Trying a pickup swap on a five-string bass where the stock pickups are slanted (swept backwards to complement multiscale) rather than perpendicular to the strings. MK1's are the intended replacement. Problem is that the import Barts are are soapbars containing reverse-P split coils...
Slanting these (top toward bridge, bottom toward neck) means the pickup coverage is "shorter" top-to-bottom, so the obvious choice seems to be the MK1-6 rather than the MK1-5 (the housing is the same size, but the rails are a little longer on the former). However, there is a potential problem with the A string here. Normally, the A would naturally fall into the "gap area" of a P-pickup's split configuration. But in this case, once the pickup is slanted, there's a chance the A string would fall across both rails of the split coil (or since the six string configuration of the pickup is wider, I suppose the string might miss the rails entirely... hmm). I cannot actually see the rails inside the pickups to see how they will line up with the strings, and one of the things I'm wondering here is whether the "doubled" field from the separate rails of the split-coil, should the A fall across both of them due to the angle, would *increase* the signal from just this A string alone, creating a perceived volume imbalance from string to string, or even just *cancel* out the signal from the string entirely. Since I would have to do some cutting here just to fit the pickups, I'm not sure there's a way to test it. Does anyone have any opinions on what might happen here?
Slanting these (top toward bridge, bottom toward neck) means the pickup coverage is "shorter" top-to-bottom, so the obvious choice seems to be the MK1-6 rather than the MK1-5 (the housing is the same size, but the rails are a little longer on the former). However, there is a potential problem with the A string here. Normally, the A would naturally fall into the "gap area" of a P-pickup's split configuration. But in this case, once the pickup is slanted, there's a chance the A string would fall across both rails of the split coil (or since the six string configuration of the pickup is wider, I suppose the string might miss the rails entirely... hmm). I cannot actually see the rails inside the pickups to see how they will line up with the strings, and one of the things I'm wondering here is whether the "doubled" field from the separate rails of the split-coil, should the A fall across both of them due to the angle, would *increase* the signal from just this A string alone, creating a perceived volume imbalance from string to string, or even just *cancel* out the signal from the string entirely. Since I would have to do some cutting here just to fit the pickups, I'm not sure there's a way to test it. Does anyone have any opinions on what might happen here?
