Suggest replacement pickups for First Act custom bass

[ShameBasedMan]

So I own a First Act Delgada with 2 Kent Armstrong humbuckers. I believe these pickups are/were exclusive to First Act Custom Shop basses. I'm entertaining the idea of replacing them, because they're a bit underwhelming at times, but I think I'm limited in my choice of replacements due to the size of the routing.

The only pickups I know would definitely fit are [Invalid or Expired Link Removed], because Josh Newton put some in his Delgada.

If you have any suggestions for pickups with similar dimensions, I'd love to hear 'em!

Dimensions are 1.5" x 2.75", with screw spacing 3" across (3.1" according to the X2N-B diagram).

Thanks!!!

 

[Will_White]

So I own a First Act Delgada with 2 Kent Armstrong humbuckers. I believe these pickups are/were exclusive to First Act Custom Shop basses. I'm entertaining the idea of replacing them, because they're a bit underwhelming at times, but I think I'm limited in my choice of replacements due to the size of the routing.

The only pickups I know would definitely fit are [Invalid or Expired Link Removed], because Josh Newton put some in his Delgada.

If you have any suggestions for pickups with similar dimensions, I'd love to hear 'em!

Dimensions are 1.5" x 2.75", with screw spacing 3" across (3.1" according to the X2N-B diagram).

Thanks!!!

They are guitar sized humbuckers, a set of power rails from gfs would likely sound pretty good for not much money.

 

[RobbieK]

Yeah they look to be standard guitar humbucker size. Pretty much any style pickup will work OK, but as Will_white mentioned, rails are a good idea for even tone string-to-string.

But guitar humbuckers tend to be quite mid-rangey for bass. I'd recommend buying pickups that have 4-conductor wires so you can try wiring them in parallel mode. This will generally give you a cleaner tone for bass.

 

[Will_White]

Here's what someone said about the Power Rails-http://GFS Power Rails- First Impression review | TalkBass.com

 

[HenningSB]

Why would you change them? they are amazing I think - I love my Delgada!

 

[MrButler]

So I own a First Act Delgada with 2 Kent Armstrong humbuckers. I believe these pickups are/were exclusive to First Act Custom Shop basses. I'm entertaining the idea of replacing them, because they're a bit underwhelming at times, but I think I'm limited in my choice of replacements due to the size of the routing.

The only pickups I know would definitely fit are [Invalid or Expired Link Removed], because Josh Newton put some in his Delgada.

If you have any suggestions for pickups with similar dimensions, I'd love to hear 'em!

Dimensions are 1.5" x 2.75", with screw spacing 3" across (3.1" according to the X2N-B diagram).

Thanks!!!

These pickups are the same standard size as any regular guitar humbucker. They are copied after the Gibson Tony Iommi signature pickup. They have a ceramic magnet and an alnico 5 magnet as well. This bass allows for mixing of the two pickup via the volume controls. Most people are unaware that the tone knob is a push/pull knob. If you pull it, the pickups then work together as if they were one big humbucker.

 

[ShameBasedMan]

Oh ya, been aware since I bought it. Something about the construction of the bass makes the strings feel clangy, lots of fret buzz, so the overall sound kind of irks me, even though it's quite comfortable to play. The bass doesn't handle downtuning as well as my other basses, so I've had trouble getting it to sit well in my band, despite the cool push/pull pot. I even had the whole bass rebuilt/refinished recently to see if that would solve the issue, and it kinda just sounds the same as it used to!

I've moved away from trying to replace the pickups since this post, though. I decided to accept them for their uniqueness. I need a band it'd be more suited to, that doesn't play in drop B