Hi, I have an Akai Project 1997 and I'm thinking about replacing the pickups. The holes of the pickups are soapbar type. I like the passive precision sound, the fatness and the growl. Maybe I can get this sound with the Bartolini soapbar precision coils setup? In the other hand the sound of the Fodera Ying Yang sound, the bottom fatness and the ultra high cristal clear frequency. Yingyang has EMG active pickups. Would I get both sounds with the Bartolini P/J pickups (soapbar size) with a preamp and a passive/active switch? Thanks for your knowledge!!
Here is the good news: EMG Active Pickups have a very distinctive sound, as soon as you install them, the sound will be reminiscent of Victor Wooten. Here is the bad news, Bartolini soapbars are fantastic pickups that will sound nothing like the EMG's. A totally different style. Of course you know that P/J stands for Precision/Jazz which means 1 precision pickup at the neck and 1 jazz at the bridge so obviously it not "soapbar" size. All this to say that the best way to get close to Victor's sound is a P/J bass equipped with EMG Active pickups (you don't even need an additional preamp with active pickups unless you want to shape the tone from the bass) and obviously, the most important, being able to play like Victor.
I've gotten very close to his tone with an active EMG soapbar configuration. His tone... NOT his ability. I went with a pair of EMG TWX pups, and I flipped the bridge pup upside down so the bridge single coil setting favors the neck side of the pickup. When running both pups in single coil mode, it is VERY close to his PJ tone. I was ecstatic when I dropped the pups in and got such a tone. I have a video tone demonstration with a clean, hi fidelity audio capture if you'd like.
But muy bass doesn't have space for the precision pickup. I was looking at the soapbar size with the internal setup of a precision. The thing is that my bass lacks definition at the bottom end. Would those pickups give me that?
I go through all possible tones in this video. The very last sound clip in each of the three sections is the tone in question.
Great sound @GlassToMouth , and nice playing Do you know wich ones would have more lows-low mids definition?Bartolini PJ or EMG PJ? Thank you very much!
I don't have any experience with Bartolini. When I have the humbuckers set on these TWX pickups, I usually cut a little bass or low mids. When running single coils, I tend to leave everything flat and cut the treble a bit. I left the on board EQ flat in my video above.
