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bass pickups

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Guest
Apr 30, 2017
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Is it common to own multiple bass' and use different brands of pickups in both? I have Seymour Duncan's in my j bass and I just bought a p bass and want to up grade but I may want to try EMG rather than stick with another set of SD!
 
I prefer to stick with what the original manufacturer puts in the bass. If I want a different sound than what the bass has I would prefer to buy another bass that has the sound I want, because I can't tell what any replacement pickup is going to sound like in my bass until i've bought it then I can't take it back if it's not what I want.
 
I just bought a MIM P body.
I have a maple neck.

I liked the Model P so I bought one.
BC Rich basses turned me on to them long ago.

The Steve Harris sig sounds good, I'll slap one of those in later.

Nordstrand P blade is cool, that will find it's way in one day.

Gzrs are already in my Spector, not a fan.
Those will take a detour into the parts P.

YouTube clips of basses with the 62 P sound good, those are plentiful here, I'll get to that someday.
 
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If you had a second j bass I could see wanting to try different pickups but a p vs a j are going to sound different regardless. That's not to say you'll like the tone of SD's over something else
 
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Each bass is different, each pickup, even when the same model are different. My favorite pickup in one bass might not sound the best in another, and so on and so forth.

As I'm a natural tinkerer and problem solver, I enjoy the challenge of finding the right combination of parts to bring a bass to its true potential. For others this would drive them crazy.

Ironically, out of 20 basses, I only have three I haven't changed anything on, as they sound perfect as they are. One is a Spector, the others Jaco sig jazz, and an American standard V jazz. I'm still struggling with the other two jazzes to get sounding the way I want.
 
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Tinkering can be an expensive way of life, but it can be mighty rewarding also.

To check out where tinkering can lead you, look at the Luthier's Corner forum below. I can only marvel at the skill (and incredible problem solving) employed by those folks.
 
Pickup sellers should keep demo pickups to test with. Like it, keep it or return the demo for a new in package one. Or return the demo for a different demo type until you find what you want. A very risky situation as it is, but YouTube has some demos of common pickups in different bass guitars.

I also wonder if loosening and tightening the strings causes degradation of sound quality. I would think it does and may affect the selection process.