Pickups and attack

[selfblessed]

Hello out there.

Do hotter pickups mean more attack?

I am try to get a more aggresive attack from my jazz bass into my tube head. The overdrive channel sounds especially good during slap and pick lines. But during finger passages with the overdrive on...it doesnot sound as good. Being that salp and pick styles have alot of attack I would guess that I would have to come up with more attack.

So would hotter pickups do this?

Thanks.

 

[craig.p]

Avoid anything in the signal path that will cause compression, including overdrive of any amount. (Some amps seem to have compression somewhere "in there" that you can hear at work but just can't get rid of, though.) That would be step 1.

All instrument controls up full, including tone. Step 2.

Watch your eq. Wrong eq settings such as too much around 40-80 Hz can destroy attack. Boosting mid-bass instead can help. Step 3.

Play with pickup height. Try setting your pickups lower or higher and see what happens. "Best" will depend on how you play. Step 4.

No fret buzz anywhere. Better that the action is too high than too low, if you want maximum attack. Step 5.

Being gentle with your playing but cranking the volume up to compensate can sometimes give you more attack than murdering the strings but keeping the volume down. Step 6.

Play closer to the bridge and dial in more bass to compensate. Step 7.

Those have all worked for me at one time or another. Some are non-intuitive but they worked for me despite that. Maybe one will work for you. Maybe not, but at least you can say you gave 'em a try.

 

[craig.p]

Step 8: If you have a padded input, try using that one and crank the volume to compensate, on the theory that your bass might be overloading the 1st stage of the unpadded input & therefore giving you unwanted compression.

 

[selfblessed]

Thanks guys.