Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

I spoke with MJ this morning and I sent some information to Derek.
Waiting to see what might be possible...if not then Ill be back to my pedal board to split the difference.
 
Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

Barden does a side-by-side J pickup for four string. Not sure about five.

One other possibility is a Danelectro-style "lipstick tube" pickup. This will be single coil.
 
Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

Ok I looked at the Bardens...they do have a double blade jpup for 5 string...must hear some tone clips.

If SD had one I would be interested. I mentioned that in a different thread.

Still waiting for reply from CS...no hurry.
 
Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

I don't have time to elaborate right now, but in general.

Blending passive pickups "doesn't work". The blend pots are connected backwards (like in some of the things called 50s mods for Les Pauls) to make them independent, but that way they put enormous resistance load on the pickups when they are used - that kills the resonance peak right there. In addition to that you have the resonance peak and the filter frequency for the LPF that the pickups are shifted upwards by having them in parallel. So now you have a LPF that's at a high frequency where it isn't doing much and you have little or no resonance peak left so it can be lifeless.

I put it in quotes "doesn't work" because obviously the Jazz bass isn't exactly a failed design. Blend away if it sounds good.

But if you feel that your bass sounds great with each individual pickup and like crap when blending, then you should fix this. The only way to do it well is changing impedance before the pots, which means active pickups or preamp(s). As a benefit you can have perfect hum canceling that way like I explained elsewhere.
 
Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

uOpt said:
Blending passive pickups "doesn't work". The blend pots are connected backwards (like in some of the things called 50s mods for Les Pauls) to make them independent, but that way they put enormous resistance load on the pickups when they are used - that kills the resonance peak right there.
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You are speaking specifically of using a blending control, right? I knew there was a reason I didn't like them.

I prefer dual volume controls for my two-pickup basses (most of which are passive), with no blend pot. I even have three volume knobs on my three-pickup basses (both of which are passive). That way I can blend pickups to my heart's content with no adverse effects whatsoever.
 
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Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

I do enjoy the bridge pup very much and it has enough tone to overwhelm the neck pup. Rather when blending the neck pup is simply an effect for the bridge tone...but I dont like the neck tone by itself.

Still waiting to hear back from SDCS...I assume they are looking into the specs so the new invention will work with my bridge pup and old preamp.
 
Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

BlueTalon said:
You are speaking specifically of using a blending control, right? I knew there was a reason I didn't like them.

I prefer dual volume controls for my two-pickup basses (most of which are passive), with no blend pot. I even have three volume knobs on my three-pickup basses (both of which are passive). That way I can blend pickups to my heart's content with no adverse effects whatsoever.
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No, unfortunately this problem is not solvable with passive pickups and it doesn't matter whether you have a blend pot or two pots.

If you connect them forward turning them partially down does less damage to the amplitude of resonance peak but you cannot turn one off completely. So you need a switch. If you connect them backwards you can go all on and off for individual pickups but the resonance peak gets suppressed hard in all the intermediate pot positions.

That's why I really like passive Precision basses but prefer active for multi-pickup basses.
 
Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

Hmm. I do it all the time and never noticed the phenomenon you described. It doesn't seem to matter if I turn one pickup down half way or all the way.

It makes me wonder how significant (or how "peaky") the resonance peak actually is, and/or how noticeable it is when the resonance peak is "damaged" or "suppressed" "hard". (I use quotes only because I'm not sure of the operating definitions in this context.)
 
Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

The resonance peak matters a lot less for bass. It also matters a lot less when the coils of vintage style single coil pickups are in parallel, because now the peak is so high that it doesn't really matter whether it has a decent amplitude.

But in this thread we are discussing mixed pickups, pickups other than just vintage Jazz.
 
Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

uOpt said:
The resonance peak matters a lot less for bass. It also matters a lot less when the coils of vintage style single coil pickups are in parallel, because now the peak is so high that it doesn't really matter whether it has a decent amplitude.

But in this thread we are discussing mixed pickups, pickups other than just vintage Jazz.
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Agreed, but we're talking about mixed bass pickups. If the resonance peak phenomenon you describe matters a lot less for bass, then bass players can effectively operate under a different set of rules.

I'm glad you mentioned that. I always like getting some confirmation that I'm not nuts.
 
Re: Recommend neck pup replacement 5 string bass

BlueTalon said:
Agreed, but we're talking about mixed bass pickups. If the resonance peak phenomenon you describe matters a lot less for bass, then bass players can effectively operate under a different set of rules.

I'm glad you mentioned that. I always like getting some confirmation that I'm not nuts.
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I think the rule of thumb is that you need to look at the frequency of the resonance peak and the cutoff frequency of the low pass filter that the pickup is (same frequency).

If you push the frequency of the cutoff/resonance peak high enough then the amplitude of the peak doesn't matter that much. Strat pickups in notch position or Jazz bass pickups mixed or blended (aka parallel) have the frequency very high, so a low amplitude is OKish.

But if you start blending pickups with much lower resonance peak frequency such as hot thunderbird pickups or whatever you can make things sound lifeless. Now you don't have any treble (LPF cutoff frequency low) but you don't have a resonance peak at the cutoff frequency either (which normally gives the kick to low cutoff pickups).

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