Alunitone Bass Bars or Nord Fat Stacks on project BTB 4 string?

[angelopb]

Greetings. I pulled the trigger a 1999 Ibanez BTB 500 4 string.
It's en route from MN. Looks like the trans black one in lower right.

http://www.ibanez.co.jp/anniversary_...t_id=12&now=12

It's a project bass and I would like something closer to single coil , J bass tone. I can't measure the pickup routes yet as it hasn't arrived and I can't locate one locally with the DNR PUPs, yet alone a 4 string. There are the factory DNR pickups, which are sized differently than the barts.

Anyone have a BTB 4 string with DNR PUPs and will measure the routes for me?

I hear great things about both the Nords and the Alunitones. I am after something closer to J bass sound with mellow highs, decent growl, nice low mids and detailed midrange. I plan to string it with TI flats and make it a dedicated bass for studying and playing straight ahead jazz. I will change the pre too. Leaning towards the Nord and need a passive option. The Alumnitones are said to work with preamps just fine.

So any experiences and opnions with either pickups would be of a great help while I am waiting for the UPS guy. Thanks all.

[angelopb]

I am bumping this. Need some guidance on which way to go: Fat Stacks or Bass Bars.

I measured the PUP routes as 4.13 " (105mm) x 1.37" (35mm).

Any experience with either? Any guidance?

[smperry]

I own a bass with FatStacks and I've played through the Alumitone Bass Bars once. Both are good pickups. If it's a passive bass, a *great* thing about Fat Stacks is that you can add a switch to go between humbucking mode and single coil mode so you have a lot of versatility. The single coil mode would probably get you closer to a J sound than the bassbars, but the fs tone isn't exactly the same as a J....it's a bit "wider".

For straight up rock tone, can't go wrong with BassBars, but the extra versatility of fatstacks push them ahead for me. If you're not going to add a pull switch (or whatever) for the fat stacks, I'm not sure which way I'd go....probably still Nordstrands but I might look into other offerings. All good choices.

Edit: Just for clarity, maybe (maybe) I'd look into Big Splits (I don't think Big Singles are for me), but might still stick with Fat Stacks.

[angelopb]

Thanks! I love snarly rock tone. But I strung the bass with TI flats and was going to use this for mellow stuff and practicing theory, since I noramlly play a huge 36" scale 5 string J bass.
So if you are going to have mutiple basses, they should sound very different and work for different things, right?

The FS with a toggle sounds like that would be nice. I understand it doesn't have to sound like a Fender J bass. But I want it more in that direction. THe bass itself is a light weight ash bod with maple neck and rosewood fingerboard so its not entirely alien to J bass tonal lineage. It has a 35" scale so it has decent low end.

I am not into either humbucking or scooped hi fi sound. I just want something articulate and woody sounding with empahsis on low-mids and mids. So a a little different than a J bass would be ideal.

Does this help any?