Pickups for funk rock?

[tonesponge]

I am looking for suggestions for pickups to put on an Ibanez. I like a Chili Peppers or Primus type of groove, so that's what I am aiming for. Sometimes I play slap, and other times use a pick, if that matters.

From googling, it looks like flea and les both use EMGs. Am I looking for an EMG PJ set? Can these active pickups be installed on an Ibanez bass, or is the routing wrong? Also, I think they play fretless. Will the tone of these pickups be a bad match for a fretted bass? Should I get some other kind of pickups? If so, what?

Thanks for suggestions.

 

[Chrisk-K]

What Ibanez bass?

 

[BeowulfKingsley]

I don't know what pickups those guys use, but Flea primarily plays fretted bass, Les primarily fretless. You might want to play some other basses with a similar pickup configuration and see if that's the territory you're looking to get into. I think the PJ combo is a fantastic tone myself, classic and very flexable, and works on either fretted or fretless basses very well.

 

[christw]

Just wondering if you use your fingers to play at all. I play funk rock stuff often and on any double pickup bass (P+J, J+J, J+P, J+MM) I can get a good flea-like tone just by digging in. It gives that clacky punchy sound and is my natural thing when grooving hard.

I'll back up the idea of purchasing modern pickups, but we need to know what model bass you have. As well, I'd recommend looking into neodymium pickups. SGD Lutherie and J Worrell Bass both make some sweet and phat neodymium pickups. It'll really open up your tone. I use John's pickups in all my main players except for one (because I haven't installed them yet.)

 

[ffutterman]

I thought Flea used MM-style pickups. And it looks like Les sticks to single-pickup configs usually (Invalid Link Removed), and they might be MM as well. Also, I think Les uses his fretted basses more than his fretless ones, though it might be 50/50

 

[garmenteros]

Flea has used a wide variety of basses for recording. The chili pepper's latest effort was mostly recorded with a vintage jazz bass. Before that he was using mis signature modulus bass which came with a single bartolini humbucker or j bartolini pickups.

 

[LDonnie]

I believe the truth is different. I know little of Claypool, but Flea used a vintage Jazz, a Modulus featuring Lane Poor pickups, a StingRay with the standard MM pickup and a Spector NS(2?) with EMG's. Now to the OP, what kind of pickups fit in your Ibanez. Soapbars? Single coils? Split coils? Humbuckers? Whateva's?

 

[BuffaloBass]

I dont get it. Dont "fret" on the sound until you get the fingers moving correctly.

 

[christw]

I'm gonna also note that playing slap or pick won't get you all the way flea. A lot of his tone is from the fingers and beating the hell out of the strings by digging in.

 

[tonesponge]

My Ibanez is a GSR200 from back before they put the fourth knob on it and added the Phat 2 thingy, so it just has the three knobs. It's passive pickups with no active preamp.

I went ahead and ordered the EMG PJ set, some Dean Markley Blue Steel .45-.100 strings, and a 12 pack of 9 volt batteries. I hope I got the right stuff.

 

[tonesponge]

bump

Hoping someone can confirm I got the right thing, or else tell me where I went wrong.

 

[LDonnie]

bump

Hoping someone can confirm I got the right thing, or else tell me where I went wrong.

With the right EQ'ing you might get the Mother's Milk tone. Alot of the sounds is in the fingers and the amp. I don't think you achieved what you planned to by getting active EMG's, but you did get a decent set for a funk rock sound (listen to some Living Colour for example). Try to be yourself, not flea or les.