Bacchus vintage series Strat pickups

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JohnA

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Here's a reply from Deviser regarding the pickups used in the vintage series Strats, it would seem that both the flat pole and bevelled pole picups were made by Keiyo, the Yutas are the more vintage authentic, and the earlier ones are the hotter, fatter pickups.

Dear Mr.

Alnico Special is a pickup for ST type guitars.

Here is the information about our ST pickups.



BST-54V, 57V, 64V, and 67V had Alnico Special.

We started selling Momose in 2002.

From that year on the pickups for BST-54, 57, 62, and 67

were replaced with YUTA VS-2.



VS-2 has more vintage sound. It has a cloth lead wire.

Alnico Special has more mid range. It has a lead wire that covered with some kind of artificial fiber.

Both pickups are made by Keiyo.



Best Regards

DEVISER MINORU MASUDA
 
mij it's not about 'putting it to rest' it's about establishing facts, from the (dead) horses mouth the older pickups are the pickup with all the mid-range, the Yuta is the more vintage correct tonally. Someone was on this forum looking for a nice strat with vintage sounding pickups and were diverted away from Bacchus after being told the newer Yutas were not vintage sounding, we can see in the reply to the query that this is not the case.

My 'theory' was wrong. but the other theory that they were all made by Keiyo was correct, give me some credit :wink:
 
MIJvintage said:
marcusnieman said:
That confirms my thoughts on the BST64-V pickups..... LOTS of mid range


so, how would you compare the pickups in your BST-64V relic, to so called 'vintage' tone from an older set of Fender Strat pickups, in an older vintage Fender Strat?
You have a 1965 Strat; how do the Alnico Special pups compare tonally?

I would say the Alnico Specials are MUCH hotter, and have confirmed this with a meter, also a lot more mid, which to my ears translates to a big fat punchy sound that I really like.
 
MIJvintage said:
marcusnieman said:
That confirms my thoughts on the BST64-V pickups..... LOTS of mid range


so, how would you compare the pickups in your BST-64V relic, to so called 'vintage' tone from an older set of Fender Strat pickups, in an older vintage Fender Strat?
You have a 1965 Strat; how do the Alnico Special pups compare tonally?

Tonally? The Bacchus pickups have a much bigger sound - deep, full and complex.....

The Fender pickups (on the 65 and 65 reissue) are thinner sounding, more spanky in the middle pickup and much less output. Fender bridge pickups as a whole are pretty shrill..... the Bacchus bridge pickup has alot more meat to it.

The Bacchus sounds unlike any of my other strats..... which is what I'm really digging about it. I could play the neck pickup exclusively - tweaks to the tone pot really color the sound. During a solo, I don't turn up the volume - rather, I push up the treble on it and it cuts right through without losing any of the bottom end.
 
One key thing to remember is that the Alnico Specials were discontinued for 2002 onwards, although that doesn't help much, given that we can't date the BSTs, but this new fact about the pickups could help a bit there.

Another thing, how obvious is this bevelling of the pole pieces? I've been looking at my Momose MC-2 Strat and I'm damned if I can see any bevelling which would be weird as this Strat is from 2006/07. I guess I would need to look at both pickups side by side.

So I guess we all had it the wrong way round - the Alnico Specials are probably the fatter, hotter sounding pickups?

Thanks to Joe for getting the info.
 
MIJvintage said:
You now have the earliest # of the six above examples, and I liked the tonal response of the pickups in it the least of the six.

If you think the pickups in the white relic you have sound good, you would likely have a cow at the sound of the pickups in the OTM & the AWH examples that I still have; both examples in the 002*** range.
The tonal response, be it 'vintage' or 'hot' is quite sublime ........................

That's interesting.... out of curiosity, what did you like about the p'ups in the others compared to the ones in mine?
 
marcusnieman said:
MIJvintage said:
marcusnieman said:
That confirms my thoughts on the BST64-V pickups..... LOTS of mid range


so, how would you compare the pickups in your BST-64V relic, to so called 'vintage' tone from an older set of Fender Strat pickups, in an older vintage Fender Strat?
You have a 1965 Strat; how do the Alnico Special pups compare tonally?

Tonally? The Bacchus pickups have a much bigger sound - deep, full and complex.....

The Fender pickups (on the 65 and 65 reissue) are thinner sounding, more spanky in the middle pickup and much less output. Fender bridge pickups as a whole are pretty shrill..... the Bacchus bridge pickup has alot more meat to it.

The Bacchus sounds unlike any of my other strats..... which is what I'm really digging about it. I could play the neck pickup exclusively - tweaks to the tone pot really color the sound. During a solo, I don't turn up the volume - rather, I push up the treble on it and it cuts right through without losing any of the bottom end.

That all ties in with my impressions of the pickups too. So would you say that the Tokai pickups - Us or Es, take your pick - are closer to the "genuine vintage sound"?
 
MIJvintage said:
marcusnieman said:
MIJvintage said:
You now have the earliest # of the six above examples, and I liked the tonal response of the pickups in it the least of the six.

If you think the pickups in the white relic you have sound good, you would likely have a cow at the sound of the pickups in the OTM & the AWH examples that I still have; both examples in the 002*** range.
The tonal response, be it 'vintage' or 'hot' is quite sublime ........................

That's interesting.... out of curiosity, what did you like about the p'ups in the others compared to the ones in mine?

When I sold the white relic I had three 64Vs left; the relic, the OTM & the AWH.

To my ears the pups in the relic did not sound near as strong as the pups in the OTM, or the AWH.

Cool... thanks. To my ears after playing the 65 reissue for so long, the Bacchus pickups are monsters - big huge sound. No disappointment or lack of expectations here. Great guitar and a real looker (thanks Rich)
 
MIJvintage said:
everyone has different ears, everyone has different experiences with 'vintage' instruments, and I'm fairly confidnet that those people may have differing perceptions of what they believe 'vintage' tone to be & not to be

One person's 'vintage' tone could be another person's 'hotter' tone but that still doesn't make any of it BS

Tone may be a matter for subjective judgement but output isn't. It's measureable. And the flat topped pickups we're discussing, Alnico IIs apparently, are significantly hotter measured with a multimeter than a typical "vintage copy" Strat pickup. That's not opinon, that's quantifiable fact.

A multimeter is as important to a discussion about pickups as scales are when discussing lumber - they can both help to quantify subjective impressions. And that's what happened - the pickups that read high sound louder & fatter. No great surprise there then......
 
MIJvintage said:
so, then, to my ears the Yutas still suck :D :lol: :D ......................

Cool, that's a valid opinion. But it can't be because they are less vintage, as you said earlier, it must be because they're more vintage.
 
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