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Do you believe in "sweet spots" for pickups?

#3
No.

Guitarists will tell you that Fender and Gibson have the ideal pickup locations, especially for the neck pickup. And that shred guitars with 24 frets sound bad because of pickup placement. Then they'll play an SG, where the neck pickup is pushed back because otherwise the neck will fall off, and nobody can tell the difference anyway.

Just play what you want and what sounds good to you.
 
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#4
Sweet spot is a marketing term I first saw for tennis racquets where it actually makes sense. Back in the '80s Modulus started using it and like "law suit" seemed cool and started to be used by everyone. There is no perfect or correct spot. Move a pickup a little and the sound changes a little. There's traditional and familiar locations but it's all just spots on a spectrum. These stories about harmonic points and such simply don't understand the science they want to be using. Fender and others have moved "sweet spots" around and they still work.
 
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#6
GwennyT said:
Personally, I do not. If a sweet spot is based on a specific part of the string being over the pickup, would it not change every time you fret a note?

Edit: If a Sweet Spot is the best spot for a pickup to be placed to rest the thumb on, well now that's just purely subjective.
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Yup, that's why I love Blade pickups!
Full tone, every string, no matter what!
Couple companies make decent blade pup's, even the cheap ones are usually hot & crunchy.

Back in the 80's there was a guitar that had a sliding pickup, you could put it anywhere between the neck & bridge. Guess where most folks ended up putting it?
 
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#12
2F/2F said:
I don't believe in technically ideal positions based on where the harmonics are located, or any such crap, because it's crap.

I believe pickup placement affects tone, because it does.

"Sweet spot" is 100 percent individual preference.
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Benko said:
For me "sweet spot" just defines the "traditional" position of a "standard" bass type

I would talk about "P-bass sweetspot" or "Musicman sweetspot", any deviation, which would result in a different tone (not necessarly a bas tone)
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These are the most correct answers.
 
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#13
HelpImaRock said:
No.

Guitarists will tell you that Fender and Gibson have the ideal pickup locations, especially for the neck pickup. And that shred guitars with 24 frets sound bad because of pickup placement. Then they'll play an SG, where the neck pickup is pushed back because otherwise the neck will fall off, and nobody can tell the difference anyway.

Just play what you want and what sounds good to you.
Click to expand...

Actually, most guitar players don't generalize like that at all. At least not the ones I know. Lots of guitarists who love Les Pauls don't like SGs at all (and vice versa), exactly because of the different neck pickup positions. The tone you get from an SG neck pickup and a Les Paul neck pickup is quite different, even if the pickup itself is identical.

Of course, this is a matter of personal taste and not necessarily about a universally "ideal" pickup position or a "sweetspot". Like you said, play what sounds good to you.

But even a subtle difference in pickup position can make a HUGE difference and I do understand the use of the word "sweetspot". I never reach for my otherwise AMAZING Sandberg VS (P-bass split coil configuration) because the pickup is around 8-9 mm further back towards the bridge than the classic P-bass pickup position. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of this when I ordered the bass, which was a custom order passive. This was before Sandberg actually started selling passive versions so I had no chance to test if. I loved the necks and build quality of Sandbergs and figured I would get rid of the overly bright tone of the active ones if I custom ordered a passive, with a pickup of my choice. Huge mistake. It feels like all the weight and "heft" of my tone is gone when I play that bass with a band. And this is a passive Sandberg, with a vintage voiced P-bass pickup (Kloppmann PB63). I've even replaced the pots/cap with classic Fender values. You would perhaps expect it to sound like a P-bass but it really doesn't. Especially in the context of a mix/band. It just doesn't work for me at all. Those 8-9 mm of difference makes it a COMPLETELY different instrument than a classic P-bass and it's NOT just a subtle difference. So for ME there's definitely a sort of "sweetspot" at the traditional P-bass pickup position. It gives me the perfect balance between upper midrange presence and "heft" in the lows/low mids for MY tonal needs.
 
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#16
Salud!

If they are real (of course, PU placement affects tone), I don't mind them at all. I play with any amp there is where I am and the PA person will make whatever they want to the sound, so I don't care too much about tone, apart from having a good, playable bass with a decent, clean, round sound.

Also, a teacher tried really hard to make me hear the "clear difference" between two identical Jazz basses, but for the fingerboard (maple/rosewood). For my life, they sounded exactly the same to me.

Bass tone doesn't matter that much, IMO.
 
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