I've been comparing Phil's tone through the years and my favorite is his Alembic Osage.  What pickups would you choose to get that sound, other than Alembics which don't seem to be available separately for 5-stringers...

Hi Dan; five string Activators are listed here.

Oh!  Is that what the 56 models mean.... I don't really understand their naming system.
 
That's still a little far over my budget... I'm budgeting $1200 for the whole project.

I've never tried to get someone else's sound; and my guess is I don't have the ear for it.  That said, it seems to me that a number of people have posted here in the past that any Alembic with at least a low pass filter, is a step in that direction.  So if it were me, and it's not, but if it were, I think I would be looking for a really good deal on a Spoiler, Essence, Elan, or Persuader.  The Persuader would be the most likely to fall within your $1,200 budget.  But five string basses usually sell for a bit more than four string basses; so that will make it a little tougher.

Also flat wound strings will help a great deal.
Mike

I'm guessing that an sf-2 and a power amp with a high damping factor and lotsa overhead in your system would allow you to dial in the sound you are looking for.
 I've never had an intersound preamp , they are relatively cheap when they pop up on ebay...and alot of attention to playing style(fat, round ,clear, and that goofy smile never hurts...unless it's for 14 hours at a time...then be careful)
 
 
  ...and what mike says  

How about one of the Dearmond (sp?) Starfire reissues with Dark Stars, flatwounds and a pick, and an SF-2 (like elwoodblue said), F-2B, and a hefty power amp? The SF-2 could really be the key, all the other stuff (well, except the flatwounds and a pick) could be secondary.

How to get Phil's sound on a budget?  It's the same answer as the old joke about the guy on the streets of New York who asks a cop How do I get to Carnegie Hall?, to which the cop replies:
 
Practice, man, practice
 
IMHO the whole this guitar/amp/box will make you sound like Clapton/Hendrix/fill-in-the-blank thing is overblown.  The equipment only gets you 10% there - the other 90% is in your fingers and heart.  I bet if Carlos Santana and I swapped rigs, he'd still sound a lot more like Santana on my rig than I ever would on his.
 
Bill, tgo

I'm not discounting the practice, heavy pick or flatwounds.  I'm reluctant to put flats on my Sadowsky though because it gets such a great Modulus sound as is... so I cooked up a father/son bonding project of building a second 5-string to put the flats on.  I've got it all planned out (including a body shape copied from Irwin and body woods copied from Alembic) except the pickups.
 
To give you and idea of how close I've gotten to sounding like Phil so far, check out the audio clips at www.fennario.us and let me know what you think.

what a Great project for a young one and Dad...skills learned young are valuable throughout life...even if at the time it's not so apparent.
 
...don't forget to take pics of the process and post a few here if you have the time.
 
cheers

The Irwin-shape sounds good - I love the way that bass looks in the Radio City Music Hall footage that Dead Set came from (or maybe I'm thinking of the acoustic Reckoning/For the Faithful stuff?). I still think Dark Stars through an SF-2 would be cool, though there aren't any 5-string Dark Stars - yet...

Harry,
 
Charles (crgaston) installed a Dark Star on a modified Dearmond that he got from Flax- I'm pretty sure he has a SF-2 in his signal chain as well.  There is a thread on that bass floating around here somewhere....

Thanks - I don't mean to harp on the Dark Stars so much - I've never tried them myself! But I've got an old Starfire with a single Bisonic that sounds great.
 
Found the thread that tbrannon mentioned. Plus I found a great thread on using an SF-2 to get a sound close to Phil's!
 
(Message edited by hieronymous on July 08, 2008)

I've been playing a '67 Starfire equipped with DS through a SF2 and it sounds great!
 
Edwin
 
 

I'm not that young, Elwood... I just don't see my dad often enough and we don't have a whole lot in common, but we get along fine.  
 
That bass looks awesome, Edwin!  I'll eventually seek out an old Starfire or some new substitute and do something like that also if the band really does well....   but for now I'm after the tone of the bass discussed here:  http://www.alembicguitars.net/club/messages/411/1922.html?1097279324