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Looking for a pickup without growl

S

smoothdave

May 24, 2009
105
0
#1
I've got several basses, and all of them have outstanding growl, but I'd like to have at least one bass in the herd that is smooth, mellow, and totally lacking any growl at all.

I would appreciate any recommendations for pickups that will meet that criteria. I can work with either Jazz or P style pickups, so something that fits either criteria will work.

Thank you for your thoughts. I found quite a few threads in search of growl, but I couldn't find much on mellow pickups.

Thank you.
 
#5
You might want to look into an 18v preamp. I know that I tried my Basslines preamp wired up for 18v at one point and changed it back, because I preferred the way the 9v version had more growl when I really dig in and hit my strings hard.
 
#9
Get a blurry amp. I'm dead serious. When I converted a batch of CDs to MP3, every last musician I played the versions for (through cheap computer speakers, not good equipment) could tell the CD and preferred it. I narrowed it down to a tuba part. On the CD, you could fairly hear each individual juicy flapping of the player's lips. Lucky to make out the pitch on the MP3. Then I went on a preamp tube hunt for my SWR Grand Prix, part of my search for max grunt (I guess a J player would call it growl) and found the cleanest, most neutral tubes grunted most (Sylvania 5751 GB if you were curious). I think we are hearing the string analog of the tuba player's lip flappings. I mean you are really hearing the vibrations distinctly. I think there is something in the wood and the makeup and placement of the P and also of the J bridge pickup that enhances this.
 
#11
It's not just the pickups. It's the entire package from fingers to speakers.

Here are some elements in the chain that all contribute to round and mellow rather than edgy or growly:

1) Finger pick a little up towards the neck from the pickup, like the jazz upright player: on the side of the finger rather than on the tip; in other words, classical pizzacato technique.
2) Chrome or pure nickel flats instead of steel flats, rounds or any derivation.
3) Vintage wind to slightly underwound P pickup, with Alnico II magnets instead of Alnico V (Lindy Fralin can make a great P-pickup for you), carefully adjusted so the poles are in the "sweet spot" distance from the strings.
4) 250 kohm pots with a .1 tone capacitor, slightly rolled off.
5) Moderately powered head (doesn't have to be tube, but it does have to be clean) into a more compliant speaker; a good 1X15 cab will work well, if ported correctly.
 
#12
Solo the neck pickup, play up towards the bridge either over the neck pickup or between it and the neck, and use a softer slower attack. On your amps eq, if you can, scoop the mids cutting more in the 800-2k range. Try this first before you spend money elsewhere.
 
#13
Use different strings.

I don't call that upper mid-treble stuff "growl". Growl is a lower pitched guttural tone. Think of the way a lion sounds? It's "grrrrrrrr" not twang. Jaco's bridge pickup is growly.

But some years back I got tired of the ringing tone of round wounds. I just wanted the note and some treble frequencies, more like an upright. But not thuddy. So I switched to LaBella Stainless Steel Deep Talkin' Bass flat wounds, LAB_760FL.

They were smooth sounding while still being bright. I could actually slap on them. But they didn't have that ringing treble sound you get from round wounds. And they lasted over three years and sounded pretty much the same, and then I broke one.
 
#15
RCCollins said:
Flatwound strings and a vintage-style split-P (like a Duncan SPB-1) would probably give you the smooth, mellow sound you're looking for.
Click to expand...

Just the strings will do it.

Here's an example. Listen to the bass in this video:

http://youtu.be/jmlXeLYrPYE

Now listen to this bass:

[SOUNDCLOUD]http://soundcloud.com/davidravenmoon/sidewinders-4-5-12/s-nQJH6[/SOUNDCLOUD]

That's the same bass with the same pickups in each clip. The difference is that on the Santana song in the video, I had D'Addario half rounds on the bass, and in the audio clip I had (old) D'Addario nickel round wounds.

The strings gave that bass two totally different tonalities.
 
#16
I appreciate all of your help. You've given me a lot to look at, and I think I've distilled your feedback to doing the following, in order.

1. Work on my technique. I dig in and attack too much out of habit. (classical pizzacato) :):)
2. Scoop the eq at 800-2k
3. Lower the pickups. My pickups are all very close to the strings.
4. Flat strings
5. Vintage pickups--DiMarzio Area J, Bartolini, Duncan SPB-1, Fralin custom.
6. Electronics overall-18v preamp if active, or a 0.1 cap passive
7. New amp(Can't do it. I love my amps too much.)

Thank you.
 
#18
smoothdave said:
I appreciate all of your help. You've given me a lot to look at, and I think I've distilled your feedback to doing the following, in order.

1. Work on my technique. I dig in and attack too much out of habit. (classical pizzacato) :):)
2. Scoop the eq at 800-2k
3. Lower the pickups. My pickups are all very close to the strings.
4. Flat strings
5. Vintage pickups--DiMarzio Area J, Bartolini, Duncan SPB-1, Fralin custom.
6. Electronics overall-18v preamp if active, or a 0.1 cap passive
7. New amp(Can't do it. I love my amps too much.)

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Try new strings first and leave all the rest of the stuff alone. Only change one thing at a time.
 

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