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Show us your 3 pickup basses!

#1,201
A few years back I built 2 NR birds. 32" scale. I got the PUs as a trade for some other parts. They're belcat mini HBs. Being that the second bird was Bass #007, I felt it need 3 PUs, kill switches and British racing green paint. It's been the main bass for the blues band I'm in.

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I've compared this thing to a musical swiss army knife. I really don't know why there aren't more 3 PU basses. There are so many sounds you can get so easily. I don't even have a tone dial and it's amazing how flexible it is. There are some sound clips here...

Build 6 & 7; Fundabirds are GO! (with pew wood!)
 
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#1,204
KohanMike said:
I'm a bit premature because it hasn't arrived yet, but I'm happy to say I will have a three pickup bass soon. It's going to be a conversion of a Chinese knockoff Rickenbacker 325 guitar into a sub-short scale (21") bass.
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Update on this; I was able to change the black 325 guitar order to a finished 325 bass in FireGlow. Should be ready in about 6 weeks.

Rick 325 custom mini FireGlo 800.jpg
 
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#1,207
Family photo 2016 lineup. The fretless is new this year and has four pickups under two MM covers. Each MM cover contains both a Big Split and a Split J. Custom made for us by Nordstrand.

The single pickup bass on the far right in the first photo goes up for sale tomorrow. We do not allow single pickup basses to stay in our house more than 6 months. :-)

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#1,211
Doner Designs said:
Family photo 2016 lineup. The fretless is new this year and has four pickups under two MM covers. Each MM cover contains both a Big Split and a Split J. Custom made for us by Nordstrand.

The single pickup bass on the far right in the first photo goes up for sale tomorrow. We do not allow single pickup basses to stay in our house more than 6 months. :)


Excellent policy!

You are shaming me into finishing that third rout on my L2500 G&L Tribute!

Believe it or not I've found a switch to handle three pickups! Will give me 3 choices of bridge + Center and bridge + neck and finally center + neck. Individual pickups can be turned on and off. Only thing missing is all three pickups on together. Switch I found is $25 which sounds expensive but isn't for a switch with this many terminals. Wiring it will be a trip.
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#1,214
ProgressiveDoom said:
Im thinking of adding a 3rd pickup to my P-bass and removing the tone pot, if I place a volume pot in its place where will the new pickup wire get soldered to?. Sorry if this question has already been asked but I havent found the answer yet.
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What are the types of all 3 pickups? Sometimes you can get phase inversion issues when wiring pickups. I have battled this on a couple of occasions, with both 2 and 3 pickup basses.

Also, do you really want the capability to continuously blend the outputs of 3 pickups i.e. each pickup having its own volume pot? This makes sense with 1 and 2 pickups (e.g. conventional P and J basses) but with 3 pickups I think it's easier and more effective to use on-off switches.
 
#1,215
Jughead6 said:
What are the types of all 3 pickups? Sometimes you can get phase inversion issues when wiring pickups. I have battled this on a couple of occasions, with both 2 and 3 pickup basses.

Also, do you really want the capability to continuously blend the outputs of 3 pickups i.e. each pickup having its own volume pot? This makes sense with 1 and 2 pickups (e.g. conventional P and J basses) but with 3 pickups I think it's easier and more effective to use on-off switches.
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I was thinking of having three volume pots for the three pickups, just solder the 3rd pickup volume pot in place of the removed tone pot?.
 
#1,216
A few months ago I added 3 fake black soapbar pickup covers to a Rondo Hadean solid body bass just to make it look a little different than original, but the look didn't satisfy me. A couple of weeks ago I decided to switch out all the black hardware and covers to gold as a way to "glitz" it up. I also found gold scroll fret stickers, which I also used on the strap. I think it came out out pretty well if I do say do myself. I plan on having Pat Wilkins match the headplate to the body color at some point like the mock up of the black one.

Rondo blue & gold 800.jpg

Rondo Blue 22-33 800.jpg
 

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