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SD, Bart EMG soapbars

Discussion in 'Pickups & Electronics [BG]' started by barroso, Oct 23, 2001.

  1. Oct 23, 2001 #1
    barroso

    barroso

    Aug 16, 2000
    Italia
    in the middle crisis of buiding a 5 string super jazz bass from warmoth and taking sadowsky as point of ispiration, i have to choose between a lot of pickups configurations. the bass should be a jazz 5 warmoth body, finished in black with black pickguard and 5 string maple/maple neck with black dots inlays. i'm thinking that active soapbars could be really interesting, expecially coupled with a j retro preamp. but EMG, SD and bartolini websites really suck!! can you help me more choosing the richt pickup, i have experience with the EMG on a czech spector and barts on a pedulla MVP only. the j retro is an awesome preamp with a 9 volt battery. thanks guys...
     
  2. Oct 23, 2001 #2
    barroso

    barroso

    Aug 16, 2000
    Italia
    EMG-40
    Basslines ASB2-5
    Bartolini M4

    these could be the exact models i'm interested in. how do they could work with a j retro in your opinion? can i use only a 9 volt battery for all the active pickups and active system?
    thanks again
     
  3. Oct 24, 2001 #3
    Prague77

    Prague77

    Aug 20, 2001
    Waco, TX
    I think the emg-40 and the bart m4 are for 4 strings.
     
  4. Oct 24, 2001 #4
    Chris Brodowski

    Chris Brodowski

    Sep 28, 2000
    Prison; scheduled to be paroled next fall because
    EMG 35-dc = four string
    40-dc = five string
    45-dc = six string.

    For saome reason that is how EMG does it. Im 100% positive.
     
  5. Oct 25, 2001 #5
    Saint

    Saint

    Mar 2, 2000
    DC - USA
    According to the 2001 Bartolini Catologue, the M4 is a 5-string pickup. There are other pickups in their catalogue that work for a five string, but the M4 has the same dimensions as the EMG 40. Of course, M4 is just a basic designation relating to the shape/size of the pickup. Underneath the cover you can have a number of different configurations including p-style split magnets, quad coil, and standard side-by-side 2 magnet humbucking. I haven't tried the M4, but I did recently install a Bartolini Jazz pickup in the bridge position of my Fender Jazz fretless, and while the output is lower than the stock pickup, it sounds perfectly fine without a pre-amp.

    I think part of the question you need to answer for yourself is what kind of sound do you want. EMG's sound very different from Bartolini's, IMHO. I am putting emg p-pickups in a bass I'm restoring, because I want a very clean hi-fi sound. True EMG's have the pre-amp built into the pickup, but are really best when used with a tone control system. In my case, I'm using the EMG BTC system, but mainly because it fits the pre-existing control holes.

    I'm planning to put Bartolini M4 side-by-side humbuckers in a graphite neck I want to build because I want some growl. I plan to use a bartolini pre-amp with adjustable mid frequency control and I also plan to wire the pickups so that they can be switched between single-coil and humbucking mode (this can't be done on EMG's, although they may have a pickup out now that can approximate this adjustment).
     
  6. Oct 25, 2001 #6
    Prague77

    Prague77

    Aug 20, 2001
    Waco, TX
    I asked Bill Conklin about what barts would fit in my gt-4 and he said m4's