Guitar pickups on a bass?

[SGD Lutherie]

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.

Link Removed

If you look through Duncan's bass pickups you wont find anything like that. Only Barden and me make dual rail Jazz pickups.

Oh and the Jackson pickups I have were in a Charvel guitar, not a bass.

 

[amimbari]

thanks again SGD. As soon as you said that I went to the site....

 

[steve_rolfeca]

I tried a left-over guitar pickup in my Viola because it was intended to be a budget build. I'd want to look at purpose-made bass pickups if I was looking to upgrade a more valuable instrument.

Guys with basses that use mini-humbuckers like a T-Bird or a Ric have other options beside guitar p/u's. Bartolini makes a Ric replacement, and so does Duncan. I think the dimensions are close enough to fit in other mini-hb equipped instruments, with the help of custom mounting rings.

IMO, the most interesting bass p/u's in the full-sized guitar humbucker format, would be the EMG HB in an active pickup, and the SGD ND3 or ND4 HB in a passive.

All of those options are reasonably priced for a good pickup, at around a C-note each.

 

[bazzanderson]

I was going to to with dual rail guitar hbs but I think they would be way too hot. Now I'm thinking of P90s from guitarfetish.....they make them in standard guitar hb size.

 

[markanini]

Some of the dual-rail humbuckers aren't high output at all and work great as bass pickups, the L500C measures 5KOhm.

 

[Goteky45]

It is known that cliff burton used a guitar pickup in one of his basses. its a shame that i dont remember which one was :X

 

[LoTone]

Danelectro uses the same pickup for guitar and bass. I believe the Fender Mustang used a Strat pickup.

Fender MusicMaster you mean? The Fender Mustang has a mini split-coil pickup.

 

[Turock]

Fender MusicMaster you mean? The Fender Mustang has a mini split-coil pickup.

Yes, Musicmaster is the one.

 

[devnulljp]

The original Fender Musicmaster bass had a Invalid Link Removed.
Sounded like poop if you ask me.

 

[bnolsen]

holy thread resurrection batman! the squier bronco most certainly uses a strat pickup but its noisy. i tried a red lace sensor and a gfs lil killer rails. decided to go with the lil killer since that pickup effectively killed all the noise. The lace sensor a was little bit quieter than stock but didn't sound better than the gfs (to me).

 

[Dash Lashes]

this thing looks cool to me!

 

[bazzanderson]

The GFS P90s DID work and I had them in my tbird for almost 5 years. I recently pulled them out and went back to two bass soapbars. I have to say that while the P90s certainly worked (gigged them MANY times) the bass soapbars I just replaced them with do sound better and are more easily eq'd.

At one point around 6 years or so ago I had dual fat-rail guitar humbuckers in the tbird and IMO they actually sounded better than the P90s. The P90s weren't bad sounding just a little funky to eq.

I tried a left-over guitar pickup in my Viola because it was intended to be a budget build. I'd want to look at purpose-made bass pickups if I was looking to upgrade a more valuable instrument.

Guys with basses that use mini-humbuckers like a T-Bird or a Ric have other options beside guitar p/u's. Bartolini makes a Ric replacement, and so does Duncan. I think the dimensions are close enough to fit in other mini-hb equipped instruments, with the help of custom mounting rings.

IMO, the most interesting bass p/u's in the full-sized guitar humbucker format, would be the EMG HB in an active pickup, and the SGD ND3 or ND4 HB in a passive.

All of those options are reasonably priced for a good pickup, at around a C-note each.

 

[ctmullins]

Ever since I built my Flying V with a pair of Wilde L90s, I've felt compelled to rave about their muscular tone and copious output at every opportunity. Anybody looking for a "guitar humbucker" form-factor pickup that works well for bass should seriously consider the L90 4H.

 

[rwkeating]

The NS/Stick (kind of like an extended range bass with 8 strings) uses EMG Telecaster pickups. There is a nice sample of sounds in this video

 

[iiipopes]

Rickenbacker toaster pickups are the same. The only difference between bass and guitar is that the mounting screw holes on the bass are threaded for the height adjustment screws on the pickguard, and the guitar housings have smooth holes for the shanks of the wood screws going into the guitar bodies through the foam surrounds to adjust height.

 

[amimbari]

I love guitar humbuckers in my bass Makes it very easy to try quite a selection of guitar pole/rails compared to the limited selection of MM style, or EMG sized style.

 

[abjr]

 

[merseymale]

N E C R O T H R E A D!!
… I've been given 2 EMG Strats & an EMG SA 'bucker but I am very happy with my Guitar's tone so wonder if these will be good in my mediocre sounding BASS?

Anyone had any experience putting ACTIVE GUITAR pickups in a PASSIVE BASS & do ya'll have any opinions, please?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Formula73]

I've used Bill Lawrence L500s on bass before, note: NOT the EB50s. I have a set of EB50s in boxes but I don't like the way the blades stick up so high. The strings smack them and it makes the most awful noise. The guitar versions work much better, IMHO. Unfortunately, I do not have any clips but they had a good bite and very solid bottom end.

 

[merseymale]

I've used Bill Lawrence L500s on bass before, note: NOT the EB50s. I have a set of EB50s in boxes but I don't like the way the blades stick up so high. The strings smack them and it makes the most awful noise. The guitar versions work much better, IMHO. Unfortunately, I do not have any clips but they had a good bite and very solid bottom end.

Thanks for your reply!

I'm not sure L500s are active though are they?