I joined some friends and started jamming, the style settled to some heavy doom style metal, so downtuning is necessary. I didn't want to mess with my 4string stingray and warwick infinity so I decided to buy a low cost bass that could do the trick. I bought an Epiphone Thunderbird Pro-V for a killer price online (2nd hand), to later find out that the pickups and electronics are crap and the low B sounds awfully weak! The problem is that the pickups are very small for a 5string and can't find something at that size. After some search on the bartolini site I found a 4string pickup that is almost the same size as my Tbird's (Epi: 38mm x 90mm, Barts: 38mm x 89mm). Does it matter that they are listed as 4string pickups? Will the bass sound good?
Don't put a 4-string pickup on a 5-string - not going to work as well. FIRST thing to do is to get a good setup on the instrument. After that, consider changing strings - which will result in a difference and sound, but may also require tweaking the setup. If no joy, THEN worry about pickups. It's worthwhile to figure out what you actually have first, before you modify it.
Didn't mention that the bass had a proper setup and fresh ernieball strings. I would not play it like that. So if 4string sized pickups won't work, what should I do? Do I have to go with the standard 5 size pickups and ask a luthier to modify? (bigger pickup holes are needed for that size)
I have a four string set of Bartiolini's on my Sei jazz 5 and was built that way believe me it sounds good...string spacing it tight mind but i the ABM bridge will adjust to 18 mm and still give good output... was just thinking maybe Bartolini do a shorter 5 string pickup, i necer looked at the polepieces..
Check out the Lace Sensor Alumitone bassbar. They don't use pole pieces so you can use it for any number of strings as long as the strings are above the pickups.
Will definately check them out... emailed them to ask if they will work on my situation and waiting for their reply!
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