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Bass pickup tantrum... *** how about some standards?

DanAdams

DanAdams

Supporting Member
Nov 3, 2013
2,378
5,004
Maine
#1
OK. electric guitars have two basic sizes for pickups. single coil and double coil.
2 pickup sizes! hooray! and as a bonus they are the exact same width.

Even if you don't count 5, 6, or more string basses, there are about a qua-zillion different pickup sizes for 4 string electric basses. grrrr.

Yeah sure, maybe I bring it on myself by collecting oddball broken basses, but sheesh, I give up.
 
#4
I don't want a variety of sizes, I want something to fit in these holes without modifying or destroying everything, or having big gaps, or both.
Basses certainly have a VASTLY greater variety than six string guitars, which (for the most part) has used two pickup sizes since the birth of the electric guitar.
 
#5
DanAdams said:
I don't want a variety of sizes, I want something to fit in these holes without modifying or destroying everything, or having big gaps, or both.
Basses certainly have a VASTLY greater variety than six string guitars, which (for the most part) has used two pickup sizes since the birth of the electric guitar.
Click to expand...

What kind of bass is giving you so much trouble?
 
#7
Matsumoku Ibanez and Westone. Ibanez roadstar b760 (same size as Musicians of the mid 80s era), a Westone Thunder 3 (v2). both very cool neck through basses.
I also have a 1980 musician that someone before me completely screwed up because they couldn't find a proper sized replacement pickup.

I have since learned that I can stuff P and J pickups into the casings of the original b760 pickups (If I don't mess them up prying out the bad ones)
1458462_10205619411147254_7701844478165986556_n.gif

IMG_5352.jpg

this the musician that a previous owner crapped up to fit dang EMGs
IMG_5322.jpg
 
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#8
DanAdams said:
OK. electric guitars have two basic sizes for pickups. single coil and double coil.
2 pickup sizes! hooray! and as a bonus they are the exact same width.

Even if you don't count 5, 6, or more string basses, there are about a qua-zillion different pickup sizes for 4 string electric basses. grrrr.

Yeah sure, maybe I bring it on myself by collecting oddball broken basses, but sheesh, I give up.
Click to expand...

Not really.

There are guitar humbuckers designed for "F" and "G" string spacing at the bridge, P90s, dogear P90s, minibuckers, and so on. The guitar world is just as bad or worse.

In any case, nothing that a steady hand, a sharp chisel and possibly a hammer can't solve. But not too big of a hammer...
 
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#9
I understand that it's my own fault for loving old oddballs, and perhaps I'm living in a bubble, but all the brands I'm into use their own crazy sizes every time a bass model changed, but their lines of guitars always used standard pickups.
 
#10
DanAdams said:
I understand that it's my own fault for loving old oddballs, and perhaps I'm living in a bubble, but all the brands I'm into use their own crazy sizes every time a bass model changed, but their lines of guitars always used standard pickups.
Click to expand...

I dunno. Even notice how MusicMan hasn't figured out how to center their magnet slugs with the strings in spite of building them for what, almost 40 years? Yet they sound really good and seem to sell pretty well. Maybe being off a little bit one way or another isn't really a thing...
 
#13
DanAdams said:
I understand that it's my own fault for loving old oddballs, and perhaps I'm living in a bubble, but all the brands I'm into use their own crazy sizes every time a bass model changed, but their lines of guitars always used standard pickups.
Click to expand...
Is something wrong with the existing pickups in your basses? Have you tried changing strings or your setup or your technique?
 
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#15
Yeah, all guitar pickups are the same:

attachment.jpg


LOL

Guitar bridges are not exactly fun either.

A Squier & a Mexican Fender are both Metric, but the string spacing is not the same, so the bridges are not swappable.
Guess what, the American Fender are SAE, so neither a Squier nor a Mexican Fender bridge will fit them, or vice versa.

Oh Yeah, the vibrato arm thread pitches are all different too.
 
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#18
Tried to update this bass with EMG pickups, but the length of these pickups were not the same dimensions.
Found out after I sold this bass, the pickups were actually good pickups and that the bass just needed a better preamp installed.
Lessons learned.
Yamahabass.jpg
 
#19
Sure, the "standard" single coil or humbucker are the two main guitar pickups - similar to the J and P bass pickups being very popular. On guitar there's also mini-buckers, lipstick, P-90 (with and without dog-ears), then the model specific Jaguar and Jazzmaster pickups, the split G&L pickups along with the ASAT guitar pickups, the floating pickup, the Filtertrons, not to mention the wide variety of pickups on 60's student guitars.

There's also one offs like the V2 pickups on the Gibson V2, as well as special pickups offered by more boutique builders.

Even in the "normal" single coil and humbucker sizes, there's stacked, blades, adjustable and non-adjustable pole pieces, F spacing, different magnet types, different windings (under/vintage wound, over would, "Texas" style, scatter wound, X-wound, reverse wound (along with reverse polarity).

So yeah, a ton of options on the guitar side for pickups.
 
#20
Yes, I have project basses with pickup problems. If my pickups worked I wouldn't need new pickups.
It would be nice to get replacement pickups that fit, but availability in the dimensions I would like are not available.
I did say "for the most part" I'm not denying that guitar pickups come in other shapes, but there seem to be fewer standard shapes in the guitar world that cover most guitars.
I've been to pickup manufacturer's websites, there are more bass sizes than guitar sizes, but still not my sizes.
 

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