Aria SB Pickup Dissection

I don't know how many times I've heard from other Aria SB owners who had a dead or half-dead pickup. Unfortunately it is a common problem with those great basses and there is no way to fix the pickup. The pickup is encased in epoxy, so you really can't open the pickup without destroying it. I happened to have a dead pickup and so with the help of my friend and guitar wiz Lance, we conducted a crude autopsy on the pickup! It appears as if the pickup is almost like a big "P" style pickup, with 8 poles that are staggered, four poles for the E and A strings and four for D and G. It took a lot of hacking to crack open the pickup! More pictures can be found here.