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i love my bartilini pickups

#7
mkrtu9 said:
I liked them much better in my sr505 when I put the neck pup into the bridge and the bridge to the neck
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That's because Ibanez installs the neck pickup at the bridge and vice versa. For some odd reason they want the neck dark sounding and the bridge thinner. Bart voices them the other way around so they sound balanced.
 
#11
I am a convert to Barts. It seems like most of them are the soapbar-style and used in active basses, but I use their P- and J-bass replacement pickups, just wired in passively in Fenders. I have a set of old Hi-A pickups in a '74 Precision, and their "Classic Bass" series in an 80s P-J Jazz Bass Special. They REALLY brought that bass to life.
 
#13
i'm looking to replace my recently installed emg x pups in my thumb with barts, but i'm looking for the ones that will have the most 'compressed', if this is the proper term, overall sound. would this come out as 'scooped', maybe? i think i'll be running them passive. what type of jazz barts would give me the compressed/scooped results?
 
#19
Rano Bass said:
Were those real barts or mk1?

Just curious ;)
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I'll answer this because I've had a few Ibanez basses with US made Barts come through my shop. Ibanez asked for a darker sounding neck pickup, and a brighter bridge pickup. Bartolini, as well as other makers often make the bridge pickup sound fuller, and the neck sound brighter so they balance better.

If you look at an Ibanez with US made Barts, the neck pickup is labeled "T" (treble) and the bridge pickup is labeled "B" (bass). So what Ibanez did was to swap the two pickups.

If you swap them back again, they tend to sound better.

From an Ibanez/Bartolini add:

Bill Bartolini and Ibanez’s top engineers took two years to develop the fantastic MK-2 bass pickups and it’s a partnership that has pleased everyone, especially new BTB owners!

My relationship with Ibanez began in 1995 when they requested some samples. Ibanez started using our products on some models in 1996. In 1998 the (former Ibanez president) and I had a meeting at the Frankfurt Messe and I agreed to work with Ibanez on the Gary Willis Bass project. After sending Gary many samples he approved the pickup and the electronics for his signature instrument.

Since then, we have supplied Ibanez with many bass pickups and various electronics. Before this time, in the earliest years of our history, there was far more emphasis on neck-through construction and enhanced lows and low-mids. In the mid 90's the emphasis shifted to bolt-on construction with more mid and treble emphasis.

We always try to satisfy as many bass players and builders as we can, so we developed designs to satisfy the new requirements and tastes. Most builders were satisfied with an approximately equal tonality from bridge and neck pickups. The neck pickups were always a little brighter with slightly less output than the bridge pickups. But some builders and players preferred putting neck pickups at the bridge and bridge pickups at the neck intentionally. Ibanez was the first to ask for much deeper tone from the neck pickup while retaining a bright tone for the bridge.

When Ibanez asked for special pickups exclusively for Ibanez BTB series, they also asked me to try to blend the older enhanced lows and low mids with the newer, brighter tone in a narrower soapbar design. Could we go beyond what had been achieved in this direction?

The process of designing the final product is always a little bit like making a good salad: there are many ingredients, their characteristics are learned over many years and the final result depends on the mix. Our quad-coil design can yield many other tonalities but, in this case, the desired result was the deepest Deep Neck tone that balanced well with a Bright Bridge tone and retained this tonal balance with the Ibanez designed 4-, 5- and 6-string basses. After several tests and improvements, we reached our goal with the MK-2. Enjoy the wide tonal range!
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