Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Will replacing a pickup get a better sound?
- Thread starter Dbt25677
- Start date
Bleh sound is most easilly fixed with pup replacement. The key isw deciding what you want sound wise. Smooth or crunchy?, growly or muddy? vintage or modern? And pick replacement pups based on desired tone char's. While not the only contributor to sound, pups are the biggest imo.
+1 on strings making a big diff. I talked myself into selling a Ric 4001 in a fit of gas for a high end banjo. I was playing mostly country and roots music at the time and was dissatisfied with the Rics lack of lows. So I sold it and bought a cheap Pbass. I should have tried some flats on the Ric and satisfied myself with a cheaper banjo.
I still miss the neck on that Ric.
Put in the best pots and wiring and get the bass set up to your liking for the cheapest upgrades for the money.
And by all means experiment with strings.
Decide what sound you want before you buy pickups.
New pickups can make a diff, but you need to have an idea of what you want first.
I still miss the neck on that Ric.
Put in the best pots and wiring and get the bass set up to your liking for the cheapest upgrades for the money.
And by all means experiment with strings.
Decide what sound you want before you buy pickups.
New pickups can make a diff, but you need to have an idea of what you want first.
Ok, I have a Mexican Std. J Bass. It has stock pickups, if I put Custom Shop 60's pickups on them, would I get a 'better' sound? I'm looking for a nice sort of 'crumbly' tone. (Listen to the Stadium Arcadium album to see what I'm taking about.) If not, which pickup will provide this tone?
Swapping out strings and pickups will make a noticeable difference in any bass. A budget Squier can sound awesome with better strings and electronics. Shop the classifieds for a deal on high-quality strings and pickups. Make sure that you replace the entire wiring harness with the pickups, because low-end basses usually come with cruddy 500k pots that contribute greatly to the cheap sound. Don't even worry about bridge "upgrades" and tone wood.
"better" is for you to decide.
I listened to a track of S.A. to see if I could hear "crumbly". There's some mild tubey distortion to my ear.
What kind of strings are on it and whats your amp/speakers?
- Jun 6, 2012
- 4,837
- 6,859
- Disclosures
- I don't wait 30 minutes after eating, to go swimming.
My 1.5 cents. First of all, gear snobs break out your flame throwers lol.
Stringed instruments in general that use what we refer to as "pickups" to produce an electronically amplify-able signal are with VERY few exceptions quite low tech and the majority of the "tone" that they produce is just the vibrations of a metal "string" being transmitted to an amplification device via said magnetic pickups. The pickup is a very primitive electronic device consisting of really just a magnet(s), wire and a spool to wind it on. People have been trying for as long as pickups have existed, to come up with the ultimate combination of these ingredients but you can only make a wheel so round. The vehicle used to mount these low tech devices (in this case, a bass) is similarly low tech: A platform of wood or other similarly hard, rigid material that can support the tension of the strings and mount the hardware is pretty much all that is needed. To make a long story short, the main contributors to "tone" strings, the electronics of your amp and pre-amp(s).
Look guys, exotic or not so exotic woods, bridges, nuts, tuners etc. will color your tone to a small degree but a $12,000.00 Fodera will sound like a dying dog's farts through crappy electronics and/or speakers and a $50.00 pawnshop 1st Act with a warped neck through a (insert favorite brand here) amp with high quality speakers will sound exponentially better.
My point is, the better whatever bass you have will sound is mainly contingent on strings and the electronics the string vibrations are being processed through.
That being said, a well engineered on board active electronics/pre-amp/pickup set up (used correctly) even in an inexpensive bass will give you the ability to really tweak the signal that your amp receives, thus allowing you to achieve the tone you desire.
In summary, no matter how many zeros you add to the price of a bass, it can only play so good and that is also very subjective to taste and preference. Also many of the worlds most coveted basses use electronics and pickups (Bartolini, EMG, Aguilar, etc.) that can be had by anyone for a couple hundred bucks tops. Bottom line: Yes, you CAN get a world class tone from that Squire bass!
Stringed instruments in general that use what we refer to as "pickups" to produce an electronically amplify-able signal are with VERY few exceptions quite low tech and the majority of the "tone" that they produce is just the vibrations of a metal "string" being transmitted to an amplification device via said magnetic pickups. The pickup is a very primitive electronic device consisting of really just a magnet(s), wire and a spool to wind it on. People have been trying for as long as pickups have existed, to come up with the ultimate combination of these ingredients but you can only make a wheel so round. The vehicle used to mount these low tech devices (in this case, a bass) is similarly low tech: A platform of wood or other similarly hard, rigid material that can support the tension of the strings and mount the hardware is pretty much all that is needed. To make a long story short, the main contributors to "tone" strings, the electronics of your amp and pre-amp(s).
