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Before my first build: Pickups and electronics
- Thread starter daerek
- Start date
What woods are you haveing the bass made from? Whats your fave pups and electronics? Fave pups if available for 7 string. And whatever 2-3 band preamp youve grown most fond of. Main question Id have is what brands offer pups for 7 string bass?
I think I'll go with maple and wenge. My current bass is my second overall
and my first active . It has Barts.If I had as much experience as a lot of you TBers, I wouldn't have asked. If I had played enough different pups to make an informed decision, I would already know what pups and electronics I want.
Maple would be a big mistake for body, very bright sounding. You said you wanted lotsa midrange and lows. Basswood would be more that type sound. Mahogany could work too since is nice dark toned wood with good mids. Maybe mahogany body with basswood top for midrange accent.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
No, wood plays an important part, since it's sort of like a filter for the string's vibrations. Different woods absorb vibrations differently, and will either absorb or reflect energy back to the strings. If it's a soft light wood, like basswood, it will have a warmer tone because it's easy to vibrate, and absorbs more energy. A hard wood like wenge will sound brighter because it's stealing less energy from the strings. Stiffness matters too, especially for the neck.
When I got into making pickups I had already made a number of basses. I knew what the basses sounded like unplugged, and wasn't hearing that from the pickups I was using. So I finally decided to make my own pickups that were faithful to the tone of the bass, while bringing out the qualities you want.
So I can swap the same electronics and hardware from one bass to another, all the same design except for the wood used, and they do sound different.
I had been using cherry, which is similar to maple, but a bit warmer. Maple isn't overly bright, and actually has a smooth top end. I find hard ash to sound brighter.
Basswood is a very warm sounding wood. A basswood back with harder top sounds nice. Poplar is also a nice sounding body wood, but as with basswood is nothing to look at.
The warmest sounding bass I have is made from cherry with a zebrawood top.
That's my experience with it anyway.
Maple has plenty of lows but less mids than alder/ash/etc. It is definitely not lacking any fundamental, I can tell you that for sure.
I just put Delano SBC4s in my fretless last week and am very happy with the tone. Very beefy, juicy sounding. Good mids and lows. The top end is ok, but I tend to dial that off a bit anyway. I used their Sonar Preamp and it isn't bad. I find that the preamp doesn't change the pup tone much in a good way. It has a push/pull volume to go passive. This is markedly different than my Bart equipped basses where the preamp drastically colors things.
The pups are dual coil with 4 leads so you can do single, parallel and series if you add a switch. They look like they make a 7 string or will be shortly. Invalid Link Removed[cat]=1&tx_smtdelano_pi1[series]=10&tx_smtdelano_pi1[strings]=9&tx_smtdelano_pi1[system]=66
Look for Thunderritter's wish bass video where he used an Xtender. It was very helpful in making my selection.
I am a huge fan so far and love big fat juicy round bass tone. I know very technical, but it is what I hear......
The pups are dual coil with 4 leads so you can do single, parallel and series if you add a switch. They look like they make a 7 string or will be shortly. Invalid Link Removed[cat]=1&tx_smtdelano_pi1[series]=10&tx_smtdelano_pi1[strings]=9&tx_smtdelano_pi1[system]=66
Look for Thunderritter's wish bass video where he used an Xtender. It was very helpful in making my selection.
I am a huge fan so far and love big fat juicy round bass tone. I know very technical, but it is what I hear......
Play two identical basses except for body wood. One with maple body the other with mahogany. The maple one will sound notoicebly trebly compared to the mahogany one. By identical I mean identical except for body wood, same maker, same pups, same hardware, same electronics. All maple bodied basses Ive tried have been overly trebly sounding to me.
