6 string Bass pickups

[DanSwain]

Dear All,

I'm starting work on making my first Bass, hopefully next week when the wood arrives! I'm going to keep a thread of my progress in the Luthier's Corner, entitled "Diary of a procrastinators first DIY Bass"

I've been looking around for pickups, and I came across these:

http://www.q-tuner.com/bl6.shtml

Has anyone had any experience with these pickups?

The Bass I'm going to be making will have a string spacing of 18mm at the bridge, and 9mm at the nut, so this appears to 'just about' cover these specs.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions, I'm all ears! I'm looking for quite a fat sound near the bridge, but with good response for harmonics, and then a nice, deep tone for the neck pickup when it's needed for a rounder tone or a thick slap tone.

Thanks in advance!

Kind Regards,

Dan

[GODSBASSMAN]

Dan,
Q tuners are transparent to the max. They do not color the bass in any way. Preamp, amplifier, and cabinets/speakers will do the rest. Q tuners are definitely clear and clean. You will hear the strings. I have them in the BL6 series in 2 basses right now, and have used the BS jazz style in a bass in the past. I like Q tuners a lot.
Peace. David

[Ric5]

It looks like they would be effective with many different string spacings.

[UncleBalsamic]

There are some sound clips floating about somewhere. They sound awesome!

[knuckle_head]

Bass Tasters recorded those pickups in one of my basses. I so love 'em.

Having the adjustable pole pieces is genius. It won't be a typical humbucker or jazz pickup as it has a very clear strong voice (depending on the bass), but you can focus or broaden the longitudinal aperture.

My bet is you'll end up doing subtractive EQing. EQing separately is really worth considering.

Is that 18mm on center? If so then you're golden on width. You can go up to 22mm, as suggests their online drawings. My experience is that the drawings will be spot on.

[fullrangebass]

Originally Posted by DanSwain

If anyone has any comments or suggestions, I'm all ears! I'm looking for quite a fat sound near the bridge, but with good response for harmonics, and then a nice, deep tone for the neck pickup when it's needed for a rounder tone or a thick slap tone.

Thanks in advance!

Kind Regards,

Dan

Villex pickups are another alternative, based on the tone description

www.villex.com

[DanSwain]

Thanks very much for your responses! Knuckle_head, when you say 22mm, do you mean that for a 6 string? If so, wow - that's a big Bass!

I haven't decided on a bridge just yet, so if you recommend 18mm centre to centre then I'll go for that.

Thanks for the link to the Villex pickups too, fullrangebass. They have a more traditional look to them, which is nice, but for me I think the 'different' look to the Q-Tuners has stolen all of my attention

I may only get one of these though, and use it as a bridge pickup. Does anyone have any suggestions as to a more straight-forward pickup that would compliment the Q-Tuner? If it comes down to cosmetics, I could go for one of those in all-black, so that it's more likely to fit with a more 'standard' pickup.

Kind Regards,

Dan

[fullrangebass]

Originally Posted by DanSwain

I may only get one of these though, and use it as a bridge pickup. Does anyone have any suggestions as to a more straight-forward pickup that would compliment the Q-Tuner? If it comes down to cosmetics, I could go for one of those in all-black, so that it's more likely to fit with a more 'standard' pickup.

Kind Regards,

Dan

Hi Dan

IMHO and IME the Q-tuners are best combined with Q-tuners. So a pair of Q-tuners should be your best choice

[alangoldstein]

i like bartolini , nordstrand and ken armstrong pups. i have 3 armstrongs in my benavente 6

[knuckle_head]

Originally Posted by DanSwain

Thanks very much for your responses! Knuckle_head, when you say 22mm, do you mean that for a 6 string? If so, wow - that's a big Bass!

Hi Dan - the drawing that supports that pickup suggests that edge-to-edge centers limitation is 87mm. On review I did the maths wrong, and my apologies for my error. On a 6, center to center, you need to divide that measurement by 5 - and given that it tapers toward the neck it seems that your 18mm will be as far as you want to push it.

At the bridge the spacing will be 90mm on your prospective bass - you should be okay, but pickup placement will have to be done quite carefully.

I'm usually better with numbers - sorry about that.

I'd suggest matching pickups as well (consider two Hi-Z's as opposed to a High and a Low) - you have some tonal control with the variable poles and aperture adjustment which is more latitude than nearly any other pickup with offer you.

[DanSwain]

Ok, I'll do my best to allow for these pickups in my budgets They do look completely worth it, and like everyone's said, the more sound that comes from them, the more that sound can be played with at the amp stage.

I could work with just one pickup, which in some cases might be quite nice, but for me it would probably end up being some kind of compromise, and that's going to bug me in the long run.

[SGD Lutherie]

Q-Tuners are very nice sounding pickups, but I'd hardly call them deep or fat. They are very bright and clean. They have an extremely extended top end. So deep and fat they aren't.

They can mix OK with other pickups, depending on the impedance of the other pickup. I tried mixing them with my pickups and they were an interesting combination.

I'll let you guess which ones were deep and fat.

Do the Q-Tuners come in six string widths?

Barts would be a good choice for deep.

