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Poll: How do you blend your pickups?
- Thread starter 4stringsjack
- Start date
Equally.
I change right hand position between the pickups to change tone. Also, pick or pluck when necessary.
I change right hand position between the pickups to change tone. Also, pick or pluck when necessary.
Hi 4stringsjack
I have a lot of different tones in my fingers!
That' s why my mainplayer is a one pickup, volume+ tone pot, passive bass. (and it is fretless)
My two pickup basses (fretted) are mostly used to get sounds, that have a lot of "wire".
Often (but not always), the bridge pup gets a bit more volume than the front pup.
How much more?
Depends on the mix!
Wise(b)ass
Everything dimed. I can't be bothered with fiddling and then trying to find the setting again. I'm so bad about this that if a bass doesn't sound the way I want when everything is dimed, I probably don't want it.
Depends on the song and the room, and it also depends heavily on the bass. My two pickup basses have different types of pickups in different positions and different types of "blend" controls (pickup selector switch for different combinations of coils, a blend pot, and a neck/both/bridge switch). I clearly can't set each one the same way to get a given tone.
EDIT - And that's one of the things I like most about those four basses. They all have different tone capabilities and I can choose which bass to play based on my overall tone needs for a given situation, my "tonal mood" at that particular time, or a combination of both. More is better.
EDIT - And that's one of the things I like most about those four basses. They all have different tone capabilities and I can choose which bass to play based on my overall tone needs for a given situation, my "tonal mood" at that particular time, or a combination of both. More is better.
By far, that's my preferred setting on my SR5HH as well.
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With my Yamaha (sporting a pair of DiMarzio Js), I usually run just the neck PUP, for the depth and P-like tones.
For styles that need more finesse than "grab", I'll run both full up.
I NEVER run the bridge PUP, as it sounds way too thin on its own (the placement is more like the 70's bridge J PUP). No Jaco love on that bass!
For styles that need more finesse than "grab", I'll run both full up.
I NEVER run the bridge PUP, as it sounds way too thin on its own (the placement is more like the 70's bridge J PUP). No Jaco love on that bass!
All of my two pup basses are gone... GONE I TELL YOU! But when I did have them, and I always did, they were both dimed to deal with my "more is better" OCD... Which I shouldn't have cared about, but did, and now don't.
I fiddle with it A LOT, but on my P-HB bass, more often than not, I end up settling on a full P sound.
When I DO change it up, a switch would do for me every bit as well as a blend knob. I don't find any real utility in those in-between settings at all. ESPECIALLY once I'm not just cork sniffing without any accompaniment.
When I DO change it up, a switch would do for me every bit as well as a blend knob. I don't find any real utility in those in-between settings at all. ESPECIALLY once I'm not just cork sniffing without any accompaniment.
I voted mostly neck w/ a little bridge, as that is how I run my PJ Warwick, and that is set with a pickup balance knob. I use the active EQ for tone shaping.
On my jazz bass it is both up full, or one or the other rolled back just a tiny bit, which is all it seems to take. Almost always leave the tone all the way up, but very rarely will roll it down.
On my jazz bass it is both up full, or one or the other rolled back just a tiny bit, which is all it seems to take. Almost always leave the tone all the way up, but very rarely will roll it down.
Depends on the bass, but I usually go with both full up. On my Yamahas sometimes I favor the middle pickup slightly, on my other basses sometimes I favor the neck a little bit.
Changes from bass to bass and song to song, and depends on whether I've got a blend control of a pickup selector switch... on my 79 Wal Pro bass which has a pickup selector switch it tends to be either both or neck with or without tone filters engaged - bridge only occasionally. On my Mark 1 Custom Series Wal I'll vary between 75% neck/25% bridge, 100% neck, 25% neck/75% bridge, 100% bridge and add different filters and plucking styles depending on what tone an dfeel I'm trying to achieve.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
I play a jazz. I start with both on full, then back off the bridge if the blend needs adjustment.
On my hollownody with two Thunder'trons, I tend to mostly stay on the neck, occasionally flipping to the bridge when I want some honk. Almost never both at the same time.
I don't believe in sticking within the box that VVT blending circuits give you. My basses are wired differently - my J has 2 modes:
1) Neck only mode (P-ish) - there's a tone control for this mode, which acts pretty much like you'
d expect, and only one pickup is on (the neck)
2) J mode - in this mode, the neck pickup is on - it contributes all the low end, and half of the mid and high end. The bridge pickup does not "contribute" in the low end (which means the low end output doesn't drop when in this mode, like it does on e VVT J when you bring the bridge pickup in). The bridge pickup is on fully in the mid and high range, so you get the typical J "scoop" tone - but with the same amount of low end as in the P mode. There's a tone control for this mode, but it uses different parts values - it doesn't roll off the mids and highs, it goes to a "snarl" setting when fully counterclockwise.
And, the thing doesn't hum - in any of the modes or settings. Maybe that means it isn't a J
I have another bass (essentially a PJ configuration). It has a blended mode, that runs the bridge pickup full range, and adds only the low end of the neck (P) pickup. It doesn't have the mid scoop that a J does, but it does have a fairly wide tonal palette as a result of this mode.
1) Neck only mode (P-ish) - there's a tone control for this mode, which acts pretty much like you'
d expect, and only one pickup is on (the neck)
2) J mode - in this mode, the neck pickup is on - it contributes all the low end, and half of the mid and high end. The bridge pickup does not "contribute" in the low end (which means the low end output doesn't drop when in this mode, like it does on e VVT J when you bring the bridge pickup in). The bridge pickup is on fully in the mid and high range, so you get the typical J "scoop" tone - but with the same amount of low end as in the P mode. There's a tone control for this mode, but it uses different parts values - it doesn't roll off the mids and highs, it goes to a "snarl" setting when fully counterclockwise.
And, the thing doesn't hum - in any of the modes or settings. Maybe that means it isn't a J
I have another bass (essentially a PJ configuration). It has a blended mode, that runs the bridge pickup full range, and adds only the low end of the neck (P) pickup. It doesn't have the mid scoop that a J does, but it does have a fairly wide tonal palette as a result of this mode.
I can't remember where I heard/read it, but I have been under the impression that the classic Jazz growl/burp is achieved by diming both pups and rolling off all the treble. Works for me, anyway.
On a standard J-style bass I would keep both pickups at 100% while focusing more on hand/finger placement to get the sound I want. If I really want it to burp, I'll roll the neck down to 60-50%. I used to be a 100% bridge player but then I would hear recordings and it usually ended up sounding too thin, even with low-mid boosting.
