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Guitar pickups on a bass?
- Thread starter 20mileshigh
- Start date
I was going to say to do a search because this has been covered many times, but I just remembered that the last time that happened, the OP was unable to run a search because of the terms being too common to yield any results. ("guitar" "humbucker" "pickup" "bass"...)
There are several topics about this, but I can't search them up.
Does anyone here have the links to those threads?
There are several topics about this, but I can't search them up.
Does anyone here have the links to those threads?
This is Pickup & Electronics, you have to wait more than 17 minutes to get a reply.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
Guitar pickups on a bass. Rickenbacker has been doing it for decades. The Horseshoe pickup came from the lapsteel guitar. The toaster neck pickup that people drool over is a 6 pole guitar pickup. The high gain pickup is the same for guitar and bass with the small difference in the number of poles. Rickenbacker has been using the same pickups on bass and guitar since the begining of the company's history. That is one of the reasons they don't currently make a 5 string bass guitar, because they use guitar pickups which means either the string spacing is very narrow and hard to play or the B and G strings are outside the effective range of the pickup. Rickenbacker has gone through both scenarios the narrow string spacing and the weak B and G strings. They never developed a good 5 string bass with all 5 strings that have equal volume and was comfortable to play fingerstyle because they never developed a pickup that wasn't essentially a guitar pickup. The guitar pickups work just fine on a 4 or 8 string bass.
I've built a bass using a telecaster guitar body and a short scale bass neck. In the bridge rout I have a red Lace Sensor tele bridge pickup and it sounds great. At some point I plan on replacing the Lace with an SD Hot Rail to see how it sounds.
Danelectro uses the same pickup for guitar and bass. I believe the Fender Mustang used a Strat pickup.
It all depends on the pickup you use and the sound you are looking for. Generally speaking, things like "rail" pickups will work better simply because you aren't relying on polepieces (which on a guitar pup won't line up for bass)...also lipsticks and some types of humbuckers. You'll definitely want to do some research on the pickups output, tonal range, etc though, as guitar pickups are often designed to yield different results than a bass pickup (i.e. "distortion, accentuated frequencies, etc)
Any particular reason you're asking ?
Any particular reason you're asking ?
I replaced the stock Epi Thunderbird pickups with chrome mini-humbuckers from Guitar Fetish. Worked great (had to make a plate for the route holes) and sounded WAY better than the stock epi pickups.
My Gibson Thunderbird is probably going to get the same treatment although I think I use their dual-rail guitar humbuckers. I went through two sets of noisy-@$$ gibson tbird pickups....gave up on them. Currently I have EMG-35 sized Chinese aftermarket pickups in my bird but gonna replace them with dual-rail guitar humbuckers.
My Gibson Thunderbird is probably going to get the same treatment although I think I use their dual-rail guitar humbuckers. I went through two sets of noisy-@$$ gibson tbird pickups....gave up on them. Currently I have EMG-35 sized Chinese aftermarket pickups in my bird but gonna replace them with dual-rail guitar humbuckers.
I've used Carvin "Strat" pickups on my basses years ago....sounded fine.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
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- Owner, SGD Music Products
Yes and no. The horseshoe was one of the Invalid Link Removed. They used it on everything because that was their only pickup. Also there were no electric basses yet.
Lapsteels were some of the first electric guitars because Hawaiian music was popular. Spanish style guitar was not as popular yet. You can even hear an electric lap steel on the opening of theme to the Bugs Bunny cartoons.
But the bass horseshoe pickups had four poles.
The toasters on the other hand were guitar pickups with six poles.
Here's one for an electric upright bass:
That's Jason Lollar's hand.
Even their headless electric violin had a horseshoe pickup:
Bass pickups and guitar pickups are pretty much the same until you get into certain guitar humbuckers which are not voiced well for bass, and vice versa.
When looking at specs Lace publishes on their site I noticed the 50s Strat voiced guitar models and bass models we're quite close(as well as steel guitar models). Dave could ulimately confirm of oppose my assumption but anyway I take it a good strating point for a bass pickup in a bronco, musicmaster etc is a 50s voiced Strat pickup.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 253
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
Most clean sounding guitar pickups; like a Strat work well on bass.
Hotter pickups start to accentuate the upper mids. That can either be harsh or nirvana depending on what you are looking for. A lot of people like the DiMarzio Model G/X2NSchaller Bassbucker for bass. I don't because they are too mid heavy. Good for a dirty tone though.
I was recently experimented with a low-output guitar neck humbucker and an Epiphone Viola bass.
The strings don't line up with the 6 polepieces, obviously, but there are no issues with string balance. I moved the bridge side to side, and confirmed that small shifts in alignment didn't make a noticeable difference. NOTE: the string spacing is very narrow on the Viola. This wouldn't apply to a normal bass.
