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Show us your 3 pickup basses!

#1,401
dave64o said:
Interesting combinations, they'd be fun to play with!

Do you find that, even with all those options, you sometimes gravitate to small set of options on each bass? I have an L-2500 and a Big Al SSS and, even with so many options available on those basses, I have "favorite" settings that I'm perfectly happy to use for an entire four set gig. I don't always do it because I like playing with the options, but I often do. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the tonal variety they have, but it does mean I've played with those basses enough to find settings that I've kind of tweaked to perfection, at least as far as I'm concerned.
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That's definitely the case. I have a few favorite combos for each bass, that I tend to stick with. Usually one with what I consider the "normal bass tone", another mid-scooped, and a third more aggressive and mid-focused. And then maybe one or two more that's really unique to that particular bass. There's volume differences to contend with when switching combos, so I usually use a volume pedal to compensate. I tend not to switch it up too much during a song, and keep the fiddling for breaks in-between.
 
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#1,402
Green Knight said:
Absolutely brilliant! I'd love to take the 4 X single coil out for a spin!
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Definitely adds a lot more hair to the typical jazz bass tone. Two of my favorite settings are with the 2 bridge coils in series, and then in parallel with the pickup closest to the neck, or just with the 2 pickups closest to the bridge and neck in parallel. The 2 mini-switches also have a middle setting which includes only the 2 standard jazz pickup positions, which makes it easy to revert to a standard jazz bass setting.
 
#1,403
Basvarken said:
Here's my three pickup bass.

The two single coils are G3 pickups.
The humbucker is an Artec AlNiCo Mudbucker.

The chickenhead knob is a six position rotary switch
1. neck pickup only
2. middle pickup only
3. neck and middle pickup wired as humbucker
4. bridge pickup only
5. neck and middle as humbucker plus bridge pickup in series.
6. neck and middle as humbucker plus bridge pickup in parallel.

View attachment 2047675

View attachment 2047676

Body mahogany with bookmatched flamed maple top.
Set neck, also mahogany.

I built it myself. The shape is copied from my favorite bass, my 1969 Gibson Les Paul bass.
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ACHTUNG N E C R O T H R E A D!!

do you have a circuit diagram for that and do ALL six positions sound distinctive and usable?

Thanks in advance!
 
#1,404
merseymale said:
ACHTUNG N E C R O T H R E A D!!

do you have a circuit diagram for that and do ALL six positions sound distinctive and usable?

Thanks in advance!
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I don't have the wiring diagram anymore. (it's been 16 years)

As for the sounds: check the video that I made way back then:

 
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#1,407
im considering a 3 pup jazz build using fender super 55s with two pups in the regular positions and a third in the Rickenbacker bridge position since i really love using the neck only coil on my musicman bass (which is positioned in a similar place). has anyone done anything similar? closest ive found here are @BlueTalon jazz bass and a build by devon designs who appears to no longer be active as i cannot tag him.

BlueTalon said:
My first thought is: Are you planning to use Gibson style pickups? If not, what? If you're thinking of using Jazz pickups, I'd recommend considering hum-canceling pickups so you can avoid the issue of single-coil switching altogether. (And if you're not thinking of using Jazz pickups, you might want to consider that too, just due to the sheer number of options available.)

My 3-pickup bass has three Fender Super-55 split-coil hum canceling pickups, so I can use any combination of pickups at any volume levels without worrying about if it's going to make unwanted hum. Those pickups are a little hard to get now, but there are many good split-coil (dual inline coil) pickups available by many good pickup manufacturers.
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#1,408
Grass Roots (ESP) Bass IV -

1783005326240.jpeg
 
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#1,410
TBird1958 said:
Gibson Custom Shop, from a very small group done in '91.

62RuEHy.jpg
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I can see that pu positioning being real-world useful in all combinations. As the neck pu is not a 'neck-hugger' (not even close!), it wouldn't offer 'uber-bass' as those 3 pu basses with that position can. My '63 Burns of London Vista Sonic 3 pu bass neck pu is room shaking bass. (and I never use it) There are players that advocate for very low tones, but the more central cluster of the 3 pu's seems more useful and should provide plenty of bass if chosen. Would really like to play one someday. :bassist:
 
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#1,411
JIO said:
I can see that pu positioning being real-world useful in all combinations. As the neck pu is not a 'neck-hugger' (not even close!), it wouldn't offer 'uber-bass' as those 3 pu basses with that position can. My '63 Burns of London Vista Sonic 3 pu bass neck pu is room shaking bass. (and I never use it) There are players that advocate for very low tones, but the more central cluster of the 3 pu's seems more useful and should provide plenty of bass if chosen. Would really like to play one someday. :bassist:
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the gold on red is super slick

what is the switching/ controls like on that?
 
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#1,414
JIO said:
I can see that pu positioning being real-world useful in all combinations. As the neck pu is not a 'neck-hugger' (not even close!), it wouldn't offer 'uber-bass' as those 3 pu basses with that position can. My '63 Burns of London Vista Sonic 3 pu bass neck pu is room shaking bass. (and I never use it) There are players that advocate for very low tones, but the more central cluster of the 3 pu's seems more useful and should provide plenty of bass if chosen. Would really like to play one someday. :bassist:
Click to expand...

manchego_eggo said:
the gold on red is super slick

what is the switching/ controls like on that?
Click to expand...

TBH I'm still figuring the controls out, tho the up position does seem to be just the neck, in the mid position it's surprising different, very much a John Taylor kind sound, played "Rio" and it sounded perfect, after that I'm working on it.
 
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#1,415
TBird1958 said:
TBH I'm still figuring the controls out, tho the up position does seem to be just the neck, in the mid position it's surprising different, very much a John Taylor kind sound, played "Rio" and it sounded perfect, after that I'm working on it.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a three-way switch with 1 throw for each pu. Neck / Middle / Bridge. A good start...
 

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