Aftermarket pickups: is there any point in buying them?

[Rockin John]

This is probably a very naive question. However, I think I need guidance!

A few days ago I picked up an old Yamaha RBX 170 bass; it has a PJ pickup config. It’s a nice little bass for what it is and, to be honest, it sounds nice too (on the practice amp only atm).

Then I thought it’d be a great idea to fit a set of aftermarket pickups to improve the sound so I could use it occasionally even though it’s not my main bass (currently a Fender Elite Precision is my main bass). But .... and it’s a big BUT, by mucking about with the controls on the bass and/or on the amp I could get a huge range of sounds.

So I had to wonder how much sound improvement - or should that be sound difference - I could expect from a set of Duncans or Dimazios or whatever. And from that, I wondered if there really is any point in buying aftermarket pickups for this old Yamaha. It might even be possible to suspect that there is no point to people making aftermarket pickups at all.

Wisdom respectfully sought.

Tks.

John

 

[Killed_by_Death]

A lot of entry-level basses come with sub-par pickups. It kind of ticks me off that manufacturers will even make bad pickups, when it's not particularly difficult to make a good one.

 

[flojob]

Don't change them unless you DONT like the sound of the originals for a specific reason.
It may save you time and money.

 

[ctmullins]

On the other hand, the RBX pickups aren’t bad. I had an RBX200F as my first bass, and I too felt the urge to tinker with it, so I replaced the stock pickup with a Duncan SPB-2. Couldn’t tell any difference. So then I routed a spot near the bridge and put the original pickup there, making it a two-pickup bass. Which is when I learned why the reversed P is a much better choice at the bridge.

Anyway, I’ve had quite a few aftermarket pickups through the years, and the really good ones - Delano, Novak, Lace - are quite a bit better than anything that comes stock in a lower-level RBX.

The only real answer is “maybe, but you’ll have to try it to find out, and only your ears can make the final assessment”.

 

[Rockin John]

I don’t think I will change them, flojob. In any case they’d cost me in the region of double what I paid for the bass!

********
The thing is, with hindsight, I doubt I could hear that much of a difference between pickups in the band situation because I only hear myself from my rig on the back line. Yes, I can tell if the sound is muddy or bright, but not much more. I could not pick out nauences, that is for sure. Whether or not the audience could tell, I really don’t know.

A pickup is some wire and a magnet and there are only so many ways you can combine those two ingredients. Naturally certain combinations will have certain characteristics. All of them will, have a frequency response from low, through mids, to high, but in varying proportions depending on how the coil and magnet(s) are combined.

So surely - if one wished - it should be possible to make any pickup sound very similar to any other, all else being equal, just by Eq-ing the bass and/or amp? Or is that an incredibly stupid idea?

 

[saltydude]

Funny I just Posted a question about Passive pick ups. I have an cheap entry level bass.. 80’s Yamaha Motion B. The pick ups are powerfully loud and awesome. I want them in some of my other passive basses. I paid $200 for the Yamaha, I love it and use it often in my rotation.

 

[Rockin John]

Funny I just Posted a question about Passive pick ups. I have an cheap entry level bass.. 80’s Yamaha Motion B. The pick ups are powerfully loud and awesome. I want them in some of my other passive basses. I paid $200 for the Yamaha, I love it and use it often in my rotation.

I don’t think Yamaha make anything that’s really bad and, in most cases, its pretty damned good I’d say.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

The worst bass pickups I ever heard were the stock ones in a RBX270, just w/o definition, totally flubby-like.
However, the pickups in my RBX174EW were just fine, not great, but decent.

If you want to make that RBX sing, put these in it:

DP127 & DP148

 

[shawshank72]

People tend to change pickups with their mind made up before even playing it.
If you feel the need then do it, sometimes the difference is huge sometimes it’s subtle and sometimes it’s worse.

 

[Rockin John]

As a kind-of side issue, it would be interesting to buy a pair of these Chinese made P or J pickups and see how good they are. Some time back, as part of an experiment with bass electrics, I bought a set of Chinese Strat-style pickups from eBay. They had a very similar DC resistance and inductance to real Strat pickups but they were very microphonic because they’d not been wax dipped. So I dipped them and they worked a treat. For about £10 / $10 I had something that would have cost me ten times more than a big name aftermarket brand, yet the performance difference didn’t appear to be very large at all.

Interesting!

 

[Rockin John]

The worst bass pickups I ever heard were the stock ones in a RBX270, just w/o definition, totally flubby-like.
However, the pickups in my RBX174EW were just fine, not great, but decent.

If you want to make that RBX sing, put these in it:

View attachment 2881441

DP127 & DP148

Thanks!

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Since you're in the UK, you should be able to get some nice BareKnuckle pickups.

 

[FingerDub]

I don’t think I will change them, flojob. In any case they’d cost me in the region of double what I paid for the bass!

You don't have to buy new expensive ones. There are many good P/J used sets for sale here in the classifieds, and some of the super cheap Chinese ebay sets sound great and could be a big improvement to you.

 

[Rockin John]

Since you're in the UK, you should be able to get some nice BareKnuckle pickups.

Yes I can. I’ve looked at them but couldn’t decide. They - and other pickup builders over here - seem to be about half the price of Duncans and Dimarzios. Whether they’re any good, I don’t know.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Some guitar players switch all their pickups to BareKnuckle.
I've never tried them, but put my faith in Seymour Duncan instead.

 

[Zoobiedood]

Good pickups can really transform a bass, so the first thing to decide is where you are and where you want to be.

 

[Paulabass]

Pickups are probably the #1 mod, after putting a Grateful Dead sticker on your guitar case. They can completely change the whole bass, for better, or sometimes for worse. It's going to be a crap-shoot, so first decide what you DON'T like about your existing p/u's. If the answer comes up 'nothing', save some money, and rock the stock units.

 

[Callused Finger]

If you end up finding a type of pickup you like you might just end up putting them in every bass.
I can't stand anything other than bartolinis in my basses. Just the way it is.

 

[bass40hz]

...my .02...I had a 2002 MIM Pbass Deluxe with stock pups in it that didn't excite me, I replaced the split with Duncan Steve Harris Signatures and the J/bridge with a Duncan QP and it transformed the bass 110%...I've also swapped out the stock Fender pup in a MIM Carbonita with a TV Jones Thunderblade, once again, a miraculous transformation...the Fender pup sounded weird, almost like it was inherently pumping out 5ths and it was sort of thin...the TV Jones was so fat and wide sounding that you hit a string and the note just seemed to spread out horizontally and didn't stop...I lost count of how many basses I have owned, these are the only 2 times I felt I needed to replace what came in the bass...my point....if the current pups aren't impressing you then have some fun and replace them,. if you like what they are doing for you then don't fix what inst broken ;-)

 

[basscapes]

Dimarzio DP126BK.

Great PUPs.

I use the DP123 (J-bass) set. IIRC, the bridge PUP is the same in both sets and the P is the Model P, which has been around forever (and unless I get shown otherwise, will be gracing my DIY/KIT P-bass soon!)!