angled pickups why

[Donald Wormuth]

I'm a beginner, I'm wondering why on my Washburn force the pick-ups are angled? I have three bass's My warlock standard humbuckers. My Jackson basic PJ set up. Reason why I'm asking is I'm getting ready to purchase a #4. Being new to all this and style of music I am playing NU-Metal. Is there an advantage of them being angled? Ive been looking mostly at Ibenez and Sound Gear basses. Because that's what my favorite bassist plays. I'm wanting to get something as close to his signature model. The Ibenez PG B1 which is like the old ATK models. I found one of his signature models in China I made an offer on it wasn't accepted. They were asking $849.00 I offered $750. Because the S&H, was 150 and that was my total budget. I also found a PG 2 which is a cheaper version of the signature model. But was sold and add was never removed from site. Doing research so I get what I want and not buy something wrong. Thanks for your help.

 

[dwizum]

A pickup's tone will change depending on where it is located along the scale length of the string. Generally speaking, closer to the bridge is more punchy and upper/mids focused, while closer to the neck is more bass-heavy.

if a bass designer wants one pickup to have ever-so-slightly different tones, they can angle the pickup to get slightly different "positions" under each string. On your bass, the treble side is closer to the bridge, so the treble strings will be a little more punchy and the bass strings will be more bass-y.

Other than that, it's probably sometimes just done for looks, to catch people's attention when the bass is hanging on the wall at the music store in a mass of other generic looking basses.

 

[Vodyanoi]

Not sure if it really makes such a significant difference tone-wise to have them angled, at least it shouldn't do more than what changing hand position does anyway. But it sure looks cool!

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[Donald Wormuth]

A pickup's tone will change depending on where it is located along the scale length of the string. Generally speaking, closer to the bridge is more punchy and upper/mids focused, while closer to the neck is more bass-heavy.

if a bass designer wants one pickup to have ever-so-slightly different tones, they can angle the pickup to get slightly different "positions" under each string. On your bass, the treble side is closer to the bridge, so the treble strings will be a little more punchy and the bass strings will be more bass-y.

Other than that, it's probably sometimes just done for looks, to catch people's attention when the bass is hanging on the wall at the music store in a mass of other generic looking basses.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[iiipopes]

Some manufacturers do it for cosmetics. Some do it because it's the only place to put the pickups to get the poles to line up. Others do it for tonal reasons, as set forth above.

As for me, since bass technology can give a pretty even tone from a line or amplifier standpoint, I like to slightly angle the pickup so the B string is a little closer to the bridge to get more overtones and definition, and the G string slightly farther from the bridge to get a little more fundamental and less twang. If by angling the pickup in this manner I need to raise the bass tone knob a half-number to compensate, then that's why it's there.

 

[Riff Ranger]

Other than in looks, stock ATKs differ very little from Paul Grey models. They differ significantly from Soundgear/SR basses—resemblances stop at the name on the headstock and the relative build quality at the different trim lines (pretty much all of them provide great bang for the buck, but you do get more bang for more bucks). I would not purchase an SR expecting it to play or sound anything like an ATK, or vice versa.

If you go the ATK/PG route, you'll find the ATK club on TalkBass friendly and helpful.