What is the point of diagonal pickup placement?

tastybasslines · #1 02-10-2011, 02:37 PM

It helps the sound? Although I'd probably get used to it, it seems like it would be awkward to play with the pick ups that way.

RedLeg · #2 02-10-2011, 02:44 PM

pissin in the wind, but
it looks cool
it alters the sound slightly

Pilgrim · #3 02-10-2011, 02:44 PM

Someone else will contribute more than I can...but I can think of two reasons:

1) Cosmetics

2) Angling the pickup would allow you to align the pole pieces on a pickup that's too wide for the string spacing.

I'm sure someone will suggest that there are wonderful sonic benefits from angling the pickup, but I'm not buying it.

Lackey · #4 02-10-2011, 02:49 PM

Balancing the tone of the strings out a bit. If I ever get a custom I might have them angle the pickups counterclockwise a bit to give the lower strings more punch and the higher strings a bit more "bloom" to the sound.

Yes, there is a sonic impact due to the angle, although it's probably not massive it can be noticeable.

ster · #5 02-10-2011, 02:52 PM

It allows the thinner strings to have a deeper sound by angling the pickup so that the pole pieces are closer to the neck. A slight difference but definitely a difference.

Stealth · #6 02-10-2011, 02:54 PM

It doesn't really get in the way of playing. What it does is expose different parts of the strings to the pickup's magnetic field, in short, you get a different tone. Some prefer the reverse-P pickup for that exact reason - the tone seems more balanced, because the EA strings are picked up in a spot where there's more treble, and vice-versa with the DG strings.

*grumbles* Damn lag.

JTE · #7 02-10-2011, 02:59 PM

You mean like the bridge pickup on Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars? Leo did it so that the bass strings were a little warmer and the high strings were a little brighter. Probably the same logic for the way the two coils of a regular Precision bass is set up.

John

tangentmusic · #8 02-10-2011, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ster

It allows the thinner strings to have a deeper sound by angling the pickup so that the pole pieces are closer to the neck. A slight difference but definitely a difference.

This.
On a Strat, the bridge p'up is angled so that the higher strings sound is picked up closer to the bridge causing more treble output

honeyiscool · #9 02-10-2011, 04:07 PM

Yeah it's definitely a difference. I have a Mustang guitar with dual slanted pickups and a Jaguar with dual straight pickup and the Mustang is definitely brighter but with a bigger low end.

Gabeja15 · #10 02-10-2011, 06:43 PM

do fanned frets have anything to do with it?

i have seen standard fretted guitars with tilted pick-ups, but every fanned fret bass i've seen (mainly dingwalls) have angled pick ups

BuffaloBass · #11 02-10-2011, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lackey

Balancing the tone of the strings out a bit. If I ever get a custom I might have them angle the pickups counterclockwise a bit to give the lower strings more punch and the higher strings a bit more "bloom" to the sound.

Yes, there is a sonic impact due to the angle, although it's probably not massive it can be noticeable.

So I hear tell. The reverse Pbass pickup does this. My Valenti J5 is routed for one. Some day, i might've to check it out. It makes sense to stagger it the wrong way.

The Dingwall fanned fret/fslant pup is a coincidental occurance of one, the two are not causally related.

I mean the Pbass started this in 1950's-60s. Seminal design into the 21st century.

bassbenj · #12 02-12-2011, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabeja15

do fanned frets have anything to do with it?

i have seen standard fretted guitars with tilted pick-ups, but every fanned fret bass i've seen (mainly dingwalls) have angled pick ups

Yes, they all work for the same reasons. If you pluck a string, you excite various harmonics in it. The lowest note is the fundamental where the entire string vibrates up and down. The next harmonic is where the string acts as if it's divided into two halves with each half vibrating at twice the frequency of the fundamental. (The halves are out of phase with each other). And you can keep dividing the string into as many pieces as you like each division giving higher and higher frequencies.

Now the best place to pickup up the fundamental is in the center of the string where it's moving the most. At the ends the string is fixed and not moving at all. But the first harmonic has a fixed point at the center of the string so that can't be picked up there. You have to move down to 1/4 the way from the bridge to get the second harmonic. To summarize, it turns out that the close you move to the bridge with a pickup the more you tend to pick up higher harmonics and the less you pick up the low fundamental tones. That's why bridge pickups sound brighter than neck pickups. It's obvious. So if you "angle" a pickup the part that is closest the bridge will emphasize higher harmonics (sound "brighter") and the part toward the neck will sound "deeper".

With a Dingwall, the same thing occurs, but different. There the strings are all different lengths. So if you wanted to put your bridge pickup at some specific harmonic length from the bridge (say 1/16th the scale length) on a Dingwall that distance is different on each string because the length of each string is different. Hence the pickups MUST be angled not to change the harmonic relationship but rather so that the pickup is at the same RATIO distance from the bridge for each string, like say 1/16th the scale length. Hence in a Dingwall the pickups are angled not to modify the tone, but rather to try to keep it the SAME!