Check out Mel Schacher's Jazz bass in early Grand Funk's stuff, it sounded great, had an EB-0 pickup where the neck pickup was, a little OT as the bass was only a double pickup and I have heard that he only used the EB-0 pickup.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Show us your 3 pickup basses!
- Thread starter Doner Designs
- Start date
Check out Mel Schacher's Jazz bass in early Grand Funk's stuff, it sounded great, had an EB-0 pickup where the neck pickup was, a little OT as the bass was only a double pickup and I have heard that he only used the EB-0 pickup.
1963 Ampeg by Burns of London Vista Sonic bass (accompanied by 1964 Ampeg/Burns JazzSplit Sound guitar).
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
How do people wire those contraptions? Is there enough winding on the J pickup(s) to fully cancel the hum generated by the massive Darkstar?
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
I had this in the Mod/Frankenstein thread, but since this one has surfaced again,I'll contribute. It was a total knee jerk because the body came out of nowhere but a 3P build has always intrigued me, the neck is on of the sweetest J necks I've ever had, and sonically, it's very versatile and *totally* useful.
All I had heard about 3V 1T controls having issues was nonsense.
All I had heard about 3V 1T controls having issues was nonsense.
In u-djinn's original post, it's described as an ESP-PPJ, so I'm guessing it's a production bass. It appears that u-djinn is in Malaysia and we've become painfully aware that other markets often get way more interesting basses than what we get in the US.
Yes, it's done. But I have to admit that I stripped out everything but the MM pickup. It's very simple, lightweight and very bright and crunchy sounding. No controls, wired straight to the jack. Good for punk!
All are cool basses here with those 3 pickups. But I kinda wonder, is there any practical new tone that we can get by having a 3rd pickup? By practical I mean it is usable to use in a song or a gig.
I imagine pickups near the heel of a neck would give a deeper tone? But not sure what kind of sound those pickups in the middle do?
I imagine pickups near the heel of a neck would give a deeper tone? But not sure what kind of sound those pickups in the middle do?
Pickups near the heel increase the lower frequencies and pickups near the bridge increase the higher frequencies, so pickups in the middle increase the middle frequencies - low mids closer to the neck, and upper mids closer to the bridge.
It is important to know that pickup locations can also boost or remove the volume of harmonic nodes. For instance, a pickup at the 24th fret and playing on the open strings will actually cancel out a few harmonic nodes out of the signal.
Also, if the pickups are wired in parallel, which they usually are, they will cancel out some of the overlapping frequencies when they're at equal volume. This is why there is a mid scoop in Jazz Basses at roughly 500hz when both pickups are up full. The pickup locations determine where this scoop occurs and the further distance between the pickups widens the range of frequencies affected.
There is a great website which lets you add pickups and move them around to see what the output signal would look like:
Guitar Pickup Response Demonstration
Of course, each pickup had its own tone which this doesn't factor into the equation, but it is pretty neat.
Last edited:
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
I'll also add that by adding pickups you can effectively create the sound of multiple basses with the flick of a switch.
Spock's Beard's bassist has a bass that has pickups in the Rickenbacker 4001 locations as well as a 70's Jazz. He flicks a switch and changes between both pairs. He could probably add a P pickup too and have three different bass tones with a 3-way switch.
Spock's Beard's bassist has a bass that has pickups in the Rickenbacker 4001 locations as well as a 70's Jazz. He flicks a switch and changes between both pairs. He could probably add a P pickup too and have three different bass tones with a 3-way switch.
- Jan 28, 2009
- 2,929
- 4,152
- Disclosures
- Owner: Moonshine Custom Guitars
I know I'm the voice of the distinct minority when I say this is utter nonsense. Yes, it may be true that a pickup at the 24th fret will cancel out a few harmonic nodes... when you play open strings. But every single bass player I have ever seen plays somewhere on the neck most of the time -- which means those harmonic nodes "float" (for lack of a better term) in relation to the frets being played. Which means you can never predict how the static placement of any pickups is going to affect the sound of the bass during actual playing.
