Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

[Franknfilms]

Yep, I'm going there. My friend is wondering what would happen if we put a bass pickup in his guitar. His pickguard ultimately needs to be replaced because it is broken, but why not cut a hole into it and put a bass pickup in there for fun before the replacement comes?

Let's get the obvious obstacles out of the way.
1.) His guitar has a pickguard that I could just cut to fit the bass pickup
2.) I need to choose the pickup based on what would actually line up with the strings. The safest bet being an active pickup?

So assuming I can do this technically, lets talk about tone. What is the difference between a bass pickup and a guitar humbucker? The bass pickup's seem to be in the lower range of output and scooped eq.

Looking forward to everyone tearing me a new one for posting this! :laughing:

 

[Franknfilms]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Four strings on a bass. Six strings on a guitar.

Think about it.

Not true. What pickups are 6 string basses equipped with?

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Regardless of the number of strings, I'd have thought the bigger issue would be the pole spacing. I'm sure you'll get an output from all the strings, but it would probably be rather uneven. A 'rails' style p/u might work though - do they do that sort of thing for basses?

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Four strings on a bass. Six strings on a guitar.

Think about it.

Fender Musicmaster Bass.

Think about it.

 

[Franknfilms]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Regardless of the number of strings, I'd have thought the bigger issue would be the pole spacing. I'm sure you'll get an output from all the strings, but it would probably be rather uneven. A 'rails' style p/u might work though - do they do that sort of thing for basses?

Yep, I think the actives have a rail, not sure though.

 

[Franknfilms]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Local H comes to mind, but that is something different entirely. His bass pickup has it's own jack and goes in to a octive pedal. If the bass frequencies are coming from the octave pedal what exactly is the point of him using a bass pickup? Just to get a neutral clear tone? I imagine bass pickups are less likely to color or distort your tone?

 

[DeanSweden]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

sounds like you're going for the Wes Borland route

 

[Franknfilms]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

I have no worries about finding a match for the strings and fitting it in. Just curious what the tone will be like.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

not as different as you would think compared to a similar style guitar pup

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

not as different as you would think compared to a similar style guitar pup

Exactly.

And the pole spacing is not a huge issue either, as I pointed out above. Not ideal, but it works, and works fine. The Fender Musicmaster bass was so cheap that they used a six-pole single coil Strat/Duo-Sonic/Musicmaster-sized pickup underneath a smooth cover. My '76 is 100 percent stock and sounds great. And the cool thing about it is that you can fit any aftermarket Strat pickup into the bass without modification to the pick guard or body.

 

[trevorus]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

It will sound like a guitar, with a different pickup than you are used to hearing in it. Nothing too crazy.

 

[Franknfilms]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Thanks for the input. I don't personally see the value in it at all, but if this is what he wants to do I will help.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Famously, the neck pickup on the Rickenbacker 4000/1/3 series and the small, bridge position pickup on some Gibson EB models are guitar pickups.

As already hinted at by Itsa, the pickup on the Fender Musicmaster Bass is also a guitar pickup - six polepiece magnets.

ANYTHING whose polepiece spread covers the same width as the strings has a fighting chance. A blade or bar type should match up with pretty much anything.

Active versus passive is a red herring. Many active bass guitar pickups feature rail pole pieces. Some do not - e. g. SD/Basslines Lightnin' Rods. The five string SD/Basslines Phase five string bass pickups have a split polepiece a la Precision Bass. Unfortunately, for five string applications, the split has to be two/three. Whichever guitar string lies above the split point is probably going to lose out.

 

[Franknfilms]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

I'm thinking emg uses rails. That is a bit expensive for an experiment though.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

It won't make a guitar sound like a bass. Also putting a guitar pickup in a bass doesn't make the bass sound like a guitar. The physics of the instrument determine what it sounds like. Pickups are passive transducers and they transmit the signal to amplification. I have a mustang bass with a Bill Lawrence XL-500 and it still sounds like a bass.

 

[jacksontrader]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

I'm sure it will sound like something. Get it done already and fill us all in. Enquiring minds want to know.

 

[Scott Olson]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Joe Gore recently did the opposite, putting a bass pickup in his guitar and it wasn't all that bad (not good but not terrible). I'm all for experimenting and look forward to your results, even though I suspect it will sound rather bland and probably is going to create some variance in the loudness from string to string.

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Here you go
Bass pup in Epi LP.My secret pup
- https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=192732 -

Note: This pickup has landed back in my Framus and A hybrid made from a Dimarzio Distortion coil with Neodimium magnets and a Gibson coil with feO magnets, has replaced it. It';s a magnet hybrid as well.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

Pole spacing.

I know what your point about pole spacing was, but my point was that it was wrong, therefore you were condescending to the OP for no good reason.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Putting a Bass Pickup in a Guitar

The point is that we disagree. Not that many pickups will be properly spaced to give an even sound. Six string bass guitars are a lot less common that four string basses, making six string pickups less common as well. Using something like a Fender Jazz will give consistent results on a couple of strings only, making the guitar sound a little off to the ears of the player.

I had a band mate try it once with a Jag-Stang of all things. Did nothing to improve the quality of the tone, let alone it's already less-than-desirable looks.

We disagree. That's all.

The point is not about pole spacing. I do not claim that it is unimportant, or that four poles are ideal for a guitar. But it will work, and has even been done my manufacturers at times. The point is about attitude. You treated the OP as if he was an idiot for even thinking it might work.