New Deluxe and Super Bigtone Pickups!

MichaelHorowitz

DjangoBooks
Stock Deluxe Bigtone Pickup

DjangoBooks
Stock Super Bigtone Pickup

MichaelHorowitz

Hi Folks....these new pickups are the result of a lot of R&D by Josh and I. We tried a bunch of different elements and designs and came up with these new bigtones. They are a real improvement over the standard ones. I prefer the Deluxe one because it just sounds so good. Amazingly it has no quack and is very balanced and warm. If you plug it into an AER you can leave the EQ totally flat and it sounds great. The regular bigtone needs a lot of EQ to sound decent.

The Super Bigtone also sounds great....it has some quack and brittle qualities, but much less so then a regular bigtone. And has a lot more low end response. The nice thing is that has just as much gain as the regular bigtone. Neil Andersson had us install these in all his guitars!

'm

Fopa

You seem to really prefer the deluxe over the super. How would it match up with the GypsyKat amp ?

MichaelHorowitz

I'd say one of the best bigtone sounds I've ever gotten was with our Deluxe bigtone through the GypsyKat. However, the problem is the GypsyKat is not a very loud amp and the Deluxe pickup is low gain. So you could run into volume problems if you needed to be really loud. Although, a simple preamp could be used to boost the deluxe in those situations.

With that said, I was able to get enough volume out of it for most of the situations I play in (i.e. small bars, restaurants, etc.)

'm

chappie

I would love to hear a sample of both of these being played through an AER (eg.). Some rhythm and some solo samples?

MichaelHorowitz

If i get a chance I'll do that. However, sound clips of pickups and amps are basically worthless. You really need to hear and play them live to see how they respond to your style of playing and the sorts of environments you play in. A pickup or amp can sound great when recorded but be useless when playing live because it's too muddy, has feedback problems, etc.

A huge part of the whole pickup/amp equation is the types of rooms you play in and how loud you have to be. Some pickups and amps sound great when played very loud. Like a Stimer with an Evans amp. It's warm, fat, with lots of color. A bigtone played really loud gets sooo harsh, sounds like needles in your ear!

If you're playing at more intimate volume levels or on stage with a PA a schertler rig is much nicer. But the Schertler will have feedback issues if you need to be really loud.

A Deluxe bigtone with a GypsyKat is best somewhere in-between. Nice and dry, with good feedback resistance. Pretty warm at moderate volume levels but can be trouble if you get it too loud.

'm

Cigano

How are these different from the standard Bigtone? Are they a different model....or is there another element in there?

MichaelHorowitz

Each one has a different element in it...the regular bigtone is the harshest sounding of the three. The Deluxe has by far the best tone, but is lower gain. The Super Bigtone ihas a better tone then the regular one, but not as nice as the Deluxe. However, it is very high gain.

thanks!

'm

Cigano

There is only one BigTone element in production....so I'm still in the dark about what the Super and Deluxe actually are....?

MichaelHorowitz

Cigano wrote:

There is only one BigTone element in production....so I'm still in the dark about what the Super and Deluxe actually are....?

No, there are many. There is no "bigtone" company....everyone builds their own "bigtone" from various elements.

'm

Cigano

Interesting....because earlier I emailed the US distributor of Bigtone pickups regarding the Super Bigtone models. His reply was:

"Djangobooks is a customer of ours. We sell them Bigtone pickups already installed in bridges. I guess they re-sell them as Super Bigtone. We have been importing Bigtone pickups as exclusive distributor in the U.S since 1999. I communicate with the German guy that makes them every month, there is no such thing as a “Super Bigtone” "

Does anyone have a contact for the German Bigtone maker (maybe he's reading this post right now)...please send me a PM...thanks.