Best Replacement Pickups for Ltd B-206sm

emg 45dc or any 45 case emgs will fit

 

What kind of tone are you after? EMG45DCX for more aggressive tones, EMG45CSX will be more 'sweet' sounding. Then you can also pick from the EMG45JX, EMG45PX, and so on.

Also, you can go with the non X-series if you want the more compressed sound.

 

I have an older (pre-spalted maple) B206.
In my opinion, the weak link is the preamp, not the pickups. The stock preamp seems to be voiced more for skinny-string guitar than for bass guitar.
I replaced my preamp with an EMG BQS and haven't found any need to to replace the pickups.

(Side note: Even though my pickups say "ESP" on the cases, "EMG HZ" is handwritten in the booklet that came with the bass. Go figure.)

 

The EMG BQS control replaces the 3 existing EQ knobs. You don't need to change the existing Volume and Blend knobs.

One thing to keep in mind if you're installing the BQS in your B206: In order to easily fit the circuit board into the cavity and have the shafts line up with the existing holes, the order of the EQ knobs will be Low/High/Mid (looking down from playing position).