Need some advice about Pickups combination..

[YSJ]

Hello, I have some questions about pickups. So far I didn't mind the importance of the pickups, Recently I feel the necessity to change the pickups. But My time with bass is not that long so I have some difficulty with choosing pickups. I know my taste of sound. Not accurately but dimly. Even though I'm not sure about what is exactly 'the Vintage' sounds but assuming from my experience, I'm a modern sounds guy. So I prefer modern sounds rather than vintage sounds.
I play all sorts of genre but mainly I play metal, classic and chill music. But I'm not sure about what pickups set would suits my taste. Since I have never cared much for pickups before.
I'm thinking of dual coil or quarter coil passive pickups with built in pre-amps + active/passive toggle switch so that I can enjoy both taste. If I could have many basses then I would buy all sorts of basses according to genre. But I have to conclude with only one bass so I need versatility as much as possible.

(Check this vids if you don't mind)
Just like this guitar, I want my bass to express all sorts of sounds. I don't like precision style so If it is not a PJ than all pickups and ideas are grateful.
I'm not sure whether my intention is delivered correctly since my grammar is poor..
Well.. I'm looking forwards all your advice. Thanks in advance

+ I saw this beautiful EMG pickups on internet. This is replace pickups for Steingberger bass. It would look great on my bass But I can't use EMG. What I want is looks of this pickups rather than sounds so Is it Okay to paint the general pickup cover like this or would it affect the tone??

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Be prepared for a long list of folks telling you what they use & I will do the same, because we use what we do for good reasons.
I'm a fan of Nordstrand's pickups, especially those with the slanted pole pieces:

Those are their Big Singles, which have plenty of high end & mids. If I want lows I dial them in on the bass's internal preamp.
I feel like you're better off getting the highs from the pickups, because if you try adding them with a preamp you get hiss.

downside of the Singles is that they can be noisy, but TBH these aren't nearly as noisy as single-coil pickups I've used in the past

dual-coil humbucker pickups will take away some of the "snap" IME, which is what I love about the Big Singles, just so snappy & with character:

Big Single 4

as far as a preamp, I'd also recommend a Nordstrand, or Aguilar is another good choice

I honestly wish that DiMarzio made soapbar pickups for bass, but if size doesn't matter you could always throw one of their soapbar guitar pickups in your bass.
While we're on that, Fishman makes something called Fluence pickups, which are supposed to have a few sounds available via a switch, but they are active.

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A few of those might work for a bass.

 

[JimmyM]

+ I saw this beautiful EMG pickups on internet. This is replace pickups for Steingberger bass. It would look great on my bass But I can't use EMG. What I want is looks of this pickups rather than sounds so Is it Okay to paint the general pickup cover like this or would it affect the tone??

You may not be able to use the particular Steinberger pickups, but EMG makes sets in a lot of different sizes and they probably do have sets that can fit your bass. What is it?

 

[YSJ]

You may not be able to use the particular Steinberger pickups, but EMG makes sets in a lot of different sizes and they probably do have sets that can fit your bass. What is it?

Oops.. My poor grammar did it again.. Sorry. When I said "I can't use EMG", it was not because EMG pickups doesn't fit my bass. More like I don't prefer the sound of EMG. To me, EMG sounds have no character. Or too characteristic. What I want is a versatility of tone but I think EMG has only one sound. The EMG sound. It is one of the most well known active pickup in the world and there's got to be a reason for that but no EMG for me. Anyway, Thanks for your reply!

 

[Karlson541]

I don't have a lot of experience with swapping pickups, and I am by no means an expert in them either, however I know from own experience that a pair of quality ones, with the, for you, right characteristics can make a rather huge difference from a pair of lesser quality ones with undesired characteristics.

My budget P/J bass went from sounding a bit dull, bland and unfocused with lacking articulation and definition to having a really great vitalized and full focused tone with lots of definition and articulation after I swapped the stock pickups out with a pair of P/J EMG Geezer Butler pickups.

As said I am not an expert, but I am thinking perhaps a bass with two Music Man style pickups.
They would give you a lot of different options tone wise, as you write you are looking for, with both being able to coil tap them to run one of the rows of each pickup as single coil, and then either run the two rows of pole pieces in serial or parallel connection.
Come to think of it, you would actually be able to configure any humbucking pickups that works with two rows of pickup poles or blades, so two soapbar pickups might also be a viable option.

I am afraid I can't help you with brand and model of pickups for obtaining a Hi-Fi modern tone, but I am sure someone on this forum knows.

With the kind of tone and versatility you want from your bass a preamp is probably a good call too, can't help you with that either though.

 

[YSJ]

I don't have a lot of experience with swapping pickups, and I am by no means an expert in them either, however I know from own experience that a pair of quality ones, with the, for you, right characteristics can make a rather huge difference from a pair of lesser quality ones with undesired characteristics.

My budget P/J bass went from sounding a bit dull, bland and unfocused with lacking articulation and definition to having a really great vitalized and full focused tone with lots of definition and articulation after I swapped the stock pickups out with a pair of P/J EMG Geezer Butler pickups.

As said I am not an expert, but I am thinking perhaps a bass with two Music Man style pickups.
They would give you a lot of different options tone wise, as you write you are looking for, with both being able to coil tap them to run one of the rows of each pickup as single coil, and then either run the two rows of pole pieces in serial or parallel connection.
Come to think of it, you would actually be able to configure any humbucking pickups that works with two rows of pickup poles or blades, so two soapbar pickups might also be a viable option.

I am afraid I can't help you with brand and model of pickups for obtaining a Hi-Fi modern tone, but I am sure someone on this forum knows.

With the kind of tone and versatility you want from your bass a preamp is probably a good call too, can't help you with that either though.

Don't be like that. Your advice really do help me. I would look for Humbucker that can be used with pickup selector. Thanks a lot!!