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Gibson Bass Style Pickups

MaxJohnson

MaxJohnson

Supporting Member
Jan 29, 2009
393
100
Brooklyn, NY
www.maxjohnsonmusic.com
#1
Hey Y'all, I'm building a Warmoth Walnut P Bass, and I'm planning on outfitting it with the Gibson Style EB-3 Pickup setup, with the Mudbucker and the mini humbucker, but with a P-Bass pickup in the middle. However I'm finding it hard to find pickups that deliver that giant round EB-3 sound that I can install in a new bass. The Model 1 seems like it's cleaner and more hi-fi, and I'm just looking for that fat giant Gibson sound. Any suggestions?
 
#4
+1. I buy from Bass Parts Resource regularly, and they're a good parts supplier.

I've not used the Gotoh pickups they sell, but there is also an inexpensive Artec mudbucker clone available through eBay (and maybe other suppliers). The Artec is very frequently wired incorrectly, requiring a bit of re-wiring as well as a magnet flip in order to be truly humbucking. Once I did that surgery, it did a good job of capturing the mudbucker tone.

The serious, pro-level answer to your question is Invalid Link Removed. Curtis makes a great product and is fantastic to deal with, but is more expensive than the offshore options mentioned above. However, I have come to discover that, in nearly every situation the universe can throw your way, you get what you pay for.
 
#6
MaxJohnson said:
Hey Y'all, I'm building a Warmoth Walnut P Bass, and I'm planning on outfitting it with the Gibson Style EB-3 Pickup setup, with the Mudbucker and the mini humbucker, but with a P-Bass pickup in the middle. However I'm finding it hard to find pickups that deliver that giant round EB-3 sound that I can install in a new bass. The Model 1 seems like it's cleaner and more hi-fi, and I'm just looking for that fat giant Gibson sound. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Hello Max. Do you mean a mudbucker like this one?

NOS mudbucker.jpg
 
#7
Careful. Looks alone do not a mudbucker make. Specifically, Gibson's more recent offerings include a standard ceramic dual-coil (TB+) under a mudbucker cover. It looks the same, but sounds completely different. Similarly, Curtis Novak makes three very different pickups under the mudbucker cover - one is a true massive sidewinder like the original, one is a modern-voiced dual-coil, and one is a large single-coil based on the BiSonic.

Whatever you buy, make sure you're getting a true sidewinder design.

Mudbucke1.jpg
 
#8
MaxJohnson said:
Yeah, Novak's are certainly the most appealing, but I heard a sound test with his and they sound way cleaner and more precise than the original Gibson ones. I like that they sound like an underwater whale.
Click to expand...

Which demos did you look at? The only 2 I've seen on youtube are for the EB-BS and EB-AA which both totally change the sound of the bass. He makes an EB-0 wound to vintage spec that can be adjusted to your specifications
 
#10
I built a tele Eb3 out of a crappy Indonesian guitar and a warmoth neck. It already had epiphone pickpus, so I can't really help there.Here are some considerations for you, unless you already got everything ordered;

A fender style bridge is going to give you a wider spacing than the pickup poles, this is especially important on the bridge pickup.
I used a hipshot ricky bridge. Its massive and cool looking, but I don't really endorse it, because I have to superglue the height adjustment to keep things steady.
That being said, you will have significant fret-board overhang past the strings at the body joint. I ground that down

I wired it up with a tele 4-way switch that has a series switch position. I find my self using both pickups in parallel for most use, then when I need the thunder I switch into series. I rarely use the pickups by themselves. Maybe a push pull pot would cool to keep things original to the p bass look.

Try a 1meg volume pot. It pulls some upper mids out of the mudbucker. It also shifts the tone pots control to higher frequencies, so I think its more usable allowing low mids to pass through.
 
#11
Yes, for the neck position, to get big mudbucker tone, you have to have a real mudbucker pickup in its sidewinder configuration, slammed right up against the neck, with all 20Kohms' or so worth of wire on it. But for the other positions, here's the deal: it's not just the pickup. It is finding the inductor to get the EB-3 tones. In the #3 and #4 positions, with the inductor engaged in parallel, the tone of an original EB-3 bass does thin out, not really the same, but I can see why Gibson has the ceramic version of the mudbucker. It is a lot cheaper than trying to duplicate the inductor and sell the Vari-Tone circuit with a "real" mudbucker. Here is the schematic (note the mistake in the bridge pickup circuit - the tone capacitor, of course, is a .022, not a .22):
EB3schematic-series1.jpg
 
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#12
Still looking for this Mudbucker replacement? I'll suggest looking at ARTEC for true to original, 30k sidewinders, with either ceramic or alnico magnets for around $40 on ebay.

Link to ceramic demo.


I have this Artec EBC4-CR pickup (ceramic) installed in my Epi EB3 but because of some other set up work I'm doing I haven't got a thorough review yet. But I can tell you the tone I'm getting is very much like what you hear in the demo. Even with tone set wide open there is no "Zing or Twang". The highs are very much rolled off and the lows are huge with this pickup.
The pole spacing is 52mm, about 2mm (each side) wider than the strings at the neck pickup on the Epi. But should be just right on a P bass.
Now I'm going to replace the bridge pickup also, for which I'll probably use the mini HB linked in the OP from BassPartsResource. I believe that Gotoh bridge pickup is 10k ohms.
 
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#14
I just happened to be watching Grand Funk Railroad from'69 and what do you know? Mel Schacher has a Mudbucker in his Jazz bass. His axe appears to be plugged direct to the amp with only a red coily cord in between. Pretty sweet tone IMO.
If you can't watch the entire vid, skip to about 3:20 for some bass solo riffs and close up shots. Enjoy!
 

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