Epiphone Viola Bass pickups?

[Supernautilus]

This weekend I dug out my old Epiphone Viola Bass from the closet to take a look at it. I got in sometime in the mid 00s. I've decided I'd like to try and fix it up, so of course I'm considering upgrading the pickups. The Epiphone site says the current productions ones are called NYT and NYR mini humbuckers. But are these special bass mini humbuckers or just regular electric guitar mini humbuckers? In other words, will any of the SD mini humbuckers work as a replacement or do I need special ones just for bass? I'm a little confused about this so any information would be appreciated, thank you.

[beaubrummels]

A pickup is just a coil of wire and a magnet. The main thing that makes a bass pickup is that it's sized to fit how the bass was routed, and if it has poles, the poles are aligned to the string to string distance. As long as the dimensions are the same for installation, I believe you can use any pickup that will fit. Mind you some pickups are wound to be bright, some are wound to be hot, etc., so you have to decide if the replacement will improve in the right direction.

[Supernautilus]

I did some more searching today and found this blog post from a couple years ago. A representative from SD told a customer that their mini humbuckers would work fine with a Hofner bass so I assume the same would hold true for my Epiphone.

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/sd-mini-humbuckers-and-the-hofner-beatle-bass?fbclid=IwAR3xZZQbtyNYgEMmMShIA7lqnvn2Cd77QqzDArQaFNGsXMdWjSkYigVDmqA#more-24291

However, I also found some forums posts where people said the SD Rickenbacker bass neck mini humbucker would also work. Looks like those are my options for now. I'll have to decide what I want to do.

[beaubrummels]

Yeah the Duncan Firebird-style SM-1s have full-width blades under the cover, so they work with any configuration of strings up to 6. I believe the Rickenbacker bass neck might be a slightly different size but would still fit and work. Someone on here actually used the SD Rick neck for a guitar once.

The one that might have slight issues would be the Antiquity mini-hum that has 6 screw poles - those wouldn't line up with your strings, so it might have slight affect on the clarity or string-to-string volume.

If you are not on a tight budget, the Custom Shop can make you just about anything. Just tell them what sound you want the resulting bass to make and they can figure out the specs that will make that happen.

[Supernautilus]

Yeah the Duncan Firebird-style SM-1s have full-width blades under the cover, so they work with any configuration of strings up to 6.

Ah ok, this is what I needed to know. It was the pole piece configuration I was mostly concerned with and this would seem to solve that problem. The SM-1 set is kinda pricey though so I'm not sure what I want to do yet. But at least now I know they will work. Thanks!

[Supernautilus]

So after removing the stock pickups from this bass, I can see they look pretty bad. Very cheap. On one of them, the cover is crooked because there is a black wire hanging out of one end, preventing the cover from sitting straight. Pretty shady quality control. I think I need to replace these.

However, I've decided I don't want to spend that much on bass pickups and the SD ones are just too expensive. Apparently Guitar Fetish sells cheap Firebird pickups. I also found a brand on Ebay called Guitar Madness that sells super cheap Firebird pickups as well. The price is right on these but I don't know how good they are. Anybody know anything about these brands and if they are any good? Or any other budget brands that sell Firebird pickups? Thanks in advance.

[beaubrummels]

I would be cautious about budget Firebird pickups because you don't know what's under the cover. But if they're cheap enough, and you are ok with it, you could always try them. Might be better to find a cheap mini-hum sized rail pickup, at least you'll know they are a rail. (FWIW the original Hofner pickups were called 'staple' pickups and had a mini-rail under each string.)

[Supernautilus]

I would be cautious about budget Firebird pickups because you don't know what's under the cover. But if they're cheap enough, and you are ok with it, you could always try them. Might be better to find a cheap mini-hum sized rail pickup, at least you'll know they are a rail. (FWIW the original Hofner pickups were called 'staple' pickups and had a mini-rail under each string.)

After doing some research, I picked up a set of Artec 4 string bass mini humbuckers on eBay. They are a Korean brand that are OEM in a lot of import stuff. It was about 40 bucks for the set. I found a lot of good reviews online so I took a chance. They should be coming in tomorrow so I’ll see if my gamble paid off. Keeping my fingers crossed!