Hey Folks... Do you find yourself coming back to a particular pickup? A particular brand and model? Maybe a specific wiring even? Even with the odd state of the music industry I'm working regularly. At this time I mostly rely on one style of pickups in most of my working basses in a variety of situations. I do keep some specific basses for specific needs (kind of like specific golf clubs) like most working players, that don't have my ideal set of pickups for me. That is just part of the course. I keep coming back to Nordstrand Big Singles wired in series (I bypass the pan pot) and that is what I use most of my working basses. I'm relying on them so much I'm having them routed in an M5 Lull that was set up for just J pickups. What are your favorites?
Innit great when you find a go-to piece of gear? I don't find myself gravitating toward a particular pickup. But I made a hard swing from active basses for 15 years to almost all passive. The simpler the controls the better. It has forced me to broaden my scope of finger and pick techniques with regard to plucking. More often these days my knobs and switches (once the room is dialed in) are "set it and forget it". I'm adjusting my tone by plucking placement and technique. You can cover a ton of sonic ground between picking at the bridge and using the soft side of your thumb near the end of your fretboard. Passive (mostly) neck pickups with the volume and tone dimed seems to be "home" for me right now. I need to try some of the Big Singles. They seem to get rave reviews. If they're good enough for a player like you, there's gotta be something to them.
(i can't say that i have a go-to set(s) of pickups, but i do rely on the same control harness for my passive instruments --- VBTT. those controls reliably get me where i need to go with any pickup choice --- three passive instruments with different PJ-style pickups, each.) Prewired Passive Harness (Volume - Blend - Tone - Tone) - Best Bass Gear
Thats kind of You two fingers... My bass Big Singles has push and pull active/passive...The passive sound through a tube amp creates a completely different kind of monster. Its really awesome actually.
You already know my answer. Nope, I only have a few basses and each is different and weird in its own way. Just like the way I typically aspire to play: play something once, why play it again?
Yep, back to active eq bass. I own a nice Fender P, badassII bridge, EMG's, rewired, set up nice, good strings, but still has the generally muddy sound when playing lower notes. Cut back on the lows and I would lose the feel. Back to my active eq bass, sounds much better, has the slight crisp sound to punch thru & clean on the bottom.
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