71beast Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 hey guys. new to the gibson forum. i'm a bassist, but have a few guitars, including my much beloved gibson les paul, and just got my first gibson bass, but it a bit of a project and hoping someone here may have some info i need to get it back to it's former glory. so here's the story, project, and info i've got so far. i recently got my hands on a 1978 gibson rd artist bass that was actually refinished by the gibson factory in 1979 in white due to the original owner always wanting it in white, but it never being offered. long story short, at some point parts were stripped from it, mainly the pickups and hardware, but i've got the all important moog board and the body/neck which is in real good shape. i'm working on restoring it back to its full glory, but the pickups basically don't exist and no one repos them, so i've spoken to pickup builder who really wants to make them for me, but i feel like i need more info that the impedance, size, and magnet type. i was able to find out the impedance (6.6k) and the magnet (indox vii), which is basically nonexistent at this point. so we figure we're going to have to make something a little different then the originals. i've called gibson and they emailed me some stuff from their archive that has some info i need, but not everything, so i figure i should give moog a call and see if they have any info on these. so, i'm hoping some one here may know some of the other characteristics of the pickups, like inductance, and possibly the impedance for each of the two coils in the pickup so the pickup builder can work on something that will play well with the moog board. any help would be much appreciated. i really fell in love with the body design, the electronics and history make it really special, not to mention one of the best feeling necks i've ever laid my hands on. i'm really dying to resurrect it back to it's former glory. also, if anyone knows where i could get a stock pickup set that would be amazing too, cause then i can have the custom pickups and the stock ones. thanks in advance guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvinator Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 Hello &Welcome! Wow - That's an ambitious project. Try posting in Repair & Restoration: http://forum.gibson....nd-restoration/ You might find some help there.. Also, send a PM to "rd_artist" (page 37 on the members list) - he may have some insight. I hope you find what you need. Keep us posted. We would all like to see some pics if you have a chance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71beast Posted November 16, 2015 Author Share Posted November 16, 2015 Hello &Welcome! Wow - That's an ambitious project. Try posting in Repair & Restoration: http://forum.gibson....nd-restoration/ You might find some help there.. Also, send a PM to "rd_artist" (page 37 on the members list) - he may have some insight. I hope you find what you need. Keep us posted. We would all like to see some pics if you have a chance... will do, and thanks man. i know it's pretty ambitious, but then again anything worth doing is never going to be easy. luckily i've got some experience refinishing some guitars and basses, plus i've built a few too. i only took a few picks before i stripped her. the original finish was not in the best of shaped and coming off. i found some repair work that was done back in the day that wasn't the best, so right now i'm working on taking care of it. my understanding is that during this time some of the finishing work wasn't the best, so my goal is to have her come out better then when she left the factory. i'm really taking my time with prep and getting the body straight as an arrow. plus i figure the pickups are going to take a while to make and find, so by the time i get the pickups the body will be ready to just throw them in. one of the things that's positive is that since the hardware was removed and sold, it's going to be replaced with some nice upgrades like a supertone bridge, and hipshot tuners. i'm definitely going to start a refinish thread, but going to wait a bit cause i'm taking it real slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grog Posted November 17, 2015 Share Posted November 17, 2015 They do show up from time to time on ebay. This one just ended less than a month ago........... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-70s-Gibson-RD-Bass-Guitar-Neck-Pickup-6-67-ORIGINAL-VINTAGE-/381444128736?_trksid=p2141725.m3662.l6403 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassilisk Posted November 17, 2015 Share Posted November 17, 2015 Congrats - that's a very ambitious project indeed. Used to be the Moog board that would glitch and get discarded. Those are like hen's teeth compared to finding the pickups and the fact you have one is remarkable. I had a 77 RD Artist in Fireburst that was fully functional. I was never crazy about all the Moog enhancement but I thought those pickups sounded awesome. Mark V Humbuckers: “RD Artist humbucker Gibson part number 13066 (front and back pickups identical). Two Indox VII magnets per pickup. Resistance is around 6.5kΩ. Dimensions: 73.5mm x 42mm x 27.3mm. The RD artist bass pickups connect to the Moog circuit board, but are not soldered directly to it; instead they use three-pin connectors which clip to the board.” I found this, but the impedance is wrong. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gibson-Bass-Pickup-20-20-RD-Artist-Humbucker-1980s-Steinberger-/221941059883 Could be a long wait for any pickups to show up. That one that just sold was a rare thing for sure. You might be better off having a set made and just run with it. Good luck on the resurrection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvinator Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 ... one of the things that's positive is that since the hardware was removed and sold, it's going to be replaced with some nice upgrades like a supertone bridge, and hipshot tuners. i'm definitely going to start a refinish thread, but going to wait a bit cause i'm taking it real slow. I've used Hipshot bridges on almost all of my basses for years. I have a Supertone on my SG bass and like it; I tried that bridge on my '71 EB3L, but due to the neck angle it was too tall. I installed a Babicz 3-point on the EB3L (which took care of the height issue), and I have to say that it's far superior to the Supertone. It improved the