I had the benefit of having three different commercially made pickup sets in the "original" of this design to mull over. And I used the original bass to test a handful of different winds for these pickups before I put them in this one. That was very helpful. I did tweak the positions slightly on this bass compared to mine to help get this goal achieved and I was able to get the pickups how I wanted them tone wise.
And yes the neck pickup is a monster! I try not to play favorites but it's my favorite! These pickups have ceramic magnets which help with the tonal flexibility thanks to how hi-fi they are in terms of spectrum. You can yank the tone controls around and they still respond well to playing technique in terms of attack. For instance, on the neck pickup, you can turn the treble way down and play fingerstyle up by the neck and it's woolly and thuddy. But if you slap it like that, there's enough top end sparkle that you get this super awesome really dark slap tone. I just love that, and I feel like there aren't many basses that can get there, since most just get muddy instead. And, leave the controls like that but switch to the bridge, and you get a perfect 70's funk bass solo mid-driven tone. It's just bliss!
If it says anything, I like this arrangement so much that I've sold off my "favorite of all time" Bartolini pickups I had in the original bass, and I'm making another set of these to put in it.
And yes the neck pickup is a monster! I try not to play favorites but it's my favorite! These pickups have ceramic magnets which help with the tonal flexibility thanks to how hi-fi they are in terms of spectrum. You can yank the tone controls around and they still respond well to playing technique in terms of attack. For instance, on the neck pickup, you can turn the treble way down and play fingerstyle up by the neck and it's woolly and thuddy. But if you slap it like that, there's enough top end sparkle that you get this super awesome really dark slap tone. I just love that, and I feel like there aren't many basses that can get there, since most just get muddy instead. And, leave the controls like that but switch to the bridge, and you get a perfect 70's funk bass solo mid-driven tone. It's just bliss!
If it says anything, I like this arrangement so much that I've sold off my "favorite of all time" Bartolini pickups I had in the original bass, and I'm making another set of these to put in it.
