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Are There Any Musicman Pickups WITHOUT So Much Magnetic Pull??????

HearNoStevil

HearNoStevil

Inactive
Jul 17, 2020
877
2,149
#1
One of my basses, and the only one with Musicman pickups, is a Fender Reverse Jaguar. It has the two stock Musicman style pickups. I don't know who made them for Fender.

I bought it because it played amazingly, and it was only $300 brand new at Guitar Center a few years back when they were trying to give them away.

Problem is, with a distorted tone, the magnetic pull on the pickups makes it completely unusable, even with the pickups lowered to their lowest point. 90% of the notes make a warbly out of tune sound.

I use the bridge pickup for my distorted tone, and since that pickup is over a "tighter" part of the string, I can actually place that pickup at normal height; it's actually not the bridge pickup that is the culprit as it is harder for the magnets of the pickup to physically pull the strings the closer to the bridge you get.

BTW, I love the actual tone of the pickups.

However, the neck pickup's magnetic pull over that part of the string is soooo strong that it doesn't just make the notes sound warbly, but it significantly pulls the strings out of tune, even with the neck pickup completely at its lowest setting touching the wood at the bottom of the route; I completely removed the foam under the neck pickup. It helped a tiny bit, but not only does this look stupid, it didn't cure the problem. Most notes are out of tune and warble.

Now, if I completely remove the neck pickup and let it physically dangle from the bass, everything is fine, even with the bridge pickup high against the strings. No out of tune, no warbly overtone. Sounds great.

So, what are my options for replacement Musicman pickups that have less string pull? This bass simply isn't usable as it is without removing the neck pickup completely and leaving a giant hole.

Thanks everybody for any help.
 
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#4
Hm. I had built a set of pickups a while ago that use strong neodymium magnets as poles and they don't cause that issue even set at 1/8" from the strings at the bridge...

There are other causes to warbling sounds. What strings are you using, and did you install them yourself? What pedal is it, and does this only happen with distorted tones?
 
#5
BioWeapon said:
Hm. I had built a set of pickups a while ago that use strong neodymium magnets as poles and they don't cause that issue even set at 1/8" from the strings at the bridge...

There are other causes to warbling sounds. What strings are you using, and did you install them yourself? What pedal is it, and does this only happen with distorted tones?
Click to expand...

It's the pickup, specifically the neck. If you read my description, when I removed the neck pickup it completely stopped.

The bridge pickup can be placed close to the strings because the strings are harder to pull out of tune in that location.

With no neck pickup physically in the bass, the bridge pickup can be placed as close as you want it to the strings.

With the neck pickup installed, and installed absolutely as low as it will possibly go (over 1/4" from the strings) and it still makes the warbly out of tune noise on either pickup.
 
#8
fast slapper said:
Have you tried lowering the bridge as well? Maybe the combined strength of both puts it out of wack.

Alnico 2 or 3 is supposed to be a bit weaker.
Click to expand...

Yes, didn't help or hurt how high or low the bridge pickup is.

It's amazing how much pull the neck pickup has.

With the pickup just sitting in the bottom of the route (not screwed in), and the bass laying on its back, if I hit a string and pull the neck pickup slowly with my fingers toward the string, it will literally go out of tune almost an entire semi-tone.
 
#9
Most MM type pickups have a pretty high output, it's the nature of the beast as they're all aimed at copying, or tweaking the sound and tone of the originals, either the first alnico magnet type or the later ceramic models.

There are quite a few custom pickup makers who will wind to any specifications you want, with a variety of magnet strengths, or types, but the result may not give you the sound you want. Still it doesn't hurt to ask.
 
#10
HearNoStevil said:
I'd like to keep the exposed poles if possible.
Click to expand...
big exposed poles probably equals massive pull unfortunately

maybe something like the nordstrand bigman?
Nordstrand_Pickups_Bigman4_MM_Bass_soapbar_2000x.jpg
 

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#11
I don't know if the stock Reverse Jaguar MM pickups are alnico, but I'm assuming they are as I can see no ceramic bar magnets on the bottom, and they are a shallow pickup with about 1/8" indentation on the bottom. I would think if they were ceramic there would be exposed magnets (like all the other ceramic MM pickups I've seen).

Alnico magnets have less pull than ceramic, however, the alnico magnets are right up by the strings where as with the ceramics, the actual magnets are pretty far away on the bottom of the pickup, magnetizing through the polepieces.

I'm thinking what I have is alnico, and I should maybe try a ceramic in the neck position.

I don't care how it sounds as I never use the neck pickup really, and I love the way the stock bridge pickup sounds. I never run two pickups together.

Any ideas on ceramic pickups having less of a pull due to the actual magnets being 1/2" farther away from the strings?
 
#17
HearNoStevil said:
Any ideas on ceramic pickups having less of a pull due to the actual magnets being 1/2" farther away from the strings?
Click to expand...
as far as music man pickups not that i've noticed, and this is something i routinely check when doing setups by dropping a little metal ruler on a pickup to feel how strong the pull is.

the ceramic magnet itself is super-strong so you still get lots of pull through the steel slugs up top.
 

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