Pups with "Character"?

[driftingupward]

Not sure if this is the right place for this but here's my situation:

I play a Schecter Stilletto Elite with EMG 40(4 X 1.5) sized pups and I'm trying to find something that has a little more character than my Bart classic bass dual coils. The bass came with EMG 40HZ's and they sounded sterile to my ears. Then I tried EMG 40CS's and then 40J's and they both sounded OK, but the barts have the best sound yet to my ears.

I'm looking for something that has a little more "character"(for lack of a better term). I like the sound Flea gets on 'Aeroplane' (Stingray) along with the various single coil pups I've heard clips of checking out Youtube.

Right now I'm playing in a 60-70's funk band doing some James Brown along with some Funkadelic and some slap stuff too.

I guess my question is: Should I just get different pups for the Schecter and hopefully find them someday or should I be looking at different/better quality basses? Should I be exploring coil switching with what I have before continuing on to other Pups?

Oh, and the pre is an EMG BQC 3 band active, no switches or anything like that....

 

[mmbongo]

Coil switching is the answer. I could be wrong, but I think Aeroplane was recorded during Flea's Jazz Bass phase so you are looking for the sound of single coils. Wire your Barts with 3 way toggle switches so each pickup will have series/single/parallel and you're good to go. Your Barts have tons of character baked in.

Alternatively, you could get Nordstrand Big Singles in that size.

Or, just get a passive jazz like Flea used!

 

[mmbongo]

Well after some research, I found out Flea actually used a Treker Louis Johnson for that song:

 

[petrus61]

Is this for live, studio or home use?

 

[waynobass]

Dachshund puppies are adorable.

Oh... you're talking about pickups.

 

[driftingupward]

Well I read an interview with him on one of the other forums and he said that he used a stingray on that song and I think an Alembic on the rest of the album.

regardless of what he really used, I'll definitely check out coil switches