One of my New Year projects will be replacing the pickups on my Washburn XS-5 bass. It has 2 J-type pickups and very narrow string spacing for a 5-string.
I figure I will have to use pickups with a 'blade' type magnet as the standard 5-string pole pieces will not match the string spacing. There are a number of pickups that can be used for either 4 or 5 string basses that fit this description, such as the SJB-5. There are also similar sets from Bartolini, EMG, MEC and others that I am aware of.
The problem I have is that all pickup sets like this that I can find have a slightly longer pickup in the bridge than the neck, but my bass has the same size pickup in both positions, so the longer bridge pickup will not fit.
Do you think there would be problems sound-wise with using a neck model in both neck and bridge positions? - I know that in many pickup sets the bridge model has more output to balance the levels of both pickups.
I suppose an alternative would be to keep the existing pickups but fit a good active EQ to try to improve the sound.
I figure I will have to use pickups with a 'blade' type magnet as the standard 5-string pole pieces will not match the string spacing. There are a number of pickups that can be used for either 4 or 5 string basses that fit this description, such as the SJB-5. There are also similar sets from Bartolini, EMG, MEC and others that I am aware of.
The problem I have is that all pickup sets like this that I can find have a slightly longer pickup in the bridge than the neck, but my bass has the same size pickup in both positions, so the longer bridge pickup will not fit.
Do you think there would be problems sound-wise with using a neck model in both neck and bridge positions? - I know that in many pickup sets the bridge model has more output to balance the levels of both pickups.
I suppose an alternative would be to keep the existing pickups but fit a good active EQ to try to improve the sound.
