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Guitar pickups in bass ???

G

GoTTaDrOpALoAd

Jun 1, 2013
22
0
#1
Iv read that there are many of these threads around and iv found that it is impossible to find them so im gonna start a new one... here goes

iv recently brought a second hand bass with 2 humbuckers in it but strangely enough the pickups have mounting rings like guitars with only 2 mounting screws (much like les pauls.. will post pics) and im finding it very hard to find replacement humbuckers for the very cheap ones already in it. on my search around the net iv only really found guitar pickups with 2 mounting screws such as DiMarzio's and Seymour Duncan pickups however the pickups in it already do only have 4 pole pieces not 6 so they are defo for bass lol (will post pic). so this has raised a few questions that im struggling to answer.

1) can i use a guitar pickup in my bass if the overall sting with does not exceed the with of the pole pieces?:confused: and if not would rails be ok to use :confused:

2) will guitar pickups fit the space in the bass and the mounting ring? :confused:

3) if i can use guitar pickups could i use one such as a dp100 distortion pickup or would you advise a "cleaner" pickup and why ? :confused::confused:

4)on the pickups that are already in it there are 4 wires for each humbucker (2 for each coil) but on some of the guitar pickups i only see 2 wires so would this mean it is impossible to coil tap and wire to switch between series and parallel :bawl:, which is a joy of having humbuckers

i know that's a lot but any help on this is appreciated
Thanks

Grason-Jaguar-Electric-Hard-Bass-Guitar-urgent-selling-20130613234301.jpg

Pickups and mounting rings in my bass
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Similar mounting rings on Les Paul
 
#2
1. Yes. Though rail poles are preferred.
2. Depends entirely on the depth of the pickup route.
3. You can use whatever you want. It would be best, however, to pick an appropriate voicing for the tonality you want.
4. You mean coil split. Exceptionally few humbuckers are tappable. Two conductor outputs do no allow any coil splitting options, but guitar pickups are rarely epoxy potted, so you can always remove the leads and resolder a four conductor output.
 
#3
thanks for the help and just got a few more questions from your reply
1. what happens if not all the pole pieces are under all the strings exactly eg 1 pole under the E and G string but the A and D string are between 2 poles and vice-versa ?

2. are all humbuckers a set size or do they change between manufacturers and models?

3. would a distortion inclined pickups such as a dp100 sound ok or would it sound muddy and from that would a DiMarzio X2N DP102 sound ok in the bridge and a DiMarzio super distortion DP100 in the neck play alot of rock and jazzy bluesy stuff (play for a few diff bands) ?

4. what is "epoxy potted" and would you remove the lead that joins the 2 coils and have 2 separate wires which could allow the coil splitting and also make the 4 conductor output eg a start and finish for each coil ?

like what is shown in this pic
humbucker_color_codes1.jpg
 
#4
GoTTaDrOpALoAd said:
thanks for the help and just got a few more questions from your reply
1. what happens if not all the pole pieces are under all the strings exactly eg 1 pole under the E and G string but the A and D string are between 2 poles and vice-versa ?

2. are all humbuckers a set size or do they change between manufacturers and models?

3. would a distortion inclined pickups such as a dp100 sound ok or would it sound muddy and from that would a DiMarzio X2N DP102 sound ok in the bridge and a DiMarzio super distortion DP100 in the neck play alot of rock and jazzy bluesy stuff (play for a few diff bands) ?

4. what is "epoxy potted" and would you remove the lead that joins the 2 coils and have 2 separate wires which could allow the coil splitting and also make the 4 conductor output eg a start and finish for each coil ?

like what is shown in this pic
humbucker_color_codes1.jpg
Click to expand...

1. Usually nothing. Sometimes the output can be unbalanced.
2. They vary. The mounting holes are usually the same distance apart, though.
3. I have no idea. I've never played those. Some people have had good luck with DiMarzio X2N pickups, though.
4. Epoxy potting is when a pickup is potted with epoxy. The epoxy fully seals the coils and wiring to prevent microphonics. It works better than wax, but the disadvantage is the fact that epoxy is permanent, so modification is impossible. The rewiring of standard pickups involves desoldering the internal "series link" and replacing it with two more conductors. You will need about a foot of four conductor wire per pickup.
 
#5
Ok last questions I promise and thanks again
1. Will there be a noticable difference or is it very subtle since there are pickups where the string sits between the 2 pole pieces (cant think of their make or model names right now.

3. Dont worry il start a new thread on hotter (distortion) guitar pickups being put in basses such as the DP100

4. Why is it that the starts are used as hot and ground and not start being ground then finish and start linked for series and finish for hot output (refer tobpic already posted) ??

