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2 pickup fretless settings

How do you run your pickups on a 2 pickup fretless?

  • Favor the neck pickup

    Votes: 18 16.4%

  • Favor the bridge pickup

    Votes: 58 52.7%

  • Run both pickups the same

    Votes: 34 30.9%
  • Total voters
    110
T

the low one

Feb 21, 2002
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UK
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#1
I know there are many many threads about how players like to set their pickups on a 2 pickup fretless but I've never seen a poll, so thought I'd try one.

It's a simple 3 option poll, do you prefer to favor the bridge pickup, neck pickup of both together on your 2 pickup fretless bass. If you solo 1 or other pickup then you favor it.

For me I find that favoring the neck pickup on my fretless Jazz sounds best in the mix.
 
#6
it would depend a bit on the type of pickup, but in order to generalize, it would definitely be the bridge pickup position for clarity and tone.
In order to vary tone, I move the my picking hand from close to the bridge to the fretboard and anywhere in between.
So one pickup is enough for me.
 
#9
Getting the tone you want depends on a lot. Your rig and your hands and the tone of "your Jazzbess". My fretless Jazza has fender custom shop 60's and is very dark sounding which I like. I go with neck pickup slightly backed of just off wide open. It adds a bit of definition. On my Smith I just run both.
 
#10
oh here it is

img_1139.jpg

img_1145.jpg
 
#12
the low one said:
I know there are many many threads about how players like to set their pickups on a 2 pickup fretless but I've never seen a poll, so thought I'd try one.

It's a simple 3 option poll, do you prefer to favor the bridge pickup, neck pickup of both together on your 2 pickup fretless bass. If you solo 1 or other pickup then you favor it.

For me I find that favoring the neck pickup on my fretless Jazz sounds best in the mix.
Click to expand...

Bridge PU practically all the time. This allows me to have a clear tone but with the volume far enough down in the mix to not smother anything else.

This is one place, tho, where my carvin completely outperforms my other basses - with both PU's on the sound is still very clear and serviceable, but gives that nice 2-pickup pinch and smoothness that you want sometimes. Seems to be because the stacked humbucker in the neck position has much lower output than the bridge humbucker, so it just adds flavor without introducing mud.

But I still rarely have a use for that sound.

LS
 
#13
Depends on the song. Rock/blues = me favoring the neck a tad. Funk = me favoring the bridge a bit. I solo the pickups using the bridge for busier "intricate" stuff. I solo the neck pickup to get a nice hollow tone for certain peices where the bass needs to be more supportive or where the mix is thin enough that I can get away with it.

In other words, I rarely use the same setting for more than two or so songs in a row. Well, unless I am playing with an act that doesn't vary their sound much.

I guess the only thing I rarely do is to run both pickups on full blast. I almost always favor one or the other even if it is only by about 10%.
 
#17
For the past year and a half, bridge only:
3539375796_4988bea19d.jpg


But as of a few days ago, I put in a P pickup in the neck position, so I am using that now too:
3917317876_dd8dc327e8.png


I think pickup type has just as much to do with it as neck or bridge.
If the bass has a J style neck pickup, I'm never going to use it...
P pickup on the otherhand and I would be all over it when I am in the mood for that kind of tone.
 

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