tone, sustain, clarity, and harmonics; I could hear a huge improvement - even unplugged! Except for string spacing (which you won't need), it's infinitely adjustable, and it does everything they say it will. It's the best 3-point replacement out there (IMHO). http://www.fullconta...ibson-style.htm Please take some shots of your step by step progress, we all want to see it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71beast Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 hey guys. haven't check this in a while cause oddly enough i didn't get an email telling me there was a response, weird....... in any event. yea i saw the one pickup that the guy wanted $200 for, which despite the rarity is just ridiculous especially for just one. i was debating about sending him an email to see what he would take for it, but ended up forgetting. and that other one i'm certain doesn't go to an rd artist, the mounting holes are off, and i've never seen one that says gibson on it, but i could be wrong. i figure that custom pickups are the way to go, and the guys that are going to make them are super into the project. in fact one of them used to have an rd artist in the 90's, sold it and says he still misses it and wants it back. i know the Moog board is rarer then unicorn dust, so i'm glad i have it. as far as i know it's all good, but may end up replacing the electrolytic caps to be sure, since really they have a shelf life of 25ys. shouldn't be too hard to deal with if there's something wrong with it, i actually have a small pedal company and been building for years, just started selling about a year ago locally and now selling online. but in any event, my biggest concern is getting pickups that work well with the Moog board, i'm worried the original pickups were special to match the board. the bridge and neck had the same dc resistance of 6.5k, which is low and you normally don't have both pickups the same resistance. i called gibson, but the guy i talked to sent me some info they had on the bass, including their factory schematic, but no info on inductance or anything. i was thinking about calling Moog and seeing if they have anything on this monster, just haven't had time. in my head i'm thinking if i could do something like vintage spec thunderbird pickups in it and add an active passive switch in the cavity or replace one of the volume pots with a push pull. it was hard to pass up getting what may be a 1 of 1 bass. i've always wanted a white thunderbird, but love the smoother lines of the rd artist and the just oddball nature of the Moog electronics. the funny thing is i had just passed up a white thunderbird like a week before this showed up and had to jump on it. thanks for the suggestion on the FCH and personal experience you have with it, no one else really gave an explanation. i'll be honest i love the look of the supertone, and thing the lines match the rd so well, but if the FCH really changes the tone, sustain, clarity, and harmonics i may have to go for it. the one thing that i really don't like about it is that it's made overseas though. i'll post some pics in the other thread i started in the restoration section. there was some body damage i had to fill, which according to the guy i talked to at gibson is the reason it went in for the refinish. it's nothing major, just a line of filler from and back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71beast Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 i promised i would post some pics as soon as i could. finally was able to transfer what i took on my phone and transfer it to my computer. so some teasers. here's how she arrived: not the best of shape, not the worst. if you look closely you can see a crack in the paint that's straight up the side. this is what caused me to remove some finish and see what was below. what i saw shocked me, and made me decide on a full restore of the body and paint. and here's how she is after stripping the finish: you can see where the original owner damaged her on tour back in '79 which caused the send in to gibson and the refinish. looks like she was originally a natural finish. it's amazing that you can see how the pickguard preserved the natural wood that much in a year of touring. currently i've been working on filling the original repair, all the dents in the body, and evening some places i felt weren't what they should have been when she left the factory. she's nearly lazer straight. so hopefully after the last application of filler, which was the 4th time, she'll be ready for sealer. then it will be onto primer, paint, and sealer. i plan on sand each coat to keep everything flat as possible before the clear. just like a high end automotive paint job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beate Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Back to the pickups. Maybe You ask Curtis Novak if he ever encountered an RD Artist humbucker. Otherwise You ave a lot of information on the PUs to make an intelligent guess: The dimensions include the size of the ears, don't they? If yes, the actual pickup might have just the size of a guitar humbucker. That can be easily tested, and You can find black plastic covers, but only with 2 screws on each side. Now the construction: humbuckers usually have two coils in series, yielding a DC resistance of 3.3-3.4 kOhms per coil. In connection with the thickness of the wire (AWG 42?), an experienced pickup maker can make reasonable guess on the coils (that might indeed simply be humbucker coils taken from the normal guitar production). But 13.2 kOhms per coil and AWG43 connected in parallel are also possible, yet less probably than the first. Now to the magnets: within the footprint of a guitar humbucker, it is possible to either use a normal guitar humbucker, i.e. one of those relatively bright sounding T-Tops of that time (some of which have just these 6.6-6.8 kOhms... and guitar humbuckers make a really good job as bass pickups, especially those bright sounding T-Tops). On the other hand the pickups might be "thunderbucker"-alike, i.e. the magnets are used as blades in the bobbins. (Or they might be sidewinders, but it does not look as if that was is the case.) If You do not insist on originality, either construction will lead to a great tone. I am actually using thunderbucker-alike pickups in those black guitar humbucker covers on the shortscale RD interpretation i built, and they are great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.