How much effect will pickup placement have on the tone??

[Jimothey]

I’m doing a ‘72 style P bass kit build and have decided that I’m going to put a double Humbucker in instead of the split coils 

Can anyone advise me on how much difference the placement of the pickup will make to the sound/tone??? 

The positions I’m considering are,

Or

Or should it be somewhere in between?.....

[EliasMooseblaster]

I'd guess that Humbuckers in those positions would give you tones similar to a Thunderbird with one of its pickups soloed. Personally, if you're sure you just want one pickup, I'd go for the "traditional" P position, in the middle. It's a lot more versatile than the bridge position...I always find the latter can be quite fun on its own but loses a lot of crucial bottom in a band mix.

[Jimothey]

45 minutes ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

I'd guess that Humbuckers in those positions would give you tones similar to a Thunderbird with one of its pickups soloed. Personally, if you're sure you just want one pickup, I'd go for the "traditional" P position, in the middle. It's a lot more versatile than the bridge position...I always find the latter can be quite fun on its own but loses a lot of crucial bottom in a band mix.

Thanks for the advice I’m still undecided if I want just 1 or 2? I don’t know which would be better? The other configuration I was thinking was 

Or

[bartelby]

The last one, with another humbucker in the middle. Just to cover all bases...

 

[Norris]

You could always try it. The pickup will work just as well temporarily suspended over the top of the strings. If you solder the cable direct to your jack socket you'll be able to plug it in and hear how it sounds. Plucking the strings may be a little more awkward but you should get an idea of the sound in various positions. I'd use masking tape to attach a couple of blocks to hold it away from the strings then place it on the bass laid down

[paul_c2]

Every variation of pickup position will give a different sound, and will only partially be able to be altered by equalisation (you can't boost what isn't there etc). If you're unsure about where to place the pickup, then personally I'd copy some well-known location eg if 1 pickup, Precision or Musicman (since its a humbucker), because there's (apparently) a few "sweet spots" which seem to be the best, when you ask a number of people, over an amount of time. I am not sure how accurate you'd need to be before you missed that sweet spot and it was basically "not right" - but I'd imagine within 10mm or so would be okay.

Of course, 2 is better than one, BUT with a caveat (which doesn't apply in your case, because you're using humbuckers). The Jazz pickup arrangement noise-cancels with both pickups on; and the PJ configuration (a split coil and a J-type single coil) DOESN'T noise cancel with both pickups on - the split coil noice-cancels, but add a J pickup into that and you'll get noise. 

[Jimothey]

11 minutes ago, paul_c2 said:

Every variation of pickup position will give a different sound, and will only partially be able to be altered by equalisation (you can't boost what isn't there etc). If you're unsure about where to place the pickup, then personally I'd copy some well-known location eg if 1 pickup, Precision or Musicman (since its a humbucker), because there's (apparently) a few "sweet spots" which seem to be the best, when you ask a number of people, over an amount of time. I am not sure how accurate you'd need to be before you missed that sweet spot and it was basically "not right" - but I'd imagine within 10mm or so would be okay.

Of course, 2 is better than one, BUT with a caveat (which doesn't apply in your case, because you're using humbuckers). The Jazz pickup arrangement noise-cancels with both pickups on; and the PJ configuration (a split coil and a J-type single coil) DOESN'T noise cancel with both pickups on - the split coil noice-cancels, but add a J pickup into that and you'll get noise. 

I was thinking that this would be a good option as it covers standard p bass and stingray pickups placements 

Would be best to just wired them like a Jazz bass??

Edited February 16, 2018 by Jimothey

[paul_5]

Yes, but if you bought humbuckers that can be coil tapped them you’d have ‘Jazz bass’ covered too by running them as single coils. 👍🏻

Edited February 16, 2018 by paul_5
Damned autocorrect

[Jimothey]

4 minutes ago, paul_5 said:

Yes, but if you bought humbuckers that can be coil tapped them you’d have ‘Jazz bass’ covered too by running them as single coils. 👍🏻

The ones I’ve been looking at can be coil tapped, If I understand correctly then it involves putting a switch in but I’m not entirely sure where the switch needs to be??

