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

[Doner Designs]

Costs a little more, but outfits like Nordstrand can put their pickups under a variety of different covers so long as they fit. For example, you can get a Big Single or J pickup made in a Bartolini or an EMG shape/size. They can do custom pole spacing too. I have done that a few times on 3 pickup basses where the far neck pickup needs to have the poles in different places. I don't remember how much the custom charge was exactly.

Still, as you say, having fewer shape and size options would simplify (and cheapen) things for makers and users.

 

[Corey Y]

If you think there are only 2 standard guitar sizes, you're simply only counting the two most popular form factors and disregarding a dozen or more others. There are humbuckers (which come in different varieties depending on string spacing and mounting style), Strat style single coils, Telecaster style single coils (neck and bridge are different shapes as well there), Jazzmaster, P-90 (surface mount or routed cavity style), Mini Humbuckers, Gold Foil style pickups, Lipstick tube style and then a wide variety of weird, random and unique styles that can't be easily classified.

 

[jamro217]

I hope you don't go outside in winter, because no two snowflakes are exactly the same, either. AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGHH!!!!!!!!

 

[jamro217]

What about Gibson bass pickups? Mudbuckers, mini humbuckers, Ripper style, clear bobbin single coils, and those wierdo RD Artist soap(dish)bars, just to name a few.

 

[Antisyzygy]

I don't know much about guitars but I'm not so sure four string basses have a greater variety of pickups than those of six string guitars.

Yeah, I was going to say.

There's also P90 soapbars, P90s with dog ears, mini-humbuckers, Jazzmaster pickups, Jaguar pickups with the claw teeth, lipsticks that mount differently, Z-coils from G&L, Those Gretsch rockabilly humbuckers, Fender wide-field vs. Gibson PAF style humbuckers, etc.

Consider a Telecaster bridge pickup vs. a Strat bridge pickup. They are not interchangeable.

Also, 7 and 8 string guitars exist that require special pickups.

 

[Fliptrique]

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.

Not really. Your usual humbucker may come in - basically - gibson and fender widths, hence all the seymour duncan humbuckers come in the "trembucker" variant. Besides that you have the soapbar pickups, you`ve got tele pickups (two different ones that do not fit anything else!), p90s, lipsticks etc.

Also - how many passive, single coil jazz pickups SD offers? Three if I`m not mistaken? Well, you have something like... twenty passive SD humbuckers.

Granted, there IS more variation in the bass pickups sizes, but most companies offer their pickups in the usual bartolini or emg housing type.

 

[Kragnorak]

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.

I've had this issue. I have a fantastic bass: 6-string fretless for 20-odd years now, the Steve Bailey Aria Pro II Avante. In all that time the neck has never so much as budged - the construction was amazing. But I had the original pups and want to upgrade them and even trying to work with Seymour Duncan (who at one time provided an upgrade kit to their Basslines product) did not work out. The Basslines pups are 1.25" wide and my rout is only 1" wide.

It has gotten so frustrating that I am now quite willing to sell this otherwise great bass. I'm really not interested in having the body routed out when everything about the wood of the bass is excellent.

 

[brianrost]

There are no standards, nor should there be.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

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.

So you're upset because you bought obscure 30 year old instruments with odd-ball pickups that don't work and none of the pretty much standard sizes available today (which are very standardized these days) will work?

Did you consider that the shape of the coil determines how the pickup sounds, and that the shape of the shell has to be sized around the shape of the coil in most cases? There can't be a wide variety of coil-shapes packed into very few standard shell sizes. Form follows function.

 

[Blaargh]

To be fair to the OP he has a point; guitar pickups are usually standard singlecoil or humbucker sizes, and P90s if not. That's not to say stuff like Fender Wide Range HBs or Jazzmaster pickups aren't out there, but most guitars stick to the standard dimension P/ups. Bass pickups also tend to stick to a few dimensions, but it's between Ps, Js, soapbars and MM style p/ups. It's also exacerbated by the bass market being smaller so there are less companies making replacements. There are some good independent pickup builders though that can refit or replace old pickups, like Mojo Pickups.

 

[AcridSaint]

I've had this issue. I have a fantastic bass: 6-string fretless for 20-odd years now, the Steve Bailey Aria Pro II Avante. In all that time the neck has never so much as budged - the construction was amazing. But I had the original pups and want to upgrade them and even trying to work with Seymour Duncan (who at one time provided an upgrade kit to their Basslines product) did not work out. The Basslines pups are 1.25" wide and my rout is only 1" wide.

It has gotten so frustrating that I am now quite willing to sell this otherwise great bass. I'm really not interested in having the body routed out when everything about the wood of the bass is excellent.

Why not talk to someone like Curtis Novak? I don't have personal experience with him, but him or someone like him who specializes in custom pickups and restorations might be able to help.

 

[DanAdams]

OK, I hear you all loud and clear. I should not have said "two basic pickup sizes", although I thought that having the word "basic" suggested the existence of other less basic pickups.
I also used the word "tantrum" in my header to suggest that I knew I was being a bit silly and unreasonable as one might get after looking through several pickup makers sites hoping to find something that would fit.
I also believe that I would not have problems finding a replacement pickup for any common production guitar from the 80s.

Yes guitars can have weird shaped pickups too, but those seem available for purchase. I apologize for my hyperbole.

 

[bobba66]

Boogers come in different sizes and you can stick them anywhere!

 

[fjadams]

Try to find a template that fits the Epiphone TBird pickups. I dare you. I have a set of SGDs that I was going to use in a project and nobody makes a template for them. At least I couldn't find one and I looked everywhere and asked a couple of different template makers and they said no they don't make one and no they couldn't custom make one. So they sit and wait for some other future project.

 

[brianrost]

To be fair to the OP he has a point; guitar pickups are usually standard singlecoil or humbucker sizes, and P90s if not.

No, no, no, no they are not.

There are so many exceptions already posted here.

Guitar mkrs don't design instruments so you can replace all the parts yourself. Why should they?

 

[buldog5151bass]

I think some people get more hung up playing with their bass, rather than playing bass.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I had that problem for a long time, but I think I'm finally over it!

 

[Blaargh]

No, no, no, no they are not.

There are so many exceptions already posted here.

Guitar mkrs don't design instruments so you can replace all the parts yourself. Why should they?

Just because other pickups exist doesn't mean that F/G sized singlecoils and humbuckers aren't far and away the most common size of guitar pickup. In terms of actual numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if at least 80% of guitars produced today have pickups in those dimensions.

For example, Jazzmaster p/ups are really different, but they're not really used beyond JMs and JM copies. It's hard to argue that F/G sized singlecoils/humbuckers aren't overwhelmingly common compared to other pickup designs, far more than J-style or P-style pickups are in the bass world, where a large percentage opt for soapbars or MM-style humbuckers. Again, it's worse for us because the market's not so big, so we don't get as many options anyway. Perhaps my view is a little skewed- Most of the music I follow is pretty heavy, and seeing a guitarist in a metal band using something not loaded with F/G style pickups is almost unheard of.

I'm not saying OP is completely right, but there's some merit to it.

 

[oldcatfish]

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.

Though you named the two most common sizes, there are at least a couple of others. P90's are not uncommon; they are in between the size and tone of the two that you named. And G&L has a split coil design for one of their strat style guitars.

 

[Spectrum]

I'm with the guy that suggested having the pickups re-wound.

Westone pickups, especially, have a distinctive sound, and really match the looks of those basses.