Possible to add another pickup?

[Bass of Justice]

My bass has only one pickup (dual coil) in the bridge position. Would it be possible to add another one in the neck postition and is this a hard thing to do? I know it would involve cutting holes in my bass and I would have to add a switch etc. I know very little about modifications and am a little intimidated by these things.

Any help is much appreciated.

[line6man]

You will need to have the bass routed for a second pickup.
You can do this yourself of you have a router, but it would probably be easier and safer to leave the job to a competent luthier.

Pickup routing runs around $50ish, depending on the luthier.

As far as the wiring, that should be dead simple if you have basic soldering skills.

You could also pay a luthier to do it, but it would honestly be a waste of money when you can easily do it yourself with a soldering iron kit and some practice.

[walterw]

Originally Posted by line6man

You could also pay a luthier to do it, but it would honestly be a waste of money when you can easily do it yourself with a soldering iron kit and some practice.

hey, don't sell us short! having it done right the first time is certainly worth it to plenty of folks, especially if they don't have a clear idea of what they're trying to do.

yes, he should learn to solder, but it's knowing what to solder that might be worth paying a little money for.

i'm always surprised by the things that seem obvious and easy to techy people like you and me but are completely greek to otherwise smart people.

[Bass of Justice]

Cool, thanks. What about the extra knobs and the pickup switch? Is adding in those components part of the routing process?

I don't really have enough money to do that though, so on a related note would this pickup http://www.emginc.com/products/index/184/31/2 fit correctly in my bass http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend....ass?sku=520013 ? Just wondering because it says the pickup is made for musicman basses, but it looked like the right size. Thanks again for the help.

[Bass of Justice]

Thanks walter but i don't think i'll have a problem with the soldering. There's still a lot of things to learn though

[line6man]

Originally Posted by Bass of Justice

Cool, thanks. What about the extra knobs and the pickup switch? Is adding in those components part of the routing process?

I don't really have enough money to do that though, so on a related note would this pickup http://www.emginc.com/products/index/184/31/2 fit correctly in my bass http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend....ass?sku=520013 ? Just wondering because it says the pickup is made for musicman basses, but it looked like the right size. Thanks again for the help.

That would be a matter of drilling holes.
If you have a luthier route the bass, that should be pretty inexpensive and easy to do.
If you are doing the job yourself, you just need to have a drill on hand and be able to drill a clean hole.

I'm fairly sure that that pickup should fit your existing route.
It may say that it's for a MM bass, but MM pickups are usually made with a fairly universal spec that fits any replacement.
I could be wrong though, because budget instruments have been known to have odd/non-standard specs.

[archer121]

What is the make/model of your bass and what are you thinking of adding and why?

[walterw]

Originally Posted by Bass of Justice

Thanks walter but i don't think i'll have a problem with the soldering. There's still a lot of things to learn though

sure, that's what i'm saying.

what kind of bass is it, and exactly what are you looking for that you're not getting now? is it active or passive?

are you wanting to put this new pickup in the middle, where a P pickup would go, or actually up by the neck, in the "mudbucker" spot? this makes a night-and-day difference in what it sounds like.

do you even want switching, or maybe just a pan pot? maybe even just two volumes like a jazz bass?

all these questions need to be answered to steer you toward something that you'd actually like when it was done.

[line6man]

Archer and Walter, he mentioned the bass he has in post #4.

http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend....ass?sku=520013

[eastcoasteddie]

It isn't that easy...I did it with my Squier, and it isn't perfect. but I don't care because I bought the bass for $99.

My $500 Dean, however is in the hands of my Luthier, quoted me $160 for routing and drilling holes for extra switches.

I'm doing the wiring myself. (with the help of Line6Man's diagram, of course... )

[line6man]

Originally Posted by eastcoasteddie

My $500 Dean, however is in the hands of my Luthier, quoted me $160 for routing and drilling holes for extra switches.

I'm not going to mention how much I paid my luthier to do the P routing, rear route and 3 way switch on my Warmoth when I upgraded it from a passive single-J pickup-at-the-bridge bass to an active PJ, however, I have another Jazz bass which I had him route out for a custom double Jazz pickup that Curtis Novak wound me.

