edit Post

Depending on the model and electronics pkg.MightI suggest the axy over the mxy's so that later on you can upgrade with fat boys or mix and match.
dannobasso
Intermediate Member
Username: dannobasso

Post Number: 133
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 - 8:02 pm:   Edit Post

I think AXY's look cooler!
Danno
bob
Advanced Member
Username: bob

Post Number: 309
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 - 10:11 pm:   Edit Post

All good points (though why were you asking in the first place, SoM?), so here's one more...

Since an AXY is just an MXY in a larger housing, roughly twice the necessary size, it is possible to place the coil in different positions.

I started out with two FatBoys, but wasn't entirely satisfied with the neck pickup, thinking I wanted it positioned closer to the bridge. So Mica suggested that (rather than gouging out big chunks of wood...) we could replace it with an AXY, in which the coil was offset as far as possible towards the bridge.

She walked back into the shop, and came out with one like that just a few minutes later (still warm from casting), and I love it. I don't know how much of it is due to the narrower aperture (vs. a FatBoy) and how much is due to moving the pickup a little closer to the bridge, but it works for me.

On the invoice, Mica billed it as the 'cast down south' pickup, because of the offset coil. Perhaps I'm out of line in mentioning this, as I have no idea whether this is something they would be happy to do often, nor whether they would charge extra.

And I should emphasize that the difference here was in going from a FatBoy to an offset coil in an AXY - shifting the coil within an AXY would probably not be nearly as noticeable.

But for me, it worked out great.
-Bob
son_of_magni
Member
Username: son_of_magni

Post Number: 99
Registered: 1-2004
Posted on Wednesday, September 08, 2004 - 4:58 am:   Edit Post

I can't afford another Alembic, so I've decided to build a bass. I ran across some awesome wood and I have connections at a good wood shop. The body of this bass won't be as big as my Alembic so I figured I'd go with the smaller pickups as long is it didn't compromise the sound.
6-string fretless
Alembic hardware and electronics
bookmatched burl walnut front and back

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