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Neck vs. Bridge pickup

J

JBass1

Dec 6, 2005
400
6
NYC
#1
Hi,

Whenever I use the bridge pickup, volume is substantially decreased. I have tried raising the pickup and putting the blend fully on the bridge. It doesn't bother me too much but more often than not I see people using the bridge pickup over the neck pickup, especially for soloing. My bridge tone it thin and weak even with heavy low-end EQ and all blend to the bridge. Now, I am a small guy and have small hands - could it just be that I don't play hard enough? I have no problem at all on the neck. Is there always a big difference between the volumes? I'm just confused because I literally never use the bridge pickup for this reason. I can't ever recall a time when I played the bridge pickup.
 
#3
yea I always thought a good part of it was the mobility of the string itself is limited, but I just can't figure out why I seem to hear such nice tones coming out of the bridge from other players when I can't even get a decent tone. One I have in mind is Tal Wilkenfeld's (sp?) performance on that talk show. Her tone out of the bridge is incredible. My tone from the bridge never seems to be as 'full' sounding.
 
#6
bassman10096 said:
Try raising the bridge pickup closer to the strings. This will strengthen the signal. Sometimes this is just what the doctor ordered.
Click to expand...

You could try a different pickup. Sometimes this may help. Or a different pre amp. But if you don't want to mod.
Get a volume pedal. Raise your amp volume and back it of with the pedal. Then when you roll back to you bridge pick up rock the pedal forward. A little boost with no mods. Personaly i play very aggressive and almost always on the bridge pickup. Or blended with more of it than the other. I also carry a booster on my PB just in case.
 
#7
I appreciate that the sound your getting from the bridge pickup is weak, but I'm curious as to whether this syndrome is only relative to the neck pickup. If you want to even things out, you could also try lowering the neck pickup and then running the amp just a touch louder. If the output of that neck pu is fine where it is without making a big boomy sound, don't fix the portion that isn't broken I guess.

Aside from the "Tal-envy", have you played another bass that performed the way you want this one to run for you? Generally, I've always found a thinner, sharper, more "burpy" sound out of a soloed bridge pickup, either in a J-bass or another with two similar pickups. The string is simply shaking around more up at the neck pickup.

When I play my passive J-bass, I only like the tone (at least when I'm playing a gig) when I'm running both pickups wide open along with whatever appropriate tone setting I need. I also have a MM Sabre which has two of those big fat humbuckers under the strings. While the output and overall "girth" of the sound of that Sabre is flat out monstrous, I always need to boost the on-board bass eq if I solo that bridge pickup at a gig. Again, the bridge pickup just doesn't have as much of a big fundamental on its own.

Oh yeah - I think it's also really important to not feel as though you have to play really hard to simply make sound. You don't want to risk serious tendonitis or anything from overworking your hands and wrists. The bass is only a tone maker; instead of bearing down too much, turn up your amp, play with a mildly lighter touch, and save your digits.
 
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#9
JBass1 said:
yea I always thought a good part of it was the mobility of the string itself is limited, but I just can't figure out why I seem to hear such nice tones coming out of the bridge from other players when I can't even get a decent tone. One I have in mind is Tal Wilkenfeld's (sp?) performance on that talk show. Her tone out of the bridge is incredible. My tone from the bridge never seems to be as 'full' sounding.
Click to expand...

You can get a nice 'bridge pickup' type tone even with both pickups on full if you dig in close to the bridge pickup. Also, full soloing of the bridge pickup is often a bit thin on many basses (per the OP's comment). There is a sweet spot that you get by just turning down the neck pickup volume maybe 5% (or blending just barely off center). With a Jazz bass with single coils, this gives you the advantage of staying mostly hum cancelling, but also getting just a smidge of that neck pickup low end still in your tone.

If you are interested, here is a little demo I did that includes this 'slightly blended toward the bridge', using an almost identical bass to Tal's (the ash/maple NYC Vintage with Sadowsky singles). The part of the clip that focuses on the blend control starts at about 2:20.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#10
The bridge p'up soloed usually needs thickening on most of the basses I've played over the years, it's a tighter frequency range and string tension there so less spread and output. I use an outboard E.Q. for stuff that needs a specific sound, E.Q has it's own volume control for boost which is handy for matching slap volume too. The Boss E.Q. works pretty well?
 
#13
Ive noticed this to to a point. So when Ive had 2 pup basses and done lkong sustained notes with eq manipulating while note fades and lingers Ive ussually tilted blend toward the neck pup as note starts to fade. Cause Im picky about my sound, I normally adjust the pups heights for best cruising voice for both pups on full. Same for guitar. I allmost never have liked solo bridge pups but have liked solod neck pups, both pups on full, and blended tilted toward either pup a little. Now I just use single pup basses with the pup in the neck rather then mid or bridge position. When I want a more bridge like voice without the thinness of bridge pup I just lower the bass eq to taste and occassionally boost the treble a little bit.

Raising the bridge pups height can increase its volume but that can also hurt the voice you get with both pups on full.
 

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