It was basically a Jazz bass bridge pickup, positioned to just barely overlap the existing route to make enough room for the custom double pickup. I paid $40 for this pickup route.

When you get down to it, routing for a pickup is fairly simple work for anyone with the proper skills to use a router.
What is going to happen is he/she will measure the location of the pickup, and then position a routing template with double stick tape or something and carefully route out the wood to the proper depth.

I was there with my luthier when he did the pickup route I described above, and IIRC, it took about an hour.
You are pretty much just paying for the luthier's labor to take the time to do the job. With that being said, no luthier is worth the price you got quoted.

Drilling holes for switches takes 10 minutes tops btw.

[walterw]

Originally Posted by line6man

Archer and Walter, he mentioned the bass he has in post #4.

http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend....ass?sku=520013

duh, i didn't catch that

(to the OP) are you just looking for a better tone and more versatility from the bass? to me, that thing is just screaming for a nice preamp!

you've got the one MM pickup in the "sweet spot" (ok, maybe a tiny bit closer to the bridge), but no EQ. a nice 2 or 3 band EQ will put you squarely in music man territory for pretty cheap, and without heavily altering the instrument. if you wanted to go all out, get a better pickup too, but as a replacement rather than an addition.

as far as upgrade paths go, i think this would get the most improvement for the least surgery (and money). after all, the whole point of that design (music man stingray) was to have the one pickup in just the right spot, and employ an active EQ for versatility.

[Bass of Justice]

Originally Posted by walterw

(to the OP) are you just looking for a better tone and more versatility from the bass?

Yea you got it walter

[line6man]

Originally Posted by walterw

duh, i didn't catch that

(to the OP) are you just looking for a better tone and more versatility from the bass? to me, that thing is just screaming for a nice preamp!

you've got the one MM pickup in the "sweet spot" (ok, maybe a tiny bit closer to the bridge), but no EQ. a nice 2 or 3 band EQ will put you squarely in music man territory for pretty cheap, and without heavily altering the instrument. if you wanted to go all out, get a better pickup too, but as a replacement rather than an addition.

as far as upgrade paths go, i think this would get the most improvement for the least surgery (and money). after all, the whole point of that design (music man stingray) was to have the one pickup in just the right spot, and employ an active EQ for versatility.

Well, I don't know Walter, this is a $200 bass here. I can't imagine the stock pickup would sound all that good.
I would rather get a better pickup first before thinking about preamps.

Better yet, I would rather do both, though I don't know if the OP is willing to invest that much money into the project.

[Bass of Justice]

Line6man, I'm going to switch out that pickup for sure, but how much does it cost for the preamp and how difficult are they to install?

[line6man]

Originally Posted by Bass of Justice

Line6man, I'm going to switch out that pickup for sure, but how much does it cost for the preamp and how difficult are they to install?

Preamps run from $50 budget stuff off eBay, into $300 high end stuff.
Most are around $100-$200.

Did you want a two band, or three bands?

[Bass of Justice]

Probably 3 band, but yeah I'll worry about pre amps later. Thanks for the help

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by Bass of Justice

Yea you got it walter

I can dig this. I want to do the same thing to my OLP Stingray. Both these basses have the stingray system which is a single bridge pickup that uses EQ and balance between the coils to change the tone.

What I (and apparently you) want is to have a neck pickup to give you more of that bassy low tone to mix in. It's what I'm going to do with my MM-2 eventually, but first I want to add a THIRD neck pickup to my G&L Tribute to get those really deep tones. I've seen basses with the neck pickup way up at the fretboard end and I like what it can do for you.

My serious comment (having had luthier routing done in the past) is to not only have a luthier do it but make sure the luthier is a GOOD one! I say this because the routing is not covered with a pickguard and the wood is already finished. This means you absolutely do NOT want any chipping or nasty edges around the rout. This takes some skill to accomplish. I wouldn't try that as a newbie or without some rather elaborate and expensive routing equipment.