New Build - HH vs. H

[N4860]

I have been considering building a new bass for a little while. A rear routed jazz bass style with either H or HH style pickups. I have a single H stingray at the moment which I really love but I have never tried the HH so I am unsure which is most preferred. Let me know which you like better and why. I am mostly interested in knowing how the 2nd pickup affects the total tone, as well as the movement of the bridge pickup from the sweet spot.

 

[ctmullins]

There are tons of different H pickups in the world, with nearly any kind of tone you want - angry, smooth, buzzy, barky, refined, obnoxious, etc. Would be good to know what your tonal goals are.

Beyond that, there are certain things that always happen when combining two pickups. It mostly has to do with the way that certain frequencies get cancelled out and other frequencies get reinforced. Think Jazz versus Precision, for instance. A single-pickup bass will have none of these cancellations, but the twin-pickup bass will have a wider tonal palette to choose from. If you like changing tones from song to song (without rushing back to your amp or tap-dancing on a pedalboard) then you’ll like the versatility of two (or more) pickups. If you’re a “one tone to rule them all type”, well then, you can probably get by with just one pickup.

There’s a lot more to this discussion, but I’ll leave it there for now...

 

[sikamikanico]

H moved towards the bridge will sound thinner and imo won’t work as well by itself, but might blend better with the neck pickup (assuming that one is in the P position).

That said, the bridge H doesn’t have to be moved towards the bridge in the HH arrangement, it can stay in the Stingray sweet spot. Then you can put the neck H right neck to it (P position, kinda like some Warwicks), or further towards the neck (like HH Stingrays).

All have pros and cons, depending on what you like, want, and need. For a general reference, compare sound clips of different basses on YouTube etc...