Holding the guitar p/u over the stock neck pickup showed how muddy the stock Epi pickups are. The output was comparable, and the guitar p/u sounded just as woofy in the low end. But it had more detail in the mids, and more air on top. The difference was fairly subtle- it still sounded well within the range of a conventional bass pickup, and it was definitely still in "beatle bass" territory.
I ended up mounting the pickup permanently. I still wanted to keep the stock sounds, so I stuffed it in the "P position", to provide a tighter, more punchy alternative tone.
Other findings:
1. If anybody's trying this on a Viola bass, they should be aware that the stock pickups are reverse polarity. I can't blend my new pickup with the stock bridge pickup, because they cancel out. Anybody doing this to a Viola, would be better off with a 4-wire pickup, so that they could reverse the polarity to match (or swap both Epi pickups out).
2. I tried three different parts-bin Strat pickups before settling on the humbucker: an old vintage-wound Duncan, a Duncan-designed, and a Carvin AP11. They all sounded thin, and too low in output to pair up with the Epi mudbuckers...
3. The guitar pickup I used is a mediocre PAF copy (Ibanez Artcore). My only other humbuckers are low-output as well (PRS McCarty's and Duncan '59's), so I don't know how an overwound pickup would sound in the same position. I suspect that they would be too muddy.
I don't feel like taking my Ibanez apart in order to test a Duncan '59, and I'm still curious how the Viola would sound with a "real" bass pickup in the middle position. So my next experiment will likely be a Bill Lawrence USA EB-50PB (a guitar-sized blade humbucker, intended for bass).
The strings don't line up with the 6 polepieces, obviously, but there are no issues with string balance. I moved the bridge side to side, and confirmed that small shifts in alignment didn't make a noticeable difference. NOTE: the string spacing is very narrow on the Viola. This wouldn't apply to a normal bass.
Holding the guitar p/u over the stock neck pickup showed how muddy the stock Epi pickups are. The output was comparable, and the guitar p/u sounded just as woofy in the low end. But it had more detail in the mids, and more air on top. The difference was fairly subtle- it still sounded well within the range of a conventional bass pickup, and it was definitely still in "beatle bass" territory.
I ended up mounting the pickup permanently. I still wanted to keep the stock sounds, so I stuffed it in the "P position", to provide a tighter, more punchy alternative tone.
Other findings:
1. If anybody's trying this on a Viola bass, they should be aware that the stock pickups are reverse polarity. I can't blend my new pickup with the stock bridge pickup, because they cancel out. Anybody doing this to a Viola, would be better off with a 4-wire pickup, so that they could reverse the polarity to match (or swap both Epi pickups out).
2. I tried three different parts-bin Strat pickups before settling on the humbucker: an old vintage-wound Duncan, a Duncan-designed, and a Carvin AP11. They all sounded thin, and too low in output to pair up with the Epi mudbuckers...
3. The guitar pickup I used is a mediocre PAF copy (Ibanez Artcore). My only other humbuckers are low-output as well (PRS McCarty's and Duncan '59's), so I don't know how an overwound pickup would sound in the same position. I suspect that they would be too muddy.
I don't feel like taking my Ibanez apart in order to test a Duncan '59, and I'm still curious how the Viola would sound with a "real" bass pickup in the middle position. So my next experiment will likely be a Bill Lawrence USA EB-50PB (a guitar-sized blade humbucker, intended for bass).
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 253
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
You know, you can get guitar humbucker sized bass pickups. There's no need to use a guitar pickup.
A few different winders make them, including Duncan. I've been making both the regular and mini size lately with closed chrome covers.
A few different winders make them, including Duncan. I've been making both the regular and mini size lately with closed chrome covers.
I have been using duncan dualcoils at the bridge for some time now in HB form with marvelous results.
and for those who don't want to rout the J out, here's another spare Duncan unit that I have seen used for 4-5-6 string applications:
I know this thread is about guitar pickups on a bass, and well...a lot of spare parts, and cheap plywood basses tend to get experimented on.
never a volume issue across the strings, and used this POS for almost 2 years before investing in a real bass:
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- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 253
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
Are you using a Jackson pickup, or a Duncan? I have one of those Jackson pickups here. I took it out of my Charvel. That Jackson pickup is not made by Duncan. They aren't all that good.
The Jazz pickup in your post is a Joe Barden, not a Duncan. Duncan doesn't make any dual rail Jazz pickups.
The Jazz pickup in your post is a Joe Barden, not a Duncan. Duncan doesn't make any dual rail Jazz pickups.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I LOVE THIS PLACE
yes it is a jackson J40, passive it is a weak POS, but with the preamp it adds what the P won't and don't buzz like the OEM J pup.
and Joe Barden? I always thought it was a duncan because of the wiring compared to a dimarzio, and the catalog never mentioned they contracted him to provide pickups for the Fusions and Eliminators. these things KILL my J25/J155 Concert-V pups.
