Pickups for hollow-body electric "Beatle Bass" clones

JLT · #1 06-26-2022, 12:42 PM

I just finished building a kit from Bargain Musicians. It's a hollow-body short-scale bass guitar similar to the Hofner "Beatle Bass"

https://www.bargainmusician.com/inc/..._style/94/1939

The electronics are adequate, but I doubt that they're the best that I can get for this. Does anybody know who makes them? I see several bass guitars of that shape in the $200-$300 price range on the Internet, and they all seem to have the same hardware and electronics package.

The TalkBass Forum has given me the schematics for the control panel's electronics as made by Hofner, so I can build those from scratch. But I'd like some advice on what pickups I should buy to replace the ones that came with the kit. The neck and bridge pickups seem to be identical, except for the lengths of the leads, but I suspect that better ones would be optimized for their location.

Steve DeRosa · #2 06-26-2022, 01:32 PM

You could probably adapt a set of Gibson EB-3/SG Bass bridge pickups, Rickenbacker 4001/4003 neck pickups, and/or Gretsch/TV Jones blade pickups to fit - or, if you wanted to invest the bucks, score a set of gennie German Hofner PU's; there's also the option of going with unconventional stuff - soapbars, DiMarzio Model One and/or Relentless, Epiphone JCB, Gibson Ripper - or even active circuitry if you're adventurous. Basically the sky's the limit, but to paraphrase the late race-engine builder Keith Black pickups, like speed, cost money - how fast you wanna go...?

JLT · #3 06-27-2022, 02:05 PM

Thanks, Steve. Do you know of a source for the Hofner pickups here in the US?

I'll keep what I have for the moment, and just build the control panel and see what difference it makes. But I would like to know more about the pickups that came with the kit.

Steve DeRosa · #4 06-27-2022, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JLT

Thanks, Steve. Do you know of a source for the Hofner pickups here in the US...?

These guys currently stock both the "Staple" (Beatlemania-era) and "Diamond" (Hamburg/Cavern) pickups, as well as the requisite pickup surrounds - the "Blade" pickups (which most players don't want anyway unless they're doing an exact restoration) have been discontinued:

http://www.northcoastmusic.com/hofne...hofner_pu.html