Found an old Kramer 450B in nice condition a while back. Great bass but whoever replaced the OG pickups with DiMarzio Model Gs is a real bastard. I've been trying to find some passive pickups with a p bass sound (or just p bass pups in an HB enclosure) that match the profile of the OG humbuckers. I'm also kind of partial to chrome replacements.
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Replacement HBs for my dumb Kramer 450B
- Thread starter Dweeb33
- Start date
Welcome to TalkBass!
1) Nordstrand, Seymour Duncan, and several other major pickup makers will make you pretty much anything you want. (I'm partial to the Nordys myself.) There's a possibility they can even wire up something with your existing covers.
2) We are all bass dorks. We love to geek out over other people's gear. I wouldn't go so far as to say we get "offended" at the idea of a thread like yours with no pics. But, it certainly isn't as fun.
Pics of what you have might also help us help you.
I believe those are guitar humbucker sized. Maybe some guitar blade pickups or check the TV Jones Thundertron and that series. I think those are the same size and ship with bolt on ears to mount them in a humbucker ring.
If they are 'normal' humbucker size, EMG do a bass humbucker with P internals:
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Forgot about those. I have a bass with a passive EMG guitar pickup that sounds pretty good and I think they still make the active pickups that Steinberger used.
- Apr 18, 2008
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No idea about “the P bass sound”, but any guitar humbucker will work in a bass, provided the strings don’t fall outside the sensing area. There’s nothing fundamentally different between “guitar pickups” and “bass pickups”. They’re both just wires coiled around magnets.
That means that you have the luxury of experimenting with lots of different choices. It is true that a blade-style pickup is a safer bet, but a polepiece-style pickup will still work fine, perhaps needing a bit of polepiece adjustment.
I can heartily recommend the Wilde L-90 - 4H for the neck, and either 4H or 6H for the bridge.
That means that you have the luxury of experimenting with lots of different choices. It is true that a blade-style pickup is a safer bet, but a polepiece-style pickup will still work fine, perhaps needing a bit of polepiece adjustment.
I can heartily recommend the Wilde L-90 - 4H for the neck, and either 4H or 6H for the bridge.
They are a bit weak sounding in comparison to other basses I've played through my rig. (I like the heavy stuff.) I've made all of the appropriate adjustments to em and still can't get the depth and volume I want out of them. I MIGHT need some active pups. IDK... These just don't do the metal lord justice.
The new DiMarzio Relentless neck pickups might work. It even comes in nickel-plated.
Relentless™ Neck | DiMarzio
Relentless™ Neck | DiMarzio
Here's the big dumb baby herself. Thanks y'all for being so patient and welcoming to the forum!
