What's with angled pickups, anyway?

[msquared]

I've seen a couple hundred or so pictures of basses with pickups that aren't all the way perpendicular to the neck. I'm specifically thinking of Roscoe stuff but really there seem to be a growing number (to me) manufacturers who do this.

So can anyone tell me why Roscoe makes basses with pickups that go like this: / /

What does that "forward slant" accomplish?

And what about, for instance, Warwick's P-Nut bass, which has a pickup setup that does this: H \

What does that "backward slant" accomplish, other than to remind me of an MS-DOS prompt?

Finally, there is sort of a slant to P pickups. And I notice that some basses do it one direction while others do it the other. I've never had the chance to A/B the two but have heard of a couple artists who prefer one way or the other, so what does THAT "slant" accomplish?

(Yes, I used the search engine.)

 

[JPJ]

So can anyone tell me why Roscoe makes basses with pickups that go like this: / /

Keith says that he slanted the pickups on the LG because he liked the look...something different. I'm sure that other builders who do it (Sheldon Dingwall, for in stance) will tell you that it was because of tone, performance, or something else. Some will argue that you can increase or decrease the treble/bass response of a given pickup due to it's proximity to the bridge....slant to the bridge will increase the treble, slant away from the bridge will decrease it, etc. Just a few reasons...hope that helps.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

I've seen a couple hundred or so pictures of basses with pickups that aren't all the way perpendicular to the neck. I'm specifically thinking of Roscoe stuff but really there seem to be a growing number (to me) manufacturers who do this.

It can be to balance the tone between strings, or just because it looks cool! Some builders feel it follows the harmonics better.

Leo Fender angled the bridge pickups on the Teles and Strats to give it a wider tonal range... the high stings would sound brighter, and the bass strings deeper.

Personally I like to angle them the opposite way.

And what about, for instance, Warwick's P-Nut bass, which has a pickup setup that does this: H \

What does that "backward slant" accomplish, other than to remind me of an MS-DOS prompt?

Finally, there is sort of a slant to P pickups. And I notice that some basses do it one direction while others do it the other. I've never had the chance to A/B the two but have heard of a couple artists who prefer one way or the other, so what does THAT "slant" accomplish?

The P bass pickup has two coils because it's a hum canceling design. But because both coils are not under all 4 strings they sound more like single coil pickups.

Due to the fact that you have two units, they had to offset them. The traditional way places the D & G string unit closer to the bridge, which makes the strings a bit brighter.

The reverse P setup you sometimes see places the D & G closer to the neck, and the E & A closer to the bridge. I feel that arrangement sounds better because the strings have a more balanced tone... you don't hear that jump from the A to D strings.

Slanting a single coil type pickup like this \ gives the same effect. The high strings are a little smoother, and the low strings are a little tighter.

 

[luknfur]

FWIW:

Concur with David and others. SOS: grossly the closer to the bridge the brighter/clearer the tone and lower the output. Part of it or all of it, doesn't matter.

I can and have stuck pups however I want - including J's in line with the strings. In general takes about 3/4" movement for me to be able to distinguish a difference in tone. But the higher the frequencies the more audible and more distinguishable.

For the most part I'd say it's done for looks and has little practical application. Something like that would be a preference thing and someone else could as easily prefer them adjacent to the strings or angled the other way. Since the person buying the bass isn't the one deciding based on the tone they hear - that pretty much leaves looks in my book. You don't sell, you don't eat. And that's not even considering changing pups, different acoustics properties of each bass, among a myriad of other variables that factor into tone.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

In general takes about 3/4" movement for me to be able to distinguish a difference in tone. But the higher the frequencies the more audible and more distinguishable.

That's what I found too. Right now I have one pickup in a rout big enough for two, so I can slide it around. I have to move it a couple of inches before it makes a big difference.

I just put my pickups in straight.

 

[RyreInc]

I can and have stuck pups however I want - including J's in line with the strings.

Let me get this straight. You put J pups parallel to the strings (90 degrees rotation from normal)?? So you'd have 4 of them (for a 4-string) side by side? What effect does that have on tone??

 

[The BurgerMeister]

Let me get this straight. You put J pups parallel to the strings (90 degrees rotation from normal)?? So you'd have 4 of them (for a 4-string) side by side? What effect does that have on tone??

fo' serious, dawgz.... that's alot of magnetic pull per string.

 

[luknfur]

Let me get this straight. You put J pups parallel to the strings (90 degrees rotation from normal)?? So you'd have 4 of them (for a 4-string) side by side? What effect does that have on tone??

Yeh, it's in Dimento's J experiments somewhere near the beginning. Not called Dimento for no reason. It's not even spelled correctly.

From memory I only used 3 of them cause the screw towers got in the way using 4. Good enough to get a fix.

The pups were Barts so string pull was no issue.

Well it was muddy. Surprise surprise. Probably no worse than some pups mounted correctly though. Thinking, believing, and knowing aren't the same things. And that was early on.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Well it was muddy. Surprise surprise. Probably no worse than some pups mounted correctly though. Thinking, believing, and knowing aren't the same things. And that was early on.

The reason it was muddy was likely because you were sampling a very wide section of the string, so it was a very wide aperture pickup. This would give you a very full sound, and with a unit that wide, probably cancel some high end.

Also were they single coils, or split coil pickups? Split coils would act like a dual coil humbucker, with both coils under the string.

J pickups sound the way they do in part because they are narrow aperture units.

 

[luknfur]

The reason it was muddy was likely because you were sampling a very wide section of the string, so it was a very wide aperture pickup. This would give you a very full sound, and with a unit that wide, probably cancel some high end.

Also were they single coils, or split coil pickups? Split coils would act like a dual coil humbucker, with both coils under the string.

J pickups sound the way they do in part because they are narrow aperture units.

From recall a pair of 9K1's and the bridge from a PJ set. So maybe both

 

[jazzhole251]

I am building my own bass and planning on using the slanted pickup design with a pair of J-style pickups. Can all brands of pickups work with that design? I am considering Dimarzio at this moment.

 

[DanRJBrasil]

pop slaping?

 

[Vette1976]

Sorry for reviving a very old thread...I searched this question and this thread was one of the results, but I found a very solid believable answer being so that they could use regular sized pickups with a narrower string spacing, matching up the pole pieces with the spacing for proper response. Thus can use any regular pickups off the shelf instead of needing to find narrower spaced pole pups.