General Soapbar Help (Replacing a Dean 4" Soapbar)

[bassaccount9987]

Hey Talkbass, my friend, a long time user, showed me your way when asking about pickups just now.

A few years ago, a band slapped a bass in my hand to start playing - and at the time, I went to gc and got the cheapest bass in the store, a Dean with a Soapbar. Figured it was hard to break and I could learn technique good enough on it.

Now, I use a nice p-bass that's a loan, from in the family - and they never play it or the other they got for the kids. So, they don't need it back, like - ever.

To catch you up on the Dean "upgrade" then, I've defretted and filled the gaps to make a fretless board on the cheap, and I want to get the best 4" soapbar I can to put in this repainted body, with new pots and jack and all as well.

Figure if I'm going to spend the time on the neck making it fretless, might as well get a worthy pickup. The one in there is unmarked, and the most abundant pickup maker I see is bartolini, but never having used one, I don't have any idea!

How are those, are there better 4" Soapbar makers? What should I be looking for inside the housing for that deep, electric upright kind of sound?

Thanks bass squad.

 

[bassaccount9987]

Bump for anyone who may have missed it yesterday - any soapbar help, recommendations are welcome. The rest is pretty much done, so I'm looking at getting the pickup within the next day or two.

All the best

 

[Jared Lash]

There are lots of soap bars that would likely fit that route, especially if it's a standard Bartolini size (most are EMG or Bart sized) so it's really about tone preferences.

Personally I prefer Bartolini deep tone pickups for fretless.

For a more balanced tone with more high end there's Delano & Aguilar DCBs. Or the Classic Bass Bartolini pickups.

A Nordstrand dual coil could give versatility with switching options. Also from Nordstrand a Big Split would give kind of a jazz bass tone but with no hum with a single pickup.

 

[bassaccount9987]

Jared, awesome, thanks for the info - exactly the kind of thing I was looking for! It sounds like Bartolini's are going to have the deep tone I'm looking for, as well as being the easiest to find! (Although, these Nordstrand dual coils with the A3's seems worth waiting on. I guess for a single bar, in series would be best)

Here's another question I forgot to pose - If I only have one routed hole right in the middle, do I use a neck or a bridge pickup in the slot?