pickups placement

[lauge]

hey i am new here and new to building bass and guitars, so i am not sure if i am writing in the right forum.
for the bass i am building i was designing my own pickups. it is a coil spliting humbucker and a P90, a thing not often seen. i was planing to have the humbucker in the bridge and the P90 in the neck. now i am unsure since the coil splitting was to get a lower output from playing the bass with a bow. the pickups have different dimentions so their holes will be different in size. has any of you any advice?

 

[abarson]

Do you have experience winding your own pickups? What is driving this pickup choice?
I'm not aware of a P90 bass pickup, aside from some 60s Japanese oddities.

The original P90 was a single coil with the inherent noise susceptibility, and later a humbucking variant was introduced. They don't really sound the same. Which pickup is going to have the tap? Both?

Why does playing with a bow compel a lower output pickup?
Does your design incorporate any aspects specific to the neck, bridge, etc. to accommodate arco?

 

[lauge]

Do you have experience winding your own pickups? What is driving this pickup choice?
I'm not aware of a P90 bass pickup, aside from some 60s Japanese oddities.

The original P90 was a single coil with the inherent noise susceptibility, and later a humbucking variant was introduced. They don't really sound the same. Which pickup is going to have the tap? Both?

Why does playing with a bow compel a lower output pickup?
Does your design incorporate any aspects specific to the neck, bridge, etc. to accommodate arco?

i have very little expirence with winding pickups. mainly with unwinding after i mess up. up it has started to work. the low out put is a preference, i think it sound better clean. in all honesty it would probaly be fine with just turning down the gain, but fancy.
the bass P90 come from a bass i heard with a P90. it soundet like nothing i ever heard and i love it. i am really into the sound of P90 with gain on it. want to try it on bass. sadly i live somwhere with out alot of people with my interest building instruments. so i was hoping som inside i do not know. often the P90 is in the neck on a guitar and the humbucker in the brigde. and the only basses i have seen with P90s had two, i do not know.
P90 has more output than a humbucker, and unless i shaged up it should be the same with mine. so i guess i could ask should i put the high output pick in the bridge or the neck

 

[abarson]

It depends what you are trying to accomplish tonally. Neck pickups in general have a deeper, bass-ier tone while those at the bridge are brighter, more treble-y. Single coil and humbucker pickups have their own sonic imprint.
I usually associate high output pickups with players who want to achieve an overdriven sound.

Serek makes a "B90", a single coil bass P90. This is a very good comparison video against other pickups he offers in his builds. The B90 easily overdrives.
Bass Pickups - Serek Basses

Are you sure you heard P90 on bass and not a soapbar, which is more common?

 

[lauge]

yes i am sure it was P90s. turns out alot of people here seem to have tried them. the P90 is supposed to be the higher output pickup.
first i was thinking i would have the p90 in the neck because of the single coil open sound. after playing with some humbucker designs, i got the idea i could just make a coil spliting humbucker that would give a low output singler coil. i just want to hear what other people´s ideas were about this. i like the sound of overdriven P90, what i think sounds very different from a humbucker.
also yes the neck has a round curve, and so does the bridge. took alot of time to get it right. at first i was overthinking it, before making one out of wood.

 

[kalle74]

You would probably want to try Luthier's Corner under "Forums"...