EMG single coil in a Bronco

[BlueRock]

27095725[/URL], member: 165470"]Nice. I’m thinking of adding a second pickup to my Musicmaster, very close to the neck. How does the H22 sound compared to say a Precision pickup?

I’m not very good at describing sounds with words but the H22 has more....girth I guess. Not Fendery sounding at all. Check out the youtube vid below. There aren't many demos of this pickup but this one is pretty much on the money. Not sure if this thing is single coil or a humucker (nobody seems to want to part with that info) but it's really beefy without sounding a lot like a classic humbucker. To my ear it still has a certain single coil presence and poke. It is ver quiet though.

Depending on what you're looking for I would be cautious about placing it too far forward. Might start getting into the one trick pony realm. I have mine pretty much where the stock pickup goes and that's plenty bottomy for me. Way more so than a MM or Mustang pickup. One of the really beautiful things about the H22 though is since it's surface mount you can take the pickguard off and try it in different positions with just a little thin double sided tape. It's always kinda mind blowing to be able to do this and realize how huge a difference 1/4" can make.

 

[sunbeast]

I’m not very good at describing sounds with words but the H22 has more....girth I guess. Not Fendery sounding at all. Check out the youtube vid below. There aren't many demos of this pickup but this one is pretty much on the money. Not sure if this thing is single coil or a humucker (nobody seems to want to part with that info) but it's really beefy without sounding a lot like a classic humbucker. To my ear it still has a certain single coil presence and poke. It is ver quiet though.

Depending on what you're looking for I would be cautious about placing it too far forward. Might start getting into the one trick pony realm. I have mine pretty much where the stock pickup goes and that's plenty bottomy for me. Way more so than a MM or Mustang pickup. One of the really beautiful things about the H22 though is since it's surface mount you can take the pickguard off and try it in different positions with just a little thin double sided tape. It's always kinda mind blowing to be able to do this and realize how huge a difference 1/4" can make.

Gold foil pickups I’ve seen the innards of have all been single-coils with bar magnets beside them (as opposed to inside the coil or underneath it). Can’t say for sure with the H22 though I would guess it is a single coil as most cheap import pickups from that era were (and a humbucker in that tiny a case would be pretty rare back then too). It looks like the coil is probably squatter and wound outwards kinda like a Jazzmaster coil vs the taller thinner coils in a Musicmaster/Strat or Mustang pickup which tends to give a more midrange-forward fatness to the tone vs the more focused tone of a thinner coil. Sounds great in demos- I wanna play with one too! Particularly being able to mount it just about anywhere

 

[BlueRock]

This is where mine ended up after messing around with position at the builder's shop before we cut the pickguard.

 

[cyberprimate]

This is where mine ended up after messing around with position

It’s always a good position. But I’ve already got a pickup there. Fendery sounding. I’m looking for a pickup that I would position in between the neck and the other pickup. Initially I was thinking of the Rickenbacker toaster for a McCartney-ish tone option, that I could also mix with the other pickup, but that would involve digging a large cavity… The H22 would not and it would be positioned like on the Harmony H22 bass, near the neck. But then it would be much louder than my Fender-ish pickup… Maybe not the right choice. But it looks cool on your Musicmaster and I’m sure sounds cool, congratulations.

 

[BlueRock]

If by chance you're in the Vancouver, BC area I have another goldfoil you could try.

 

[cyberprimate]

Thanks. I live in Paris!

In fact I have an old guitar with two Dearmond gold foil pickups from the early 60’s. The ones with a diamond shape, silver color. Single coil. They’re loud, as loud as a PAF humbucker if not more, and not very noisy. In fact the H22 may have the same guts or similar with just a different cover. I should try one of them.

 

[Stefan Verbeeck]

I beg you to consider this pickup instead. The EMG HB pickup came standard in early Steinberger basses and is a P bass pickup in a guitar humbucker housing. The only thing you will need to do is cut the pickguard. There is ample room in the Bronco body cavity.

Soundwise you would successfully use this bass anywhere you would use a P bass. I truly feel this would be a significant improvement over an SA pickup or similar. If you are ever in south Georgia, USA hit me up and you can check it out.

Sorry for the necro bump.
But that's an interesting pickup choice.
Still using this?

Are the outer strings fully captured by the pickups?
I fear a volume drop on the E or G string, which happened last time I tried guitar HB sized pickup in a bass, even with smaller string spacing.

 

[iiipopes]

EMG doesn't make any true single-coil passive Strat pickups as far as I know, but I assume your mission is decreased noise anyway so you aren't actually looking for a single coil. While I agree the rails design of the S4 probably makes the most sense due to the 4-strings over 6 guitar polepieces arrangement of a Bronco, I'd guess the S1 or S2 might sound the closest to the stock pickup as stacked coil humbuckers can retain a bit more clarity than side-by-side humbuckers- probably the S2 if you want to retain the most high-end attack and S2 if you want a more prominent midrange (based on the descriptions). Just a guess though as I've never tried any of the passive EMG guitar pickups (their active pickups tend to have preshaping that might not work out as well in a bass)

Well, yes, the HZ line is passive.

 

[HelpImaRock]

I've been looking at Broncos and keep threatening to buy one knowing I'll need to change the pickup. Looking at the EMG specs, i'd probably go with the S3, if only because it doesn't show the pole pieces and I like alnico pickups. Though I'd probably email EMG to get their recommendation first.