Help me understand bass pickups

[Nag]

I've been looking at Dingwall basses because of GAS and I've noticed they have models that all look similar but differ by the pickup configuration.

I'm not mainly a bass player, I'm a guitarist who plays bass as a second instrument. I have an Ibanez SR500 with dual soapbar pickups in it.

But I really am clueless as to how bass pickups "work".

Let me explain.

guitars have pickup switches. typically you use one pickup for rhythm and one for leads. and that's about as much science as I've ever seen behind that.

And now basses. basses have no pickup switches. and those dingwalls, sometimes there's 1 pickup, sometimes 2, sometimes 3, sometimes they're spaced apart from each other and sometimes they're close together.

Bass experts, I just want some schooling about the number and positioning of the pickups (I'm only really interested in soapbar pickups cause I buy metal basses anyway and they all come with those), how that stuff affects the bass/middle/treble and so on.

Danks in advance

 

[crg123]

I'd appreciate some information on this too. I own a BTB 1406e with nordstrand fat stacks and a modded ibby Sr400 fretless with stock pickups and I have no clue why they're configured the way they are: split versus full bar, stack versus single coil. etc Also i dont know if there are any tips and tricks for blending pickups...

 

[abandonist]

Electric pickups are mostly the same thing whether it's guitar or bass. It's a magnet interacting with the string vibrations.

As for switches, positioning, and pots, that's just about preference - same as with a regular guitar.

 

[Espresto]

Soapbars are just housings, you could have almost anything underneath a soapbar housing. I'm going to assume what you have a split design based off of a single-coil. You can get almost anything in a soapbar housing though; Dingwall offers P-pups in some of their soapbars. Like guitar pickups, bass pickups are usually either single-coil, split-coil, or humbuckers.

Generally single coils have a clearer, more upper-mid focused sound. The classic bass single coil is the J-pickup.

Split coils are generally of two types, either they're J's or other single-coils split into to two adjacent coils to eliminate hum, or they're two separate pickups (the P-pickup). Split versions of single-coil designs, ideally, sound like single coils. The P-pickup is another beast entirely. The quintessential P-bass sound is deep, thumpy motown heaven. P's are usually pretty bassy, with more of a low mid emphasis. They sit really well in most mixes. If you can only have one bass, and want to fit in anywhere, get a P.

Bass humbuckers are probably the second most common sort of pickup to find in a soapbar housing. They tend to be really low-mid heavy. Humbucker-equipped basses tend to sound more ballsy and aggressive. Think Stingray.

The switches on guitars are for different p'up configurations and/or series-parallel, right? Some basses have the same options, but not many. Basses tend to take a different approach that, in the end, does basically the same thing. Most basses have either individual volumes for each pickup, or a pan between the two. Series-parallel isn't nearly as common on basses, I'm not sure why.

The effect of pickup positioning on bass tone is similar to the effect on guitar tone. The bridge pickup tends to be brighter and more mid-heavy (Jaco's tone is all bridge). The neck pickup is usually a lot darker, with a much stronger fundamental. Neck pickups right up at the edge of the fretboard are rare on bass because they tend to be so dark and boomy that they become useless. A lot of basses have pickups in the "sweet-spot" which is a region close to the middle of the area between the end of the fretboard and the bridge, usually with a nudge either toward the neck (p-bass) or the bridge (single-bucker stingray). The idea there is to get the best of both worlds. Multi-pickup basses don't sound different, they just give you more options. Unless the pickup positions are different, in which case, refer back to the effect of pickup positions on tone haha.

I have a Dingwall ABI, a J, and P. If you want some clips feel free to ask.

 

[Not The Same as Yours]

This.

I guess that when 1st basses came out, the blend pot worked as a sort of EQ. Continuous playing made it kind of a rule, but it is not mandatory, you may tweek a bass' s electronics as you wish, and there are some out there with switches...

 

[Nag]

I have a Dingwall ABI, a J, and P. If you want some clips feel free to ask.

I do want clips

 

[Espresto]

What kind of music are you going to be playing? I just sat down to record some stuff.

 

[Nag]

I be playing da metulz

 

[Winspear]

Yeah they generally have blend knobs man I like the middle position personally

 

[TemjinStrife]

Dingwall actually typically uses a 4-way rotary pickup switch. Neck, neck+bridge series, neck+bridge parallel, and bridge.

 

[MF_Kitten]

Dingwall actually typically uses a 4-way rotary pickup switch. Neck, neck+bridge series, neck+bridge parallel, and bridge.

Which is BRILLIANT, and I want it on everything I have.

 

[Nag]

so far Espresto really was the only one to answer my exact question... waiting for da sound clipz

 

[TheEmptyCell]

Your Ibanez has a master volume, blend, and 3 band EQ.

Pickup locations are usually arbitrarily based on a Fender. The pickups on your SR are roughly the same as a Jazz bass, because: tradition... If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Just like you can have a single coil in a humbucker cover, so too can you have any kind of coil arrangement in a soapbar. It's just the name of the shape, soapbar. Your Ibanez is probably a pair of humbuckers, which offer more low-mids than a single coil.

Split vs. stack... Look at a Precision bass, with the Tetris block pickup. One coil closer to the neck, one towards the bridge. It affects the overall tone because of where the coil is. Split coils are naturally humbucking. A stacked humbucker just has one coil on top of the other, and they're usually sound to sound closer to single coils, but without any noise or hum.

Switching options are self explanatory and a personal preference.