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Guitar Rail Pickups on a Bass

N

NoBlackTShirts

Feb 23, 2010
387
221
#1
Hello there.
I would like to put together a Franken-P (not Al Franken) but I don't really want to fuss with carving out that wacky P-Bass pickup opening. There are all those rail pickups, though, and presumably they wouldn't care what kind of string they're sensing or where it is. Many of them come in a typical Humbucker size and shape, for which there is plenty of hardware and templates and stuff.

I don't see any downside but if one wants derision and discouragement there's no place better than a web forum. Has anyone had success trying something like this? Has anyone had failure trying something like this? Has anyone had no experience at all but knows exactly what I should do?

Hit me.
 
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#2
The TV Jones SuperTron guitar pickups are exactly the same as the ThunderBlade bass pickups, except for the housing. I have the SuperTron [bridge] on my modded Cabronita.
IMG_3515.JPG
 
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#5
There are lots of great pickups in the standard guitar humbucker format, i.e. Gibson PAF dimensions.

One potential drawback will be overall string spacing. Most guitar humbuckers have sensing widths between 2 1/8" and 2 1/4". For a Fender style bass, you really need 2 1/4" for a neck position and 2 3/16" for a bridge position. if you stick with wider humbuckers and neck positions you'll be fine. Better if you use a bridge with narrower string spacing.

If your main goal is to avoid having to cut a P pickup cavity, you could also just use bass soapbar pickups. They're an even simpler shape to cut than a guitar humbucker (since humbuckers need cutouts on either end of the cavity for the pickup mounting ears). And of course there are a ton of options available in terms of tone, output, price range, shape, etc.
 
#6
I guess that that's a reasonable thought, but I've never liked any bass soapbar I've ever heard, which isn't a big number but it is a unanimous one. Nor does there really seem to be a ton of options, although if someone advertised that theirs sounded like a P-Bass, I'm willing to listen. Being that the P-Bass is the king of basses, you'd think that its pickup sound would be pursued by people making soapbars.
 
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#10
NoBlackTShirts said:
I guess that that's a reasonable thought, but I've never liked any bass soapbar I've ever heard, which isn't a big number but it is a unanimous one.
Click to expand...

There are people that make Jazz pickups in soapbar shells - they literally are the same, except for the plastic (which has no influence at all on the sound). There are also scads of other topologies that are not the typical dual coil humbuckers. I don't doubt that you haven't liked any of the soapbars you've tried, but I will say if that's where you are, you haven't tried the whole range of things in soapbar shells. Nordstrand alone will give you a lot of options to try in the same form factor.
 
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#12
I never had much luck with guitar rail pickups in basses. They always had too much mids and were lacking in the lows for my taste. I would recommend getting pickups that are voiced for bass. I know others have been happy with guitar rail pickups though so maybe I've tried the wrong ones.
 
#14
Yeah, I've used a Hot Rails Strat pickup in a Musicmaster Bass, as I know others have as well. Works very well indeed. I've also used one of the higher output Lace Sensor guitar pickup there (again, no pole pieces with which to have any issues). Also works fine. Haven't done for P Bass, but the short answer is - Yes, guitar rail pickups can work well for bass.
 
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#15
NoBlackTShirts said:
Hello there.
I would like to put together a Franken-P (not Al Franken) but I don't really want to fuss with carving out that wacky P-Bass pickup opening. There are all those rail pickups, though, and presumably they wouldn't care what kind of string they're sensing or where it is. Many of them come in a typical Humbucker size and shape, for which there is plenty of hardware and templates and stuff.

I don't see any downside but if one wants derision and discouragement there's no place better than a web forum. Has anyone had success trying something like this? Has anyone had failure trying something like this? Has anyone had no experience at all but knows exactly what I should do?

Hit me.
Click to expand...

the original single coil p-bass pickup was the same pickup as the tele pickup, but with 4 poles, and Rickenbacker used guitar pickups and slightly modified guitar pickup on their basses. The famous toaster pickup is a 6 pole guitar pickup, it was used on 6 and 12 string guitars, and on 4, 5, and 8 string basses.
 
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#16
Yes. For decades I have been a proponent of changing out the stock Musicmaster/Bronco bass single coil guitar pickup with a rails humbucker pickup for better tone and noise reduction, and to avoid unnecessary routing. I have a Squier Tele bass that the stock pickup was a Duncan Designed smaller version of a '51 style P-pickup, but it died. I couldn't find a replacement, so even on that bass I put a Duncan Designed version of a rails pickup, as that is all I could find.

20210502_173230.jpg
 
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#19
NoBlackTShirts said:
Hello there.
I would like to put together a Franken-P (not Al Franken) but I don't really want to fuss with carving out that wacky P-Bass pickup opening. There are all those rail pickups, though, and presumably they wouldn't care what kind of string they're sensing or where it is. Many of them come in a typical Humbucker size and shape, for which there is plenty of hardware and templates and stuff.

I don't see any downside but if one wants derision and discouragement there's no place better than a web forum. Has anyone had success trying something like this? Has anyone had failure trying something like this? Has anyone had no experience at all but knows exactly what I should do?

Hit me.
Click to expand...
At a glance, you’re already getting more helpful responses than I could provide, but I will still chime in to appreciate the effort you put into preempting forum snark here :D I’m with you, and wish you success.

Even if nearly all my shirts and pickups are black (I can’t help it—the black chooses me).
 

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