Pickup advice for Ric-like custom bass

[pschelfh]

Hello guys,

I'm letting a luthier build a custom bass for me, loosely based on a Ric. The shape will be more modern but I like the placement of the pickups. I played an Italia with the pickups in the same place and I loved the sound. Sadly not the look.

I'm going crazy over the choice of pickups, I had no idea there were so many options!

First I was going for the Bartolini 6RT/6RC Ric pickup replacements but these seem to be difficult to find in Europe.

Would I also get the same sound with Bartolini passive soapbars (BB4C, BC4C or maybe the X-version which they say gives more bass and treble) if I put them in the same place in the body as a Ric? These also have the advantage that I can make them switchable to single/double coil. Too bad you can't seem to find any soundclips on their site, I have no idea how they sound.

I also checked the Italia pickups. They seem to be Wilkinson 'ABR' mini humbuckers. I found the website, but no trace of these.

Any ideas are most welcome,

Peter.

[oldnoob]

Peter,
At last, I can answer a question here on tb!!! I, also, have a Ric like custom. It started with a bass body on ebay called an Eden 4B. Mine is actually at the shop being painted as we speak. When it gets back it is off to the local professional for assembly and setup. Mine has the Bartolini M34C pickups in it. They are passive soapbar in the same shape as the EMG 35's, 3.5 inches by 1.5 inches. I used 250K pots and a Leo Quan Badass III bridge setup for stringthru, and will be stringing it with LaBella James Jamerson signature series flatwound strings. As soon as it is back home I will upload some sound bytes to help you guage your project. You nailed it when you said there were so many options that it is hard to choose. Good luck with yours and keep us informed on the progress and, as always, we want to hear it in action!

-Timothy

[pschelfh]

Thank you ! I was going nuts reading about all the pickup options.

Do you think all the Bartolini soapbars finishing with 'C' all sound the same (M34C, BB4C, BC4C) and there's only a difference in size ?

Are you going to place the pickups the same way as on a Ric ? I would love to hear that. Also, do the M34C's allow single/double coil switching ?

Once it's finished I would also like your impression on output level. My luthier adviced on using a preamp, like Bartolini TC3 or TC5 (without batteries?) to give the bass an even hotter output. Don't know if that's really needed though.

Peter.