[DanSwain]

Thanks for your input SGD...I'm glad I found something to do before I ordered them as you've put (good, I hasten to add) doubt in my mind.

I'll have a look closer into the Bartolini idea - I wasn't sure to look at them because I've only known them to make active pickups. As usual, I'll post my findings here.

I like the pickups you've done too, and dimension-wise they're pretty much perfect. Do you have any demos of your pickups online?

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by DanSwain

Thanks for your input SGD...I'm glad I found something to do before I ordered them as you've put (good, I hasten to add) doubt in my mind.

I'll have a look closer into the Bartolini idea - I wasn't sure to look at them because I've only known them to make active pickups. As usual, I'll post my findings here.

Bartolini mostly makes passive pickups. The Classic bass series is very good.

I like the pickups you've done too, and dimension-wise they're pretty much perfect. Do you have any demos of your pickups online?

Thanks. Yes, I do have demos, here and here

[tommy gilstrap]

I put a pair on my old Acacia Custom and they are the best sounding passive pups I've heard. The clear ones look way cool, too!

[12bass]

Accurately describing tonal qualities is always a challenge. While I agree that Q-Tuners are clear and bright sounding, my ears tell me that, compared with most passive pickups, the signal extends in both directions, both high and low, and that deep lows are very much there. I think that perhaps the extended treble tends to make people perceive them as thin sounding, when actually they do not lack low end. Maybe the spectral balance throws off the ear? The BL-5 in my Pedulla Rapture 5 sounds plenty fat when I want it to....

The point about subtractive EQ is also good to keep in mind. If you roll off some of the highs or boost some lows/low-mids, the wide-bandwidth Q-Tuner sound can be molded to preference. That said, at some point I would like to hear the SGD pickups as well, as I suspect that they have depth in the lows with more clarity than, say, a Bartolini in the highs. Would be interesting to record a number of pickup types in the same bass: EMG, Bartolini CB, Q-Tuner, Villex, SGD, etc....

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by 12bass

Accurately describing tonal qualities is always a challenge. While I agree that Q-Tuners are clear and bright sounding, my ears tell me that, compared with most passive pickups, the signal extends in both directions, both high and low, and that deep lows are very much there. I think that perhaps the extended treble tends to make people perceive them as thin sounding, when actually they do not lack low end. Maybe the spectral balance throws off the ear? The BL-5 in my Pedulla Rapture 5 sounds plenty fat when I want it to....

The point about subtractive EQ is also good to keep in mind. If you roll off some of the highs or boost some lows/low-mids, the wide-bandwidth Q-Tuner sound can be molded to preference.

That's true. I'm sure the Q-Tuners extend down very low, but they have a big peak in the high frequency range. So that gives them a bright tone. It also makes them sound louder because that's the range we hear best in. I thought they were nice sounding pickups, if you want a bright tone. I don't think they are flat response though, I think they favor the highs. I base this on my previous low-Z pickups, which extended way up there, but didn't have that clangy top end Q-Tuners do. Although with neos the low-Z pickups were close to that tone. Neos have a lot of mid push, and a lot of texture in the mids.

That said, at some point I would like to hear the SGD pickups as well, as I suspect that they have depth in the lows with more clarity than, say, a Bartolini in the highs. Would be interesting to record a number of pickup types in the same bass: EMG, Bartolini CB, Q-Tuner, Villex, SGD, etc....

I'd like to do that some day. I try to do it whenever I have some pickups in my shop to install. I'm a gear geek and I love pickups.

I had a Q-Tuner to try out, but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to record it. But I was surprised how high the top end extended. I liked the tone for a bright pickup, and you can alter that with EQ. But I wouldn't call the lows or mids "thick" but that's OK, not every bass calls for that.

I did just install some Bart Classic bass pickups in an LTD bass and an Aguilar preamp. While I was at it I tried both sets of my pickups in the same bass (one of my basses).

Here's the both with the EQ flat on the preamp. First the Barts then the Neos.

Barts v SGD

It is amazing all the different tones you can get from copper wire, magnets and steel. Just shows that there is no best pickup, just different tones.

[DanSwain]

After reading all of this and listening to the demos, my thoughts have definitely moved away from the Q-Tuners. I can see how they will be useful to a lot of people, but my tastes lean towards the characteristics of a more conventional pickup.

That said, I don't really want to choose Bartolinis...they sound good, but I want something slightly different to that well-known sound. So, I'm leaning towards the SGD pickups

David, I noticed on your site that your pickups are primarily soapbar in style - do you do any that are along the Musicman style?

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by DanSwain

David, I noticed on your site that your pickups are primarily soapbar in style - do you do any that are along the Musicman style?

I will be offering the same guts in a MM case, for 4 and 5 strings. I'm just waiting to get the covers back from being laser etched with the logo. I had to find a new guy to do my covers, so it's been putting everything on hold. I'm also doing Bart BC4 and BC5 size soapbars.

Also in the works is a Jazz pickup, but that's a whole new design, so that will take a while longer, but I'm currently working on the prototype. A P pickup will follow that.

I did the soapbars first because the basses I built had soapbars.

[renniw]

I have one of the first 6 strings soapbar pickup that David made and this was and still is the best money I've spent on my bass.