Look guys, exotic or not so exotic woods, bridges, nuts, tuners etc. will color your tone to a small degree but a $12,000.00 Fodera will sound like a dying dog's farts through crappy electronics and/or speakers and a $50.00 pawnshop 1st Act with a warped neck through a (insert favorite brand here) amp with high quality speakers will sound exponentially better.
My point is, the better whatever bass you have will sound is mainly contingent on strings and the electronics the string vibrations are being processed through.
That being said, a well engineered on board active electronics/pre-amp/pickup set up (used correctly) even in an inexpensive bass will give you the ability to really tweak the signal that your amp receives, thus allowing you to achieve the tone you desire.
In summary, no matter how many zeros you add to the price of a bass, it can only play so good and that is also very subjective to taste and preference. Also many of the worlds most coveted basses use electronics and pickups (Bartolini, EMG, Aguilar, etc.) that can be had by anyone for a couple hundred bucks tops. Bottom line: Yes, you CAN get a world class tone from that Squire bass!
Ok, I want an answer to this and I don't want to make a new thread.
Flea used a '61 Jazz Bass to record Stadium Arcadium, and the tone on that instrument is killer. Will putting a set of Fender Custom Shop 60's pickups in a 2001 Mexican Jazz bass produce a similar sound.
The track I have in mind is Desecration Smile.
Thanks
Flea used a '61 Jazz Bass to record Stadium Arcadium, and the tone on that instrument is killer. Will putting a set of Fender Custom Shop 60's pickups in a 2001 Mexican Jazz bass produce a similar sound.
The track I have in mind is Desecration Smile.
Thanks
Im big into buying cheap basses and making from parts basses and playing them.
Im an above average player and by no means am i a great player.
That being said do you know how many times someone has given me a bass to look at and said " its just a clunker bass and sounds like crap"
New strings and a complete setup 80% of the time and add a new pickup 20% of it and i take it back to them and its the greatest thing since sliced bread to them.
Im an above average player and by no means am i a great player.
That being said do you know how many times someone has given me a bass to look at and said " its just a clunker bass and sounds like crap"
New strings and a complete setup 80% of the time and add a new pickup 20% of it and i take it back to them and its the greatest thing since sliced bread to them.
Flea could get that sound from just about any jazz bass that happens to be lying around. It's his chops and his gear.
BIG +1 to this
The vibration of the strings and how they move generates the disturbances in the electromagnetic field that is picked up by the pickups and goes through the electronics on the bass. Neck/fretboard wood, body wood, bridge, and frets all make SOME contribution, but those big 3 are going to make the most difference when you swap them. My procedure always goes as follows when I'm "unhappy" with a bass tone.
(This is with a good, solid toned amp and cab set to a typical EQ setting)
1) Twiddle with knob settings and look up the settings of others.
2) Change strings to a set I know that I like or liked on there before
3) Repeat step 1
4) Adjust pickup height
5) Repeat step 1
6) Change electronics
7) Repeat step 1
8) Change pickups
9) Repeat step 1
10) Sell bass if I still can't stomach it anymore
In most cases, a change of strings will make it sound like a brand new instrument entirely. If it seems you're having trouble dialing something in or are getting lost, you may want to consider modding the electronics. IMO an upgrade to a well-made pickup (DiMarzio, SD, Nordstrand, Delano, Lollar, etc) will improve the Squiers quite a bit.
Fleas rig ain't gonna make you sound like Flea. I suspect he'd sound the same with an SX and a Rumble amp.
This kind of thinking is totally naive, be a great idea to stop peddling it. "A good workman never blames his tools," right, but a woodsmen isn't cutting down that tree with a herring.
Yes but he could do it with almost any axe.
Point is you could put almost anything in Flea's hands and people familiar with his playing would probably recognize him.
It begs the question: just what is a players 'sound.'
I play pretty well, but if you gave me Flea's gear, right down to his favorite strings, no one will mistake me for him, even if I could produce a similar tone.
It's partly in the gear, sure, but how you use it is more important IMO.
OK. In my opinion:
No it won't make you sound more like Flea.
Unless you can already sound like Flea it ain't gonna help to install some different pickups.
The Custom shop pickups are probably higher quality than the MIMs and you may like them better.
But it won't help you sound more like Flea.
Odds are if you had Fleas identical rig you would not get "that tone" cause you ain't him, you don't have his bass, his amp, or his studio and producer.
I'd work on my technique and experiment with strings and my eq. Install better pickups if you like the bass, sure. But I wouldn't do it to chase the tone on any particular track by any artist.
