Hey everyone, all the time on here, I'm seeing people talk about Bartolini pickups. Are bartolini pickups considered to be really good, or just like an average pup ? Do they have a distinctive sound? What makes so many people talk about them? Sorry, I know like virtually nothing about these.
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Bartolini pickups info needed
- Thread starter bassman700
- Start date
Hi!
I really don't know so much about pickups, strings, etc....bartolini is a very well reputated brand and prices according to his name but, as everything in life is a matter of personal taste.
My own experience: i liked my bartolini mk1 in Cort A5 active but now i made it passive i really love it! Someone else will hate it
If you're looking for pickups i'd suggest read threads here but keep in mind there are lots of BASS GURUS saying "if you play jazz you must get xxx pickups", "you cannot play rock with xxx ones"......
Your sound is yours
I really don't know so much about pickups, strings, etc....bartolini is a very well reputated brand and prices according to his name but, as everything in life is a matter of personal taste.
My own experience: i liked my bartolini mk1 in Cort A5 active but now i made it passive i really love it! Someone else will hate it
If you're looking for pickups i'd suggest read threads here but keep in mind there are lots of BASS GURUS saying "if you play jazz you must get xxx pickups", "you cannot play rock with xxx ones"......
Your sound is yours
Bartolini is a good pickup for rock. I had the cort curbow 6 and it sounded great in a rock/metal mix. Others that are god in my experience are EMG and MEC
I'm only trying to say that pickups, strings, pots...even the bass itself doesn't make you sound jazz, rock, etc.... it's your technique!
Give me a Fodera and it'll sound like crap cause i'm a beginner, give Victor Wooten the cheapest bass in town and will be awesome!
Give me a Fodera and it'll sound like crap cause i'm a beginner, give Victor Wooten the cheapest bass in town and will be awesome!
I love Bartolini's. They are going in every bass I own. Got a Jazz being modded as we speak. Gonna upgrade the MK1's in my Lakland 55-01. I've already upgraded the MK1 pre to a US 5.2 A/P. Also have a Custom bass being built with a set of 9J1's (but with an Audere pre).
Thanks everyone I'm thinking about getting a fender jazz bass, and when I get it I'm thinking about replacing the jazz pups with barts. Yay or nay?
Mk1s all the way. Take a listen to some other similar pickups too. MECs are super crisp with the whole MEC electronics system
Ric5
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- Jan 29, 2008
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- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
I have a couple of barts. The are smooth well mannered pickups. They are about 5.4k ohms. They sound best with a preamp or an EQ pedal where you can boost the mids.
Just hit a snag with my mod. The preamp (+battery) I bought will not fit in the standard cavity without routing. Gah!
- Aug 21, 2008
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Just for a little history; Bartolini was one of the first companies to make replacement pickups back when all you could buy would be Fender, Gibson or Guild, etc., back 1973.
Back then they were called "Hi-A" pickups, because they sensed the strings with a highly asymmetrical pattern. This caused the pickups to be more sensitive to the up and down motion of the string more than the side to side. This give a very natural and almost acoustic type of tone.
The early Hi-A pickups also had a separate output for each string! Bill Bartolini got two patents on the original designs. Then in around 1976 he introduced the fist dual coil humbuckers.
In the 80s he came up with a new design that had a very warm tone; what some people would call on the dark side, or as having "burnished" highs. This was to give a burpy bridge pickup tone. This is what they now call the "original" line.
They do come in deep and bright models however.
Then he reintroduced the Hi-A sound in the "Classic Bass" line. They have a brighter more open tone.
So that's the story of Bartolini. You see them in so many boutique basses because they were the original boutique pickup maker.
I just had a Classic series single coil 'bright' set installed along with a Bart 3.3 A/P preamp in my Jazz. My tech had to route the body to get the preamp module and batteries to fit as they wouldn't fit in the control cavity.
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I put in Bartolini "classic" "deep" pickups in a jazz bass i put together and they do sound very nice. The "deep" ones are warm and round. The sound is pretty much even with no fallout in the lows, mids, or highs that I've noticed. Good sound for just about every style or technique I've tried if you mess with the volume and tone. I also have Bartolini Mk2's in my Ibanez BTB that I've had for awhile and no issue with them. So i say yay
Just threw some Mk1s in my Yamaha and they sound ridiculous. In my experience, you will never be disappointed with Bartolinis, but they might sound different than you were expecting
I love this site! Now, being he idiot that I am, what are the functions of pick ups? I have a Ibanez SR 705, and it came with Bartaloni MK1 pickups. I don't know what what all that means. All I know is that it has a switch. I need to learn what passive and active means. I picked up my bass just cause it looked cool, sounded cool and felt great. I look forward to being flamed 
- Aug 21, 2008
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The pickups pick up the sound of the strings and convert it into electrical currents, which are then amplified at the amplifier and send to the speaker and then your ears.
Basses often have two pickups. The one closer to the neck sounds deeper and the one closer to the bright sounds brighter.
