is a soapbar pickup a type of humbucker pickup? y does the streamer stage 1 pickup and the corvette $$ look different if they are both humbucker/dual coils -->(they're the same thing right?)?

and are there single coil soapbar pickups?

A 'soapbar' is merely a shape, and there are a number of different sizes. For example, with EMG you can get J, P, and a couple of dual coils and a switchable dual/single all in the same shape package.

so its something like soapbar vs exposed and humbuckers vs single coils?

and that the soapbars in the streamer stage 1s are single coils?

not really, you can get covered j and p pups.

A soapbar can be either single coil or humbucking - it is more in the way a pickup is constructed.

Soapbars customarily have a winding with a large circumference around a series of pole pieces that have a magnet beneath them. It can be made humbucking by having two similarly shaped/sized coils with opposing polarity/wind direction.

Warwick has a dual Jazz that is essentially a humbucker with a pair of single coil Jazz pups immediately adjacent to one another.

IME a soapbar splits the difference between single coil and humbucker - if the soapbar humbucks it changes the flavor somewhat.

Warwick has a dual Jazz that is essentially a humbucker with a pair of single coil Jazz pups immediately adjacent to one another.


are u talking abt the dolphin sn? so if its a dual jazz its essentially a humbucker rite? so i was just wondering if the streamer stge 1 5-strings have sing coil or humbucking soapbars??

are u talking abt the dolphin sn? so if its a dual jazz its essentially a humbucker rite?

Yes

so i was just wondering if the streamer stge 1 5-strings have sing coil or humbucking soapbars??

I don't have that answer

Like has been explained before a SOAPBAR is a shape that can include a single or double coil pickup.

A Humbucker is a pickup that contains 2 (or more) coils wired in opposite direction. A humbucker can be inline, side by side, stacked or dummy coil.

Soapbars are SHAPES OF THE HOUSINGS, people!

The idea of a soapbar pickup is just a square block of plastic housing the pickup itself! There's no tonal difference between a soapbar P-style pickup, and an old-school two-block external-screw-holes P-style pickup. It's all cosmetic. It's just more appealing to some people, to have a square plastic block, instead of those specially routed holes with half-circles cut outward for the screw mounts.

Me, personally, I like soapbars cuz they're easier to swap pickups. They're all pretty much standardized sizes now, cuz everyone wants to be interchangable.

While almost everything you said was right...

There's no tonal difference between a soapbar P-style pickup, and an old-school two-block external-screw-holes P-style pickup.

...this comment may have opened the gates of hell for you. :D

I get what you meant, though, so I won't be the one massacring you. :p

Getting back to the OP... yeah, EMG is a good example of a company that uses soapbar housings for pickups that normally use traditional housings. It allows you to have a 100% Jazz pickup fit into a cavity cut for a soapbar, without having to fill anything in. Same goes for the EMG P soapbars.

I'm really glad EMG does this, because I'm fond of the EMG P sound, and having a soapbar-housed version allowed me to put it into my Schecter Stiletto (a two-soapbar bass). The regular version sounds the same because both versions are electrically (and electronically) identical, and it fits into a traditional precision pickup cavity.

So, if there is no real difference, what is the advantages/disadvantages of smaller soapbars (emg/spector style) and exposed-pole MM style pickups

Different design and sound, to start with

So, if there is no real difference, what is the advantages/disadvantages of smaller soapbars (emg/spector style) and exposed-pole MM style pickups

Ah, so the gates are open. :ninja:

There IS a real difference, but you need to understand the following:

- Visible poles are an aesthetic thing - it's irrelevant to the sound. There ARE exposed-pole EMG/Spector style soapbars, and there are MM style pickups with no exposed poles.

- Shape is irrelevant, but NOT because they'll all sound the same - it's because it doesn't tell you what the pickup will really sound like.

- The position of the pickup on a bass is important to how it will sound. Any MM pickup, placed in the "sweet spot", will sound different than the same MM pickup placed close to the neck.

And then, the punchline...

Different pickups sound different, even if they're the exact same shape. But it's not the shape or the housing - it's the design of the pickup itself and the circumstances it's placed in. The way it's wound, materials used, active/passive preamps that color the pickup's natural tone, its position on the bass, the other pickup(s) (if it's a two/three pickup bass), etc....

Now that I have the "sound" issue out of the way... there are a few real advantages/disadvantages of just the shape alone.

Off the top of my head... MM pickups are huge, and as such, having two of them on your bass (like on HH Stingrays) can really get in the way of slapping and popping. So can smaller humbuckers, but you usually have a bit more space to work with. And regarding exposed poles (like what you see on most, but NOT all MM-style pickups), they might develop a little rust over time. But you can clean that off.

Who the heck would want to wash their hands with a soapbar with metal poles sticking out? Nobody, and that is why the MM pickup is not a soapbar. :D

to be fair, emg's and some others use blade type fins, note pole magnets, which I would imagine in theory capture more sound because the string is always directly over the magnet not moving across it like traditional exposed pole p's and j's, and I would think the MM for having bigger poles would be different too, it's all based on magnetic fields, the frequencies and blah blah blah, which is why raising the pickup closer to the strings increases volume and IMO a little more tone, not different just heavier