Five string pickup in Four string Bass (RBX374)

[Protaeus]

Hey guys,

I'm kinda new at the whole electronics side of the bass and I was wondering if it would be possible to use a 5 string pickup in my Yamaha RBX374. The humbuckers that are in there at the moment are wider than standard and from looking at the emg and bartolini websites, it appears that the 5 string ones fit better than the 4 strings.

Also, do I need to consider string spacing when looking for new pickups?

Thanks

 

[Thump Jr.]

Well, you would need to look up the exact dimensions of the stock pickups and your desired replacements to know for sure.

As to string spacing . . . it depends on what sort of pickup you choose. Most pickups have individual pole pieces for each string. A 5-string pickup on a 4-string bass would almost certainly have string spacing issues. A few pickups use blade pole pieces, which are indifferent to string spacing (as I understand the technology). If you're interested in spending the money, you could buy Q-Tuner pickups, which have standard pole pieces, but have so many of them that (again, as I understand it) they are about as forgiving as blade pickups in regard to string spacing.

Have you considered a bass with more standard pickups?

 

[Henry D]

EMGs and Bartolinis have blade magnets, so wouldn't be a problem with those brands.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Just make sure you aren't going to be using a pickup with split coils, which are like a P bass pickup on the inside. EMG-P soapbars are made like that, as are some Barts.

But as long as they are dual coil humbuckers, and not split coils, you wont have a problem.

 

[Protaeus]

Brilliant Thanks for the info

 

[Ric5]

I quite often will use a 4 string pickup on a 5 string bass ... it works fine as long as you don't place the strings outside the pole pieces.

The fender style jazz pickups with 8 ploes cover 5 string nicely.

Rickenbacker uses the 6 pole toaster pickups on 6 string guirats, 8 string basses, 5 string basses and 4 string basses. It works fine on all of those.

Also many pickups have dual rails so the number of strings doesn't matter.