Three pickup bass - Is this layout dumb?

[singlemalt]

Three pups, rotary switch. Bridge, B&M in parallel, Middle solo, and all on in series.

Passive tone. Great tones abound, from a burpy bridge solo, a Music man feel, the middle solo does the P thing, all on for super big.

I favor the B&M, or middle solo. Bridge alone is pretty dang cool too.

 

[Will_White]

I love my 3 J pickup bass, I have an on/off toggle for each pickup, and a master series/parallel. I'm working on another with humbuckers thats getting an on/off for each then a Series/Split for the neck and bridge and a north/series/south for the middle.

 

[jamro217]

Do it. Just remember that the closer to the bridge you get the weaker the string vibration is, the closer to the neck the stronger it is. Put the weakest pickup in the neck position and the overwound one at the bridge. That will give an even response. Hope this helps.

 

[prowla]

I will dissent: three pickups and a six-position Freeway Switch is a dream when playing live. Six instantly available tones, at least five of which are entirely usable (the sixth, bridge pickup solo, is liked by many but not so much by me, unless the pickup is voiced deep and is at least an inch and a half away from the bridge saddles).

That's pretty much what I was going to suggest.

I have in the past put a pickup in the Ric mute bay, but it didn't really work that well; I do have a synth pickup to go there, when I manage to (ahem) pick up a project barebones Ric...

(I've also got a pickguard control panel to use rather than the bolt-on lump.)

Incidentally, I've got a Freeway switch on another Ric, primarily for an SD humbucker/single coil switch.

I've also got one on a HSS Strat, which gives bridge pickup humbucker/single-coil, bridge+neck, all three pickups, plus a couple more options.

A further option, if going multi-pickup and three plus synth isn't enough, is to have piezos in the bridge.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

The only thing I would be slightly concerned with is the magnetic pull from three pickups. With SOME pickups on SOME basses three pickups might create enough magnetic pull to create fret buzz, unless you raise the action or lower the pickups slightly, or a combination of both (compared to what you could normally get away with).

Generally I find this to be a bigger problem with large alnico pole pieces and less of a problem with bar magnets, but this is based mostly on my experience with GUITARS, simply because I don't get that many 3-pickup basses on my bench (and when I do it's often quirky 60s basses with weak magnets).

The worst bass I've ever tested with respect to magnetic pull is actually a 2-pickup bass, my own Godin Dorchester. Those MASSIVE pole pieces combined with the lower tension of a short scale (and possibly also the resonant, chambered body) is a disaster. It's a very poor design. The bass is fret buzz nightmare unless either played VERY softly or with the pickups lowered to where the tone starts to suffer. Godin call these pickups P90s but that seems like a very "creative" use of the term. Those are STRONGLY magnetic alnico pole pieces, not the adjustable steel rods I would expect to see in a P90. It's a shame because the bass has an amazing tone. Unfortunately it's more or less useless for my style of playing due to excessive fret buzz (and yes, I've levelled/crowned the frets to perfection and set up the bass properly).

Still, lots of basses work great with three pickups but I would at least think twice before installing three pickups with HUGE strongly magnetic pole pieces. Especially if you prefer low action and like to dig in hard.

 

[JACKSON JS1XM]

4, 5 or 6 string bass ? Active or Passive ?

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Im putting together a Lemmy clone right now, gonna go with the Freeway switch @ctmullins mentioned...if I can get it to fit! Bigger than normal switch, but not humongous. Lets face it, nobody needs three pickups, which is of course, not the point.

 

[STRMan]

3 pickups can reduce the sustain, having all those magnets damping the string vibration.

 

[iwearpumas]

My thoughts exactly.

Get a 7-way:
1. Neck
2. Neck & Middle
3. Middle
4. Middle and Bridge
5. Bridge
6. Neck and Bridge
7. All three

Then add series/parallel switching. Don't forget to include variants such as neck and middle in series, with them in parallel with the bridge, and all combinations of series/parallel combinations.

