Jazz Bass - Pickup Height

[Silence Kid]

Experimenting lately, mostly around slap... I had my pickups maybe 2mm from the strings (when fretted at the top of the neck.) Have moved on to something more like 4mm on the bass side, 3mm on the treble side, neck & bridge. Seems a bit less woofy/harmonic and better suited to slap, but at the same time maybe somewhat less sparkly on the top end. What's everyone's preference for slap?

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Jazz Bass - Pickup Height

You know, I've never played with pickup heights on my basses. Don't know why I didn't think of it. For slap I always messed around with either changing the volume, adding a limiter or both. I think it's because I'm not a bass player and that's what all the real bass players I talked to did.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Jazz Bass - Pickup Height

I messed with it initially due to balance issues between pickups; curious what suits people best for slap. Seems closer to the strings is the preference?

 

[toowrongfoo]

Re: Jazz Bass - Pickup Height

Bottom line:

Get something that measures peaking (whatever, daw, whatever) and play the bass as hard as your would play and adjust so that the bass/treble sides match. I can be with the preference of the back up or mixing in the front, but when you hit the string as hard as you would playing, those two strings should match. Hope I'm explaining this right.

Forgot to say, you may want to do the above with pups forward and back to get that happy medium. Also forgot to mention that some people "zig zag" jazz pups (like the E being higher at the bridge and the G being higher on the front/neck, if you dig what I'ms saying)