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slanting pickup

A

abriemzh

Aug 12, 2004
45
0
44
Bandung, Indonesia
#1
hi,

i have an unfinished project, it's 5 string bass mahogany body and has a maple neck. and i'm planning to put EMG 45 DC pickup (designed for 6 string bass) on it. but i can only afford to buy one pickup. so, i was wondering if i could slant the pickup to the " \ " shape to get a good tone for slapping with one pickup.

is it a good idea, or.....
how would it sound to you guys???? :confused:
need your opinion, please...... ;)
 
#2
FWIW:

manufacturers have used slanting a pup to balance tone, but it's a mild slant and nothing extreme. I don't know if you're talking about slanting one pup to compensate for the use of two but no single pup I've run across can compensate for two. A music man probably comes closest. I don't slap but I'm not a fan of single pup basses even though I typically use very little of a neck pup - it's enough to ad balance that I can't get out of a single pup. There's just more versatility in a pair. Assuming you're going to have to route the bass to fit the pup, I'd go with a bridge pup than add a neck pup when I had the cash to do so.
 
#4
well, the first reason why i use the 45 DC instead of 40's is because it came so hard to find a 40 DC here in indonesia, available on 45 DC and 35 DC only.
Then since i only afford to buy one, i wonder to slant the pickup so i can get a little bit of "bridge" sound on the upper string, and also get "middle" sound on the lower string. and i thought the 45 could handle this better than the 40 (since the 45 are longer). i will put the pickup in middle position (but a little closer to bridge) and angle it a little bit,

what would you think? seriously i could only afford one pickup. what would you suggest?

thanx anyway for the info's ;) ;)
 
#5
Well, that's why Warwick and Roscoe do pickup slanting. It's certainly a valid concept, but again I'm not sure how much better it'll make it sound with only one pickup. I can't think of any single pickup basses with a slanted pickup, doesn't mean they're not out there mind you.

As to whether it'll do what you're looking for, there's far too many variables for me to say - I dont' know your tastes or the bass construction (neck through vs bolt on, body wood, neck wood, electronics etc). One thing to consider - should you decide to sell it later it may be easier to sell a bass with a more traditional pickup alignment i.e. straight vs angled.
 

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