I hate the terms "back" and "front" pickup.

[icefly]

Understand who use these terms, but bridge and neck are easier to understand.

 

[TomB]

…hey, I'm bored at work with NOTHING to do so I'm just tryna keep myself busy and sane.

If it’s truly sanity you seek, I’m not sure you came to the right thread .

…of course, if it’s just entertainment value you seek, you got it!

 

[BassyBill]

Just for clarity, anyone still unsure might like to note that the pickup nearest the fingerboard is sometimes referred to, quite without any logic at all, as the “front” pickup. Also, please note:
A bass drum is a freakin’ bass drum. “Kick drum” - ugh.
The place on your guitar where you plug in your lead is female, yes, but it’s definitely an output, not an input.
We should feel serious pangs of guilt for hating anybody who get things like this wrong, as it is only a problem for people in G7 countries and Johnny Foreigner doesn’t usually speak our language anyway.

 

[5StringBlues]

 

[Nephilymbass]

Out of curiosity, I went to the websites of several well known drum makers and they all call that big drum sitting on the floor, a bass drum. What's up with that?

Maybe it’s like clarinet players calling a bass clarinet a “bass” I don’t know

 

[DJ Bebop]

Forward and backward?

 

[FrenchBassQC]

it's almost as bad as the term "pups". I have absolutely no tolerance for the term "pups" !!!

I hear you...

 

[HaphAsSard]

worrying about terminology for the two pickups on one of the most obscure production bass guitars ever and instead of just calling one The P and the other The MB, deciding to call one of them the back/rear despite none of the pickups being on the back or the rear of the bass is what makes you such a wonderous person. Keep it up

Whoa.
Nope: a fair number of other things make me wonderous, and certainly not worrying about the Attitude, which I really don't. But your not calling its P a "bridge pickup" either is duly noted. (By the way: not that I worry about them either, but Hofner Cavern Violin and Club Basses are a little more common, and their rear pickup - unfortunately not different in shape from the other - is also not what I would call a "bridge pickup".)

I hope you keep posting look at what I wrote on #11.

Your hope is ill-placed: I'm not going to keep doing that, because I haven't in the first place. See below.

It’s totally not weird to assume that people disagreeing with your stance simply skipped over your post.

FWIW, we disagree.

Well, it was definitely not weird to assume you skipped it. If you hadn't, you might have noticed I was not the author of that post...

Anyway: lighten up, Francis.

 

[Jason Bonilla]

I hear you... View attachment 4594975

I always prefer using bouta front and back pups

 

[jdjk7]

Not sure if serious...

I don't know what part wouldn't be serious.

 

[revd]

I don't know what part wouldn't be serious.

The part where you apparently actually considered that 'front' and 'back' might not be referring to position on the guitar, but instead might be referring to perceived position of sound on an imaginary soundscape.

 

[rzero]

What about people who call the the low strings "the top strings" and the high strings "the bottom strings"?

 

[Rockbobmel]

What about people who call the the low strings "the top strings" and the high strings "the bottom strings"?

Now that you mentioned it, that’s just as bad! I hate that too!! Now

 

[Gordon Mills]

There is no terminology clearer than neck and bridge. You will never mix them up.

 

[Fuzzbass]

There is no terminology clearer than neck and bridge. You will never mix them up.

Exactly. The Warwick Thumb has a neck and a bridge pickup, and the fact that both are close to the bridge doesn't change this. Similar is true with a Billy Sheehan mudbucker/P-bass config.

Not many three pickup basses, but if so then neck, middle/center, and bridge. A bass with 4+ pickups will be confusing whatever terminology you use.

 

[dasherf17]

...11 pages on an opinion of front and rear?

 

[amper]

How about if we name them like quarks?

Top - Bottom?

Up - Down?

Strange - Charm?

WIN. If I ever go into business selling instruments, I'm naming the pickups "strange" and "charm". #quark

 

[Daddy-R]

I call them "Top" and "Bottom" but forgot which is which.

 

[Daddy-R]

Every time I watch a video or read a discussion about pickups that use front and back, I get very irritated. I have to keep watching till they either point to it or reference it by the control knobs. Why do I have to be a detective to understand which they mean?
C'mon! There is a neck, middle, and bridge for position reference.

There. Whew!

I feel like starting a fist fight.

 

[hdscout]

It's the old mullet conundrum- business in the front, party in the back.