Pickup recommendation for 70's Fender Musicmaster Bass

[skruch]

Hi. I am looking for recommendations for a new pickup for my 1978 Musicmaster Bass. I have a Carvin AP-11B bass stacked humbucker in it now and it sounds fine, but I am looking for more of a Ric "piano bass" sound if that is possible. I prefer humbucking and I did not like the 7K ohm EMG Select Strat pup I bought a few months back. Thanks in advance.

[BobKos]

You may be better off trying to make your sound with strings. The Musicmaster is a light weight shortscale. Two strikes right there. I routed my 78 Musicmaster years ago for a DiMarzio humbucker. Later, my guitar 'guru' friend talked me into an EMG select HB. It was a piece of junk. At the time, the rout and the Dimarzio was worth doing. I wouldn't recommend routing your bass at this point. There is another thread on TB that addresses this topic specifically and there were a couple of recommendations for good drop in pickups. IIRC Aero was one of the favored makes. But like I said - you may want to consider strings to help get you where you want to go. I used to use RotoSound Swing Bass strings on my MM. Took it's toll on the frets, but again it was worth it.

[walterw]

EMG "selects" are bottom of the barrel (i call them EMG "rejects").

a real active EMG strat pickup like an SA can sound shockingly good in a musicmaster bass.

[Jefenator]

I'm not sure what the Ric "piano" sound is, but I was thoroughly "wow"d by Aero's Musicmaster pickup. Built specifically for that bass, with 4 magnet poles. IME the lows, mids and highs were all spectacular.

[skruch]

Thanks, all.