If you get dual-coil pickups you can also do coil selection. Don't forget to add switching so the coils can be series or parallel or singled (one coil or the other, selectable). If you do split the coils, don't forget that you can send one coil through the tone circuit and the other bypassing the tone circuit, straight to the jack, selectable by an onboard switch. Might be useful to be able to send the north coil of a dual coil pickup straight out, and the south coil going through the tone control, or reverse the two.

OK it's 2:30 on Sunday afternoon and I'm bored. As a good Canadian, I apologize. [/Hijack over]

 

[r_bnks]

This was one of my best sounding bass.

 

[Green Knight]

I had a Landing with 3 pickups in JPJ formation, with s/p switches for the JJ and the P. It was great! Too many options for a hack like myself, but a worthwhile experiment for sure. You can really craft a tone w everything flat, just using pickup location and volume to accentuate highs, lows, and mids w/out EQ.

 

[Green Knight]

Fellow tri-pickup fans in Tacoma ought to check this out. He won't ship. I tried!
Peavey G Bass (Unique Design) | Reverb

 

[Honkey tonk]

Pickups are like donuts, it's mostly all the same flavors in different shapes and colors , my opinion 3 Pickups is over done unless each pickup has tonal differences

Sometimes more is actually less

 

[39-Bassist]

I will dissent: three pickups and a six-position Freeway Switch is a dream when playing live. Six instantly available tones, at least five of which are entirely usable (the sixth, bridge pickup solo, is liked by many but not so much by me, unless the pickup is voiced deep and is at least an inch and a half away from the bridge saddles).

THIS works GREAT!....Love the Freeway switches. I personally would do the P pickup in the center. Enjoy the build!

 

[Deleted member 365158]

Nothing wrong with 3 pickups, just try not to get too caught up in switching schemes. I have over complicated that in the past only to figure out that its actually kinda limiting and i got lost as far as what was what.
3 volumes, tone, series/parallel switch for the mm and an on/off worked best for me on this one

 

[Deleted member 271037]

When I think about it there is another bass pickup where I've had issues with too much magnetic pull. The Nordstrand Big Singles. The magnets in those pickups seem to be unusually strong. The Big Singles have a wonderful tone but I had to adjust them a bit lower than I ideally wanted to get rid of fret buzz and this was on a 2-pickup bass. Three of those in the same bass would probably not be a very good idea... I have no idea if this is a Nordstrand thing or the Big Singles have particularly strong magnets (or if that specific set was out of spec, it was really extreme!). I can't remember experiencing any such issues with any other Nordstrand pickups.

 

[bigtone23]

I was thinking of grabbing one of the rotary switches for pickup selection, doing a neck / neck+bridge / middle / middle +bridge type of deal. I've never been a huge fan of bridge pickups soloed, but I kind of dig the idea with the neck humbucker.

These are exactly the settings I would use, too.
Billy Sheehan, among others, like a big, fat neck heel pickup to provide a Sub like low end. However, I prefer a pickup with clarity and low to medium output at the neck heel so I can still get that deep fundamental, but be able to play that pickup soloed and still hear every note and nuance. I had a bass with a Fender wide range humbucker in the heel. In series, it was really hot and nearly too dark sounding. Wired in parallel, it was much better (for me) in both tone and output as it matched up better to my other basses when switching on the fly.
I put a neck heel Super Ferrite in a Patriot bass, which effectively put the pickups in the Ric 4001/4003 spots. It's a ceramic bar single coil, it's medium output (5.4K with strong magnetism) and has a nice clarity with it's punchy grind. Sounds amazing in the neck, but also amazing in the middle and bridge. If I were to take on a 3 pickup project, it would be a Foundation (has SFs in the 70s Jazz bass pickup locations) with an added SF in the neck heel.

 

[ThudThudThud]

@JohnK_10 made a three pickup '340' style bass that is freakin' amazing to look at.
Don't care how it plays, or feels, or sounds, it's brilliant.

 

[hooky_marr]

Fellow tri-pickup fans in Tacoma ought to check this out. He won't ship. I tried!
Peavey G Bass (Unique Design) | Reverb

Dang! That's cool and a good price. I had an original holoflake G-Bass, kinda regret selling it now.

 

[hooky_marr]

This was one of my best sounding bass.

Wow. What is that? Your own creation?