Poll: How do you blend your pickups?

[Holy Diver]

I always dime both. As for tone, I dime a passive and set actives at unity.

EDIT: I consider a dimed tone knob to be “flat,” because all the tone knob does is roll off treble. If I find the full-on tone to be too bright (which hasn’t happened to date), it’s a better solution for me to replace the pot with a lower value, as opposed to riding the knob looking for a sweet spot that I may or may not be able to readily dial in on the fly.

For the sake of simplicity, I’m generally keeping the bass as close to flat/balanced as I can get it, and use the rig’s preamp to fine-tune the tone, for a couple of reasons. First, it reduces the number of knobs to tweak, and makes it easier to keep things consistent. If I played in a cover band, there might be a bit more variation in my tone, but it’s much less problematic to just have “my” sound when playing originals. Second, it makes things easier for the FOH or studio engineer if he’s not having to massage his settings every song, or even multiple times within a song.

You asked.

 

[AdamR]

Mostly neck (EMG 40P5) some bride (EM 40DC)

 

[mellowinman]

I do it the old fashioned way. With the Mixmaster 3500 73 speed blender! First I put in the ice. You want to put the ice first so you know how much mass there is. Then I add the whiskey. You're going to need a lot of whiskey. Then I add the fish, eskimoe pie and finally the bridge pickup. A lot of people forget to give a quick swirl before adding the neck pickup, and that's where you go wrong.

 

[Crazy_Jake]

Bridge pickup is full with the neck pickup at 75-80%

 

[Altitude]

On a jazz bass I go 50/50 all the time. That to me is the sound I'm trying to get out of that bass.

On a P/J, I solo the P pickup about half the time and run both pickups wide open half the time, depending on the music. I find that the blend interaction on PJ pickups is weird; running both pickups sounds good on those but a different EQ setup at the amp is needed than the P solo. The blend loses more low end than it should.

 

[skydivingninja]

I usually play my J-bass with both pickups on full, but sometimes if I want a more stingray or precision sound I'll turn the neck or bridge pickup down maybe halfway, respectively.

 

[AngelCrusher]

Active sadowsky P/J - both on a lot or just pbass or just J. Really depends. This is the only pj i have played where the J on its own is a quite usable tone.

 

[Hounddog409]

Just curious... If you play a bass with 2 pickups, how do you typically blend them, and why (that is, what is your tonal goal)?

4003s...everything full on.

Jazz...neck full on. Bridge 80% on

 

[Ric5]

Poll: How do you blend your pickups?


It gets more interesting with 3 pickups

 

[dagrev]

Depends...
Jazz - Both full.
Thunderbirds - Both full, at times just neck.
Regenerate Heritage Precision Plus (Modern take on a '55) - Mostly neck, but some of the Super Single blended in when using pick.
Fender factory Hotrod (P/J) - Most always neck and at times a little (80%) of the bridge.
G&L L2ks - Well... no blending there. (Why Leo, why?)

 

[tadawson]

I gotta say, after seeing this thread title, I spent way to much time searching the "Will It Blend" collection from Blendtec to see if they ever did a pickup . . . and sadly, no . . .

 

[Plutonium244]

It varies but usually both blended equally, or slightly favoring the neck.

 

[dmt]

On my Jazz, I used to usually go either Neck full, Bridge 90% or the opposite, Neck 90%, Bridge full.

Then I sold my Jazz and was 2 pickup bass-less for about 12 years.

Now I’m two pickup bass-equipped again with a Jazz and an SG bass, and this time I’ve been mostly going with:
Neck full, Bridge just cracked open a bit (about 10% or so).

I prefer the neck tone over ‘both’ or Bridge-only, but adding just a hair of Bridge in seems to add some "clarity" to the neck pickup. In my mind, it kinda virtually "moves" the neck pickup back towards the P-position sweet spot. YMMV!

Actually, with the SG, I put the neck and tone controls at 70% so as to try to "tame" the ceramic neck pickup, but the basic idea remains the same - just add in a hair of bridge pickup from there so as to get a bit of enhanced clarity

 

[jnsnj]

I consider the bridge pickup to mostly be a premium thumb rest

 

[Mugre]

I have a PJ set up on a short scale mustang. For me the J at the bridge acts as a treble control. It hads brightness and pulls a little mids so I add it to taste.

 

[J_Bass]

The neck pup is at 90%.

 

[BassikLee]

Both equally, or slightly favoring the bridge. Most of my basses use a blend pot instead of two volumes.

 

[KevInDaBassment]

Neck on full and bridge a BIT below full...cuts out some of that mid scoop while still giving you plenty of volume from both, helps me cut through better. Slapping or soloing I do both pickups on full.

 

[xnewyorka]

Depending on the bass, I find there are either 5 or 7 good options.
On all basses, full bridge, full neck, and center, plus slightly off-center on either side are are the five basic options. Some instruments give useful tone backed slightly backed slightly off each of the two extremes as well.
The only right answer is to experiment and find what's good for the situation, which includes the song, the rest of the mix, the room, and your personal taste. Or should I say your interpretation of the personal taste of the intended audience.

There are very few hard-and-fast rules in this domain, but one general rule of thumb (no pun intended, but pun entirely appropriate), is that for slapping, the center position is a good place to start.

 

[MordBass]

On my jazz I have a J-retro with some Bart 9J1's.... I bias about 30% towards the bridge from center... then boost the lows about 2 notches... and boost the mid about 2 notches after setting the mid sweep to the lowest setting. Its a nu metal band

Edit... adding clarification lol...
I like the honk that comes out of digging in on that bridge pup but dont completely solo it because it tends to lose the thickness that a bit o neck pup provides. You lose some bottom end on it but the active pre replaced that very quickly. Also for ref... its a lull V4 bass and i use DR hibeams 45-105 in drop C. If i play over the neck pup and dig deep, I get that nice full clank under the guitars and if i move back to the bridge pup I can coax the tone to cut the mix on fills. For slapping, the comped low end holds it down.