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

[JamesDeGrandis]

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!

What about top and bottom string?

 

[TyBo]

What about top and bottom string?

Yep, I see different people use those interchangeably.

 

[E2942]

go north for 2 blocks and then east for 2miles

The newer generation of people have absolutely no idea about cardinal directions, even though when they enter the highways there will be signs telling them which direction they are headed.
I'm the opposite, I'd rather have someone give me directions in cardinal points rather than colloquials. Places where they've done this to me were NYC & New Orleans, using local colloquialisms like uptown or references to the river.
Cardinal directions can be understand almost anywhere else on Earth, but not in the U.S..

 

[red_rhino]

I’m an old-school “time is linear” kinda guy. I refer to pickups as “past”, “present”, and “future”: the pickup I was using previously is the “past” pickup, the pickup I will be using next is the “future” pickup. As often happens when I move between pickups, my “future” pickup is also my “past” pickup if I used it previously and intend to use it again, and vice versa.

I can only ever be sure of which pickup is my “present” pickup, knowing that sometime in the future, it will become my past pickup. This could explain why my YouTube videos don’t get a lot of Likes.

 

[andare]

The newer generation of people have absolutely no idea about cardinal directions, even though when they enter the highways there will be signs telling them which direction they are headed.
I'm the opposite, I'd rather have someone give me directions in cardinal points rather than colloquials. Places where they've done this to me were NYC & New Orleans, using local colloquialisms like uptown or references to the river.
Cardinal directions can be understand almost anywhere else on Earth, but not in the U.S..

As a European I've always been fascinated by how important cardinal directions are to Americans. I have no idea where I'm going half the time

 

[E2942]

I've found the opposite to be true, but the parts of Europe I've been to were not Poland.

 

[JamesDeGrandis]

I know a kid who plays guitar... He's a lefty and plays a right handed guitar... He just flips it over.

Kinda like Dick Dale.

I call him a kid but he's probably in his 30s by now...
Great... now I am feeling the oldness...

 

[Frenchy-Lefty]

I was told that, despite the regime's violence and the general starvation in Afghnistan, people's main concern at the moment is the issue of improperly designating bass pickups . I am glad the OP got to bring up this issue. We should all be pissed about it.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

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 the same way. I prefer the terms Neck or Bridge. Front and back make no sense. Does your bass have a pickup on its back? Up against your body? Aren’t both pickups (or all three…) on the front of the bass?

I complained about this years ago, but was admonished by TB for making no sense and that I am wrong in my mentality of the subject.
But I stick to my guns and never fold.

 

[Ggaa]

Ventral and dorsal...

 

[JimmyM]

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!

Ha! Front: neck or middle when there's not 3 pickups, back: bridge. Sorted.

 

[devnulljp]

The newer generation of people have absolutely no idea about cardinal directions, even though when they enter the highways there will be signs telling them which direction they are headed.
I'm the opposite, I'd rather have someone give me directions in cardinal points rather than colloquials. Places where they've done this to me were NYC & New Orleans, using local colloquialisms like uptown or references to the river.
Cardinal directions can be understand almost anywhere else on Earth, but not in the U.S..

Japan is interesting as, in some cases, they still refer to things with reference to Tokyo (or more specifically the emperor). So regardless where you are, 'up' refers to towards Tokyo and and down refers to away from Tokyo. I used to live in the far north of Honshu and found it confusing that southbound trains were going 'up' and vice versa.

I've only ever really heard Americans using cardinals for travelling directions, and very seldom know which direction I'm facing. GPS is annoying for that when you're starting out on a journey and it says "Go north 500 m..." I can't see Polaris, don't know which way is north, so have to drive around a bit til it starts saying 'turn left...'

 

[5StringBlues]

Decent thread.



I give it 3 flying dog heads (out of a possible 5 ).

 

[DigitalMan]

I don't think there is any ambiguity.

However, when someone says they like a thick neck, it's like Schrödinger's neck until the asked for clarification arrives.

 

[DwaynieAD]

I've literally never heard someone call them front and back pickups.

Who wants to talk about top and bottom strings tho?

 

[BoomFish]

So...what is a better alternative? Pick up number 1 and 2?

The pickups aren't on the Neck nor the bridge

 

[Gustopher]

So this is what we have left to discuss.

 

[Samatza]

I don't think it's ever phased me. bass and treble, front and back, bridge and neck...
...no, no problem at all, in fact it's fairly easy to understand.

What I don't understand is some of the marketing blurb that describes a product. "This will change your life!". But in reality it just changes your sound, and sometimes for the worse.

 

[XLunacy]

Let me settle this :
1 pickup : THE pickup
2 pickups : front / back pickup
3 pickups : neck / middle / bridge pickup
4 pickups : 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th pickup
5+ pickups : please leave

 

[micguy]

Since we look down on them and they are in the left and right positions, how about port and starboard?

Just think about a left handed bass, and....yeah, that's gonna be confusing. Front and back are definitely not straightforward (unless your bass has pickups on the back - mine are all on the front of the instrument)*. Neck and bridge is the least confusing, most obvious way to name these things. There is a neck on your bass, and a bridge. The neck pickup is the one closest to the neck, the bridge pickup is close to the bridge.

*I have considered schemes where a hum cancelling pickup would be mounted in the back, but never built one. I have modded a Danelectro - I put a hum canceller on the back of the pickguard (inside the control cavity) - that's the closest to a "back" pickup that I've ever done.