A Poll - Stock Pickups vs. Replacement Pickups....

[BassHappy]

Hey TB'ers

One thing that has always been a bit puzzling to me, is how often folks steer away from the pickups which came from the manufacturer in the basses they buy. Assuming that the R&D department did their job - shouldn't the stock pickups be the shizzle? You tend to believe that there was some pretty heavy duty experimentation going on, before they locked into the pickup choice on a given model. Or am I being generous?

Sure, everyone is different, and sonic variety IS the spice of life - but it is interesting to me that in many NBD threads - the new owner can't wait to announce that the replacement pickups are already on the way. Sometimes it's even before the bass has arrived. Smaller scale, but kind of like buying a new car and replacing the motor, no?

I mean, don't we buy a Fender for example, because it sounds like a Fender? Apparently we don't. We buy a Fender to mod it and hopefully get closer to that sound we hear in our heads. And what about Roscoe and others? The Roscoe thread is always abuzz with folks swapping around pickups and preamps and trying to find their "holy grail" sonics.

I know companies like Fender have made some darn good pickups over the years. So is this Standard Operating Procedure now - to automatically swap your pickups/electronics out in favor of your tried and true favorites? Or are you loyal to your brand and do you stand by the pickups they provided in the instrument at birth.

It's easy to get the impression here that folks overwhelmingly mod and replace, but let's hear from the silent majority too on this. There could be a surprise.

 

[iain westland]

I have bought 2 basses and built 1. The two i bought were pretty well sold to me before they got plugged in. They felt good. My playing doesn't warrant a £1000 instrument.

One has the stock in it, the jp is going to get replaced, but only because i needed a p pup for my build and the p46 isn't going to be here for a while so i got a cheap "designed by lace" jp set and used the p pup for now

I sometimes think there's snake oil being sold, but im also sure that some pups suit particular genres, but guitars in shops are aimed at everybody.

Get the one that plays right, customise it to sound right

 

[Geri O]

On my Fenders, I've grown to love how the Nordstrand pups sound. I seem to "feel" more presence, or the stuff that makes me like the characteristic of the Precision or the Jazz. I'm using Nord preamps as well. It might be totally a mojo thing with me, but everyone I work for comments positively on the sound of my Fenders.

With my Stingrays, I've left them 100% stock. I can't imagine wanting or needing anything more than what they give me in totally stock form.

 

[Bass Growler]

Replacing lets you personalize things. I happen to like SD and Dimarzio pickups better than the stock ones my basses came with.

 

[Dave W]

Depends on the bass and what came as stock.

 

[JimmyM]

I have two Fenders and both required the pickups to be replaced, especially the 09 AmStd P, which had the worst pickup I've ever heard in my life but played beautifully. The rest of my basses are mostly stock, though.

 

[jg42]

I mean, don't we buy a Fender for example, because it sounds like a Fender

Well, the problem is that stock pickup on my MIM J sounds less like a Fender than SD Antiquity II.

 

[fast slapper]

I have budget basses and like messing with pickups.

Give me a U.S. MTD, Sadowsky, or one of the many other fine basses on the market and I probably won't change a thing.

 

[line6man]

The voicing of a bass is a very personal thing. I really don't care what a manufacturer has in mind, because I have my own idea of what my bass should sound like. Since a production model bass is not designed specifically for me, I expect to have to make various tweaks to get what I want from it. Should it turn out that a production model bass is perfect, bone stock, then I will leave it as it is. Otherwise, all offending parts will be swapped for the replacements of my choosing.

 

[4StringTheorist]

My first bass was a cheapo Peavey starter bass. Dropped a SD pickup in it while I was amassing parts for the Warmoth. Was a nice little bump up in rock sound.

I'm guessing my Warmoth doesn't count for this.

I didn't replace anything in my Steinberger XP-2

Just recently got a used MTD Kingston from classifieds, and replaced the electronics to make a poor man's U.S.A. out of it, (sorta)

So I guess I have a track record of gutting and switching electronics.

 

[FronTowardEnemy]

I have fender jazzes, 4 of em. I use fender replacement pickups such as USA 75 RI and AV74 only in 2 of them.

 

[ZenG]

Then from now on it does not count if anybody raves about their Fender P-bass but swapped the factory pups out in it......

 

[AndyPanda]

I suspect that if you broke your survey down by cost of instrument you would find that expensive instruments don't get stock pickups changed much while less expensive instruments get them changed a higher percentage.

I frequently find very inexpensive instruments that still feel really good - or are good raw material to make feel really good (shave the neck, fret level etc.)

 

[bolophonic]

One of the sweetest sounding basses I've ever had a hand in building had a $25 set of pickups out of a regular Highway One.

 

[meatwad]

All my current basses have their stock pickups in them, and have for years.

 

[wmhill]

I have 5 basses, 3 have upgraded pickups, the other 2 have the stock pickups, but upgraded preamps......

 

[Janforth]

All of my basses have the original stock pickups, however I am not opposed to changing pickups in a bass, so I say go for whatever works.

 

[hsech]

I mean, don't we buy a Fender for example, because it sounds like a Fender? Apparently we don't. We buy a Fender to mod it and hopefully get closer to that sound we hear in our heads.

What "we" are you talking about?

 

[Rob22315]

In three of my basses, I had to change the pickups. One came with 6 string pickups on a 5 string, one the piezo were uneven across the string, the last were really cheap so I put some Dimarzios in. All were worth it. One has stock pickups but with a new pre.

I'm really pleased with how all my basses sound now but my mods are about 1/2 necessity and 1/2 my choice because I like molding basses.

 

[PortlandBass77]

I almost always keep the originally PUs in my basses, the exception is when I buy a bass for cheap on CL, and then use the PUs for another project and get new PUs for that bass in order to resell.....