If a pickup at the 24th fret will cancel out a few harmonic nodes, then a pickup at the 28th fret or 30th fret will do the same thing when a string is played at the 4th or 6th fret (for example). But does anyone ever actually hear this phenomenon? There might be some people who think they have heard it, but if it really was a phenomenon that has a significant effect on the sound, then it would be out there on most basses for everyone to hear all the time, and it just isn't.
For example, it would be widely known that all P basses are a bit dead at the 7th fret for EA and 8th fret for DG, or something to that effect. (I'm just grabbing the numbers out of my hat, but hopefully you get the point.)
Hence my personal philosophy that the most important consideration for the placement of pickups is aesthetics. If it looks cool, it's gonna sound just fine. (And hey, it proved to be true on my bass.)
Last edited:
This is a very comprehensive answer. I am getting more than I expect. I take it this way: placement of pickup is dependant on whether we want to get more treble, mid, or bass sound. I guess, disregarding the type of pickup we use
"...pickups are wired in parallel.."
Normally is this how 3 pickups are being setup? I am under the impression that each pickup is independent of each other. They're not wired in correlation of each other but each pickup might have their own wiring (ex: series/parallel/single for dual-coil)
Now this gets me thinking. How do you add blend pots to 3 pickup combination? The easiest way of choosing which pickup to sound is using 3-way toggle switch or individual volume pots V/V/V.
Last edited:
You are correct, I actually had that in my first version (Doner's quote shows it), but I took it out due to some confusion on my part. I'll re-add it.
When a bass has multiple coils, they can either be wired in series or parallel.
A stock Jazz bass with two single coil pickups are wired in parallel to each other. A stock P bass has two single coils which are placed side by side and are wired in series. If you have a bass with a single, dual-coil pickup (such as a Music Man), that one pickup can have a switch to flick between series and parallel wiring between the two internal coils. You can also add a switch on a P Bass to wire the split pickup in parallel, or add one on a Jazz to have the two single coils in series.
Dual-coil pickups can only be wired in series or parallel within the same pickup housing (some can do single coil, but the signal only goes through one of the coils - the second coil is bypassed).
Most soap bar dual-coil pickups and humcancelling inline split-coil jazz pickups are designed to be wired in series, but can be wired in parallel as well. Most MM pickups are wired in parallel, but series is an option.
When the pickups are wired in parallel, there is a mid scoop which takes out some of the overlapping frequencies. There is also a resonant peak in the higher frequencies.
When the pickups are wired in series, the overlapping frequencies are actually boosted as well as the lows, while the highs are muted... Pickup location plays a part in a P Bass's tone, but having that split pickup in series is a larger factor. The is mainly why a Jazz's single coil neck pickup doesn't sound the same as a P Bass.
Now things get crazy... Imagine you have a two pickup jazz bass and install two humcancelling inline split-coil jazz pickups. There are now 4 coils (two coils per pickup). You can wire two switches so that each pickup is either series or parallel (front pickup series/rear pickup parallel; both series; both parallel; and front pickup parallel/rear pickup series), then you can also have a third series/parallel switch to change whether the two front coils (series or parallel) and the two rear coils (series or parallel) are wired series or parallel between them (for instance, each pickup can be wired for series, but you can wire the pairs together in parallel, or series).
Yes, simplest way is separate V/V/V's or switches.
Blend pots can only blend two pickups at a time. You could only allow for two pickups at a time, run the pickups to a switch that decides which two are active, and then run them to the Blend. You could also have a V pot just for the neck pickup, with a Blend to blend between the mid and bridge pickup...However, you would need a separate volume knob if you want the mid/bridge blend to be quieter than the neck pickup.
The way Spock's Beard's bassist does it (with his 4 pickup Rick/Jazz bass) is that he just has a VVT setup with a switch that decides which two pickups (Rick or Jazz) are active. He does not have the ability to just have the two neck pickups on at once for instance, but 4 V pots would certainly allow it.
These multi-pickup basses with a bunch of options are tempting, but you can very quickly come up with a configuration of 5 knobs and 5 switches on a passive bass. This may be great for some people, or a distraction for others... For me, I would setup a test bench with a bunch of knobs and switches and wire the pickups straight to the bench, determine which different options offer the greatest benefits/variety for me and get rid of the extra stuff I'd rarely use (or wouldn't want to get lost in).
Last edited:
