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First Build Fretless

D

durarl

Oct 29, 2007
53
0
www.myspace.com
#1
I am building my first guitar and I have a pickup question. The neck I am installing has a 1¾ inch nut, with 7/16 inch string spacing. This will all be going to a Badass II bridge on a 34 inch scale. I am basing the neck off of a P-Bass that I like but I want to install Jazz pickups.

What pickups (one or two) would have a nice warm sound on a fretless with no noise? I am concerned about the string spacing with the jazz pickups. Any insight or suggestions before I get cutting the lumber would be great. (Can I get this thing to be passive, or is that asking for too much). Thanks for your help.
 
#2
Not a direct answer to your request for pickup recommendation request but...

Both of my fretless J's have P necks on them. My MIA has stock pickups with those obnoxious raised polepeices. Yes the strings are ever so slightly "off" center, but barely so. I've experienced nothing detrimental due to that slight offset alignment tonally. Detrinmental feel due to rasied pole peices on the other hand is another story, but that is due to my abhorrence for raised pole peices. I am finishing up the epoxy job on that bass today and those pickups are going to get swapped ASAP.

More on topic, if the prospect of misaligned polepeices irks you, look at something like Bart's that use more of a blade magnet thingamajig instead of regular polepeice design. Honestly though, I wouldn't sweat this issue that greatly from what I've experienced.
 
#3
Thank you for your help. Can anybody suggest a couple of good pickups that sound good on a fretless. If I can, I only want one passive jazz pickup controlled by a volume and tone knob. I know everything I need to about the wood and building it, but I have little to no idea about the pickups. I currently have a MIA Pbass that I love, but I am looking for a brighter sound than that. One of my major concerns is that I have no noice to them. I hate constant hums. Whatever help you guys can give me would be great. Have a good day.
 

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