what humbucker is best for bass?

[wiringbasses]

I’m wiring a custom made bass and I’d like to use a passive humbucker, but not sure what type of humbuckers would have the best output. Anyone know a humbucker that works well on basses? Do I need a preamp?

Hi I'm a newbie, could somebody please help with these questions?

How can you tell what’s start and finish on a coil?
How do you decide whether you should use Tone and Vol pots of 250/500? What would make you choose one or the other?
Why not always send input signal from the pickup to the center lug?
Why not always use audio taper pots? Why would linear taper pots be used anymore?What does a bass with Series/parallel options sound like?
What does a bass with Phase shifting options sound like?
What does a bass with Coil cut options sound like?

[Sweetfinger]

My favorite humbucking bass pickup is the standard Fender Precision Bass pickup.

[David Schwab]

I'd say mine is the best, but...

What kind of tone are you looking for?

[bassjase128]

Hi,

I'd love to know what makes Warwick basses sound so special, The Mec humbuckers on the corvettes sounds brilliant, they look like musicman buckers but sound soooo much better. To be honest I always thought this was related to the quality of wood but now I have been reading a lot of posts on this site Im realising there is a lot more to pickups than some magnets and a few turns of copper!!

Do you know where I could find some details of the Warick Mec pickups please or at least give me a clue why they sound so good.

By the way weldone to all who share their experiences on this forum, you all deserve medals - keep up the good work

Jason

[axpro]

I used Seymour duncan humbuckers in my bass project (5 string, indian rosewood neck/korina body warmoth caster) SMB-5a (alnico) and i really liked them.

I ended up using EMG bass HB's (musicman copies) in my other basses (warwick) since i was looking for more of a Hi-Fi spank tone.

And that being said, i think Warwicks sound is about 87.2% wood. My emg equipped wicks, still sound like Warwick.

Wish i played bass enough to justify all these damn basses!

[bassjase128]

hi,

sooo is it true that the wood of a guitar effects the sound output from the pickups??? i understand different woods will resonate differently but why would the wood effect magnetic field of the pickup to alter its sound?? this is the part im unsure of!

hey axpro, if you have too many basses, just pop one in a box and send it my way, im without one at the moment and im desperate to get my hands on one!!!

jase

[axpro]

The wood tends to accentuate what frequencies the guitar naturally produces. and flavours the output. which is why a maple necked/ebony boarded Les Paul like the customs were in the 70's and an all mahogony/rosewood board les paul look very similar, but sound RADICALLY different. Some woods are very pronounced tonally, like rosewood and maple, and others are mellow, like alder.

Some woods like Basswood, tend to resonate less as well, changing what you hear. Guitar pickups are coloured by resonance. and the string movement itself is affected by the material the instrument is made of.

But for a real expert opinion, i'd wait for Mr Schwab to weigh in....


As for free basses, I don't think i'll be sending them away for a bit

[David Schwab]

hi,

sooo is it true that the wood of a guitar effects the sound output from the pickups??? i understand different woods will resonate differently but why would the wood effect magnetic field of the pickup to alter its sound?? this is the part im unsure of!

The pickup is not making the sound, the strings are. The strings are anchored on the wood. The wood influences the sound the strings.

You can hear this anytime you play an electric bass (or guitar) unplugged. They all sound different. A good pickup should reproduce that tone, and then enhance it.

The main factor in the tone of a bass is the neck. The stiffer the neck, the better the tone. A flexible necks loses tone. Warwicks have those thick necks often made from very hard and stiff wood like wenge.

So the pickup is only sensing what the strings are doing. If the strings are dead sounding, that will be the tone from the pickups.

[axpro]

Exactly!!!!

Good stiff wood (that sounds dirty) gives you a much better "tone"

Wenge=Teh Awesomz

Ibanez metal guitars (music style, not material) tend to be basswood, which i find is acoustically dead. so the tone you get from a guitar like that is REALLY coloured by the pickup choice... wheras a solid maple guitar will have a lot of high frequency response, no matter what pickups you choose. It all depends on how the wood choice is affecting the strings.