Again all help is appriciated
Thanks
 
#6
Hotter pickups work better for the bridge position.

The issue with strings lining up with the poles depends on the design of the pickup with reagards to the directionality of the magnetic field. So it's not cut and dry, but rails are "safe".

If the string width is 56mm/2.205" or less I'd recommend Wilde L500C/L500R for rock tones. But you should tell us more about whats lacking in the stock pickups and what kind of tones you want to get.
 
#7
Another alternative are Steinberger pickups, they were built to fit guitar humbucker housings as well. The pole pieces are a reverse-P setup, built right into that size housing.

They're available brand new for around $100 at BBG or you can source them used, or find somebody who is upgrading a passive Spirit, some of those used passive EMG-HZ pickups that fit the same humbucker trim rings as well. Or call EMG, they may have a set sitting around that you can have for cheap - they're super helpful about stuff like that.
 
#8
I measured the string width to be a fraction over 2.0 inches so they can take normal guitar pickups and I was just realy looking for more out of the cheap pickups in it as they sound like tin foil wraped around not copper lol and with this it got me thinking to distortion pickups and higher output pickups but was concerned about them sounding muddy and was lookin for something out the ordinary
 
#9
Apparently the Warman Dominator quad rail pickup can be used in bassess.
According to ebay

"Being a blade type pickup it can be used on a wide variety of string spans, including a bass, we've even had a customer fit them to a 17th Century Clavichord and in either bridge, mid or neck position as the blades are 62mm wide. Unlike normal humbuckers which use just the one magnet the Warman Dominator has two of the little beasties embedded to give a huge magnetic field for the coils to pick up."

I'm thinking of using one in an 8 string Thunderbird build.
 
#10
GoTTaDrOpALoAd said:
thanks for the help and just got a few more questions from your reply
1. what happens if not all the pole pieces are under all the strings exactly eg 1 pole under the E and G string but the A and D string are between 2 poles and vice-versa ?

2. are all humbuckers a set size or do they change between manufacturers and models?

3. would a distortion inclined pickups such as a dp100 sound ok or would it sound muddy and from that would a DiMarzio X2N DP102 sound ok in the bridge and a DiMarzio super distortion DP100 in the neck play alot of rock and jazzy bluesy stuff (play for a few diff bands) ?

4. what is "epoxy potted" and would you remove the lead that joins the 2 coils and have 2 separate wires which could allow the coil splitting and also make the 4 conductor output eg a start and finish for each coil ?

like what is shown in this pic
humbucker_color_codes1.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice and as a wrote earlier I was thinkin bout dimarzio pickups in neck and bridge but dont know what it will sound like and have never heard of them being put in basses but im open to persuasion if a better or more viable option is brought forward but I do like the idea of rails however dp100's only come with pole pieces but the f space ones will cover the strings

Any ideas are welcome
Tnks
 
#11
tnks for all the advice from everyone... i still don't know what im gonna put in it but i cant afford anything at the moment but im gonna ask a new question and link it to this one about the best pickups to use in basses apposed to this being more asking if it is/was even possible
 
#14
Guitar pickups in bass ???

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rickenbacker has been doing that since the 50s.

The toaster pickup is a 6 pole pickup that Rickenbacker uses on 6 and 12 string guitars and has also used on 4, 5, and 8 string basses.

00030.jpg


DSCF0049.jpg
 
#16
have either of you (Ric5 and markanini) ever found volume or general sound issues with not all the strings lining up with the pole pieces?

some one mentioned earlier that Rickenbacker's all have the same pickups is that the only company or is it very normal

and very sexy bass markanini thought only steinbergers were headless... u learn something new every day

thanks
 
#17
GoTTaDrOpALoAd said:
have either of you (Ric5 and markanini) ever found volume or general sound issues with not all the strings lining up with the pole pieces?

some one mentioned earlier that Rickenbacker's all have the same pickups is that the only company or is it very normal

and very sexy bass markanini thought only steinbergers were headless... u learn something new every day

thanks
Click to expand...

All Rickenbacker pickups are guitar pickups ...on some they just use 6 pole pickups on others they put in 4 poles on the same pickup. The hb-1 has dual rails so it doesn't matter.

Sometimes the strings not lining up with poles makes for a problem, but quite often it is no problem at all. For instance the typical Fender bass pickup with 8 poles works fine with misaligned strings.

5s%20015.jpg


sx5%20002.jpg


Have you ever looked at Bill Lawrence pickups? He uses 10 poles on his p-bass pickups and 9 poles on his J pickups

p46whites_l446.jpg


j45whitel.jpg
 

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