[discreet]

Pickup placement has a HUUUGE bearing on tone. Leo spent a LONG TIME deciding where to place the pickup on his P Bass. I think he got it right.

[Norris]

For coil tap switching look on the Seymour Duncan web site. They have loads of diagrams for about ievery pickup and switching option you could imagine

[Jimothey]

10 minutes ago, Norris said:

For coil tap switching look on the Seymour Duncan web site. They have loads of diagrams for about ievery pickup and switching option you could imagine

Thanks I’ll do that

[paul_5]

Get 500k push/pull pots so that there aren’t any more physical controls on the bass, just pull the knob upwards and tap the coil!

[dannybuoy]

For a MM pickup, I’d go for 1 pickup in the middle every time. A Musicman Stingray sounds so good because the pickup is in the sweet spot.

I have a Sandberg Basic with a single MM pickup in the middle and it sounds killer. But they also make a Ken Taylor version with two pickups, one closer to the bridge and one closer to the neck. Neither of these pickups soloed has the same perfect balance and growl of the middle position, and things don’t improve when you blend the pickups together. Unlike a Jazz Bass where mixing the two pickups sounds great, somehow blending a pair of MM pickups sounds a lot more scooped and less growly to me, even if you cool tap it won’t sound like a Jazz.

[dannybuoy]

1 hour ago, discreet said:

Pickup placement has a HUUUGE bearing on tone. Leo spent a LONG TIME deciding where to place the pickup on his P Bass. I think he got it right.

Yup - he also spent a long time getting it right on the Stingray!

[EliasMooseblaster]

 

3 hours ago, Jimothey said:

Thanks for the advice I’m still undecided if I want just 1 or 2? I don’t know which would be better? The other configuration I was thinking was 

3 hours ago, bartelby said:

The last one, with another humbucker in the middle. Just to cover all bases...

 

 

Funny you should say that; I did get my daft 3-pickup bass experiment up and running a while ago, and I'm quite pleased with it. It's P/J/J rather than three humbuckers, but with any luck I'll get some sound clips up at some point - might give you an idea of what's possible!

[discreet]

17 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

...he also spent a long time getting it right on the Stingray!

The what, now? 

[Jimothey]

35 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

For a MM pickup, I’d go for 1 pickup in the middle every time. A Musicman Stingray sounds so good because the pickup is in the sweet spot.

I have a Sandberg Basic with a single MM pickup in the middle and it sounds killer. But they also make a Ken Taylor version with two pickups, one closer to the bridge and one closer to the neck. Neither of these pickups soloed has the same perfect balance and growl of the middle position, and things don’t improve when you blend the pickups together. Unlike a Jazz Bass where mixing the two pickups sounds great, somehow blending a pair of MM pickups sounds a lot more scooped and less growly to me, even if you cool tap it won’t sound like a Jazz.

Thanks for the advice but you say a stingray sounds good because the pickup is in the “sweet spot” but the pickup closer to the bridge than being central, but on your Sandberg it sounds good because it’s in the “sweet spot” which is in a central position??  

I don’t know if it’s my inexperience with owning/playing basses with MM pickups but why is the “sweet spot” in two different places on two different basses?? 

[dannybuoy]

'The sweet spot' is often referred to the Stingray position. Not quite middle, not quite bridge. Somewhere in between a Precision and a Jazz bridge pickup.

My Sandberg Basic has pretty much the same position as the Stingray, maybe a few mm further north but not far off. The Sandberg Basic Ken Taylor on the other hand has two pickups quite far either side of this spot.

[LITTLEWING]

Check out YouTube, there are a couple of vids on there where a guy is plucking strings while moving a pup up and down the body from bridge to neck and even sideways just for good measure. Very interesting.

[ikay]

10 hours ago, LITTLEWING said:

Check out YouTube, there are a couple of vids on there where a guy is plucking strings while moving a pup up and down the body from bridge to neck and even sideways just for good measure. Very interesting.