ALl this being said, quartsawn indian rosewood makes a very nice bass neck as well... but is a little harder to comeby

[bassjase128]

Thanks David for the explanation, that makes sense.

A little information each day is gained daily from this site, what a wonderful place to come and soak up some knowledge.

I aim to build myself a bass guitar, im not expecting it to be a Wal or a warwick but a fair sounding, reasonable looking tool that i will enjoy playing.

well thats my aim

Jason

[bassjase128]

ok, what about the musicman bongo, that mother of a bass sounds absouletly awesome and it is made of basswood!!!!


so is the bongo's sound totally down to pickups and its 4band eq?

if you made a bongo out of wenge/maple/mahog etc would it sound even better?

do we know why this particular setup sounds so good and can we make a copy of it or buy it maybe (dont like having to buy though)

aaarrgghhh every question leads to an answer which just prompts another question.

[axpro]

Its not that Basswood is "bad" it just doesn't add a lot of character. in fact it tends (to my ears) to cut vibration down a bit, so you really hear just the pickups (since it has such open grain, it seems to cut back on resonance)

Bongo DOES have a really stiff maple neck (i think it is quartersawn) so that does make a big difference.

A Wenge necked Bongo might be different, but not necessarily better. I have a few warwicks with Wenge necks,a nd i love them, i also had a dual HB Music man, which i wasn't really struck on, and I have a Warmoth with the same electronics as my Music man, but with a quartersawn indian rosewood neck. it is VERY different. again, not necesarily better, but quite different


And answers that lead to questions is all part of the fun! It takes YEARS for most players to realize what they like in an instrument. and asking lots of questions and finding opinions is certainly better than what i did (buy one of EVERYTHING)
lol

[Steve Conner]

I think active EQ and pickup choice on basses is kind of like spices on food. It can add a nice flavour, but if the "food" is rancid to begin with it's not going to make it any more edible.

The Music Man and Warwick basses all have active EQ, but it mostly seems to add a big bass boost. When I've had the opportunity to play them, they sound tasty even with the EQ turned off.

And on the other hand, I have this old Westone Super Headless bass that sounds "meh" no matter what I do to it or plug it into. It has active electronics and hot humbuckers (I measured the bridge one at about 9k) but the tone is still mushy and indistinct. My other bass is an old low-end Peavey that does the opposite, it sounds perfect no matter what I do to it.

I think Dave is right, the wood choice and construction of a bass has a huge effect on its tone even if it's a solid-body electric. Put your ear to the body, it vibrates like crazy when you play it, and it sounds similar to the amplified tone.

[bassjase128]

I think active EQ and pickup choice on basses is kind of like spices on food. It can add a nice flavour, but if the "food" is rancid to begin with it's not going to make it any more edible.

Good analogy Steve,

I see were you guys are coming from.

I just wish I had the money to go buy one of every type (just one at the moment would make me happy)

[David Schwab]

Its not that Basswood is "bad" it just doesn't add a lot of character. in fact it tends (to my ears) to cut vibration down a bit, so you really hear just the pickups (since it has such open grain, it seems to cut back on resonance)

I disagree. Basswood has a very resonant warm tone. Lighter woods tend to be more open sounding. harder woods have a tighter more focused tone.

I have a basswood bodied Ibanez SE-885 that sounds very nice with my neo Jazz humbuckers.

Open grain has nothing to do with the tone, and basswood doesn't have open grain, and certainly not like ash or mahogany. Basswood and poplar are fairly closed grained woods, but they are soft. basswood tends to be stringy.

When I worked at American Showster making the Chevy Tailfin guitars, they had basswood bodies. They needed no pore filler, just a coat of vinyl sealer before we sprayed on the lacquer.

See, no open grain: