Loved my Rbx 170... flame red! My first gigging bass!! Have you a picture!? Nostalgia sakes? Pleeeeaaase
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Aftermarket pickups: is there any point in buying them?
- Thread starter Rockin John
- Start date
Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders make any passive bass sound amazing - whether it's the P, J, or MM
EDIT: (the following is more of a reply to the OP not to the above comment. Just thought I'd throw the BK vignette out there.) On the barekbuckle website, they mention in their artist section that one of the bassists for Eric Clapton took out the pups on his fender PJ and put bareknuckles in to great effect. There is a reeason the boutique buildsrs like mayones use nordstrand, aguilar, delano, bare knuckle, etc. Having switched pickups in the past, it never was a bust for me. High end pickups will not make a trash bass amazing, but they will bring out every nuance of tone that instrument has to offer. Yamaha, schecter, and ibanez seem to make solid mid level instruments that take electronics changes very well. Many times the difference between a $400 bass and a $750 bass is merely electronics and a paint job. Same woods, hardware, etc.
Don't change anything until you can describe in your words what's wrong with the sound. The internet is a dangerous place. It can give you the idea you need things you don't really need. Once you've detemined you're missing 'bite' or 'warmth' or, my own personal favorite 'a creamy high end', you're ready to take the plunge.
I have a bass exactly like that, except mine has black knobs. I like the pickups on it just fine.
What you may want to do instead of messing with the bass, consider a Sansamp, or WTDI, or some other pedal that may give you a lot more tonal flexability.
So has there been any actually discussion on aftermarket pickups? What even is the definition?
I always assumed "aftermarket" means when gear is sold later on often by the manufacturer instead of a middle man, sometimes unlabeled even.
I have seen instances where a company places an order for pickups then for whatever reason doesn't buy them all, so the manufacturer liquidates them for dirt cheap often unbranded/labeled.
Have I been assuming wrong about what "aftermarket" means? The "after" part of the name seems to imply they weren't sold on the regular market as intended.
I always assumed "aftermarket" means when gear is sold later on often by the manufacturer instead of a middle man, sometimes unlabeled even.
I have seen instances where a company places an order for pickups then for whatever reason doesn't buy them all, so the manufacturer liquidates them for dirt cheap often unbranded/labeled.
Have I been assuming wrong about what "aftermarket" means? The "after" part of the name seems to imply they weren't sold on the regular market as intended.
It's kind of like the p-bass shootouts, and 'can you tell x from y' threads. As stated, in a live situation, so much subtlety gets lost that no, there's not much difference. Recording, whole different animal.
But also as stated - if you're happy with it, don't bother. Pickups, like most other pieces of gear have gotten immeasuarably better since, say, the 80s. Cheap stuff back then had obviously awful pickups and greatly benefitted from upgrades.
But also as stated - if you're happy with it, don't bother. Pickups, like most other pieces of gear have gotten immeasuarably better since, say, the 80s. Cheap stuff back then had obviously awful pickups and greatly benefitted from upgrades.
Good point. Of all the PJs I've had (3), none of them had a split single in the bridge position - which translated to a lot of noise, especially when bringing in overdrive, fuzz, or other high gain stuff.
The best pickups I've owned have been aftermarket. The worst pickups I've owned have been aftermarket.
FWIW, I replaced the pickup in my RBX with an SD Vintage
and I couldn't hear any difference. Just my experience.
and I couldn't hear any difference. Just my experience.
In some instances complete electronics overhaul just makes the bass better. I think that the vast majority of lower end instruments (<$500) will see marked improvements from a full swap of pickups, pots, switches, and (if so equipped) preamps. However, it may not be worth spending all that money to do these mods. Sometimes you'll find that spending less on a more expensive bass gets you where you want to be. Other times you're buying something cheap for practice or to start learning and either don't have to care about the sound enough to change it or, in the case of beginners, don't know enough about what you need and want to lay down more cash (you will always want to get something better or different after you've been playing for a year or two)
The other side of the coin is changing the sound of an already great instrument based on what you need or want out of it. I'll use myself as an example. I love playing my Ibanez SR1206 because the feel of the thing is perfect for me. I knew it as soon as I picked it up at the store. I knew just as quickly that the EQ points on the preamp weren't quite optimal for me. So that got changed out before I played it out once. The bass comes with Nordstrand Big Singles, so I knew that they were really good pickups and they stayed. After almost 2 years I really started to hone in on exactly what I didn't like about the sound and knew that it came down to the single coil pickups. So I made a lateral move to pickups that give me the specific sound that I want to hear. The new Aguilar DCBs aren't any better than the Nordstrands, just different.
I think that aftermarket (and higher end OEM) pickups can make a huge difference in sound and in some cases they are fixing a huge glaring hole in the quality of a bass, but I think that spending more than the cost of the bass to replace things is, in many cases, throwing money away that could have been used to simply upgrade to an instrument that fits better with where your bass playing career has gone.
The other side of the coin is changing the sound of an already great instrument based on what you need or want out of it. I'll use myself as an example. I love playing my Ibanez SR1206 because the feel of the thing is perfect for me. I knew it as soon as I picked it up at the store. I knew just as quickly that the EQ points on the preamp weren't quite optimal for me. So that got changed out before I played it out once. The bass comes with Nordstrand Big Singles, so I knew that they were really good pickups and they stayed. After almost 2 years I really started to hone in on exactly what I didn't like about the sound and knew that it came down to the single coil pickups. So I made a lateral move to pickups that give me the specific sound that I want to hear. The new Aguilar DCBs aren't any better than the Nordstrands, just different.
I think that aftermarket (and higher end OEM) pickups can make a huge difference in sound and in some cases they are fixing a huge glaring hole in the quality of a bass, but I think that spending more than the cost of the bass to replace things is, in many cases, throwing money away that could have been used to simply upgrade to an instrument that fits better with where your bass playing career has gone.
I don't do much of it, but I will say putting Fralin's in my Jazz bass was an excellent move. An improvement over the stock and whatever Seymour Duncan humbuckers I had in there before. Those humbuckers were mud city. They helped beef things up a bit when I was using the neck pickup only, but in the long run I missed the clarity and the classic J sound that the single coils provide.
Rockin John: I have Jason Lollar pickups in my P bass and J bass. I love those pickups! They just sound great!
I have an early 70s Ibanez fretless Jazz Bass copy that really sings but lacks deep bottoms, and I use a boss EQ in the signal chain to make it work. I periodically toy with changing the pickups, but I’m scared of losing the character of the bass, which regularly gets positive comments when I use it.
The pedal improves the sound, but only to a point. It can accentuate frequencies but it doesn’t add them, nor does it really clean them up. When I boost the bottom too far it lacks definition compared to my other fretless (a 1980 Ibanez Musician).
I'm afraid I'm in the camp that doesn't understand swapping pickups. If the bass isn't providing what I want it gets moved on in favor of a bass that does provide what I want.
