Where would you put the bridge pickup?

[DF Shortscale]

 

I'm about to mod a bass not unlike the one above. Before I go ahead and ruin things, would you go with position A, B or C? My choice is B, with around 10cm from bridge pickup outer edge (closest to bridge) to neck pickup outer edge (closest to neck). It's going to be vol/vol/tone with the jack going to the side of the body. Feel free to talk me out of it if you think one of the other positions makes more sense.  

[Baloney Balderdash]

I would chose C.

 

Both A and B seems extremely close to bridge to me, C would be relatively closer to where you would normally place a bridge J pickup.

 

And it would work better should you decide to add a both single coil pickups in series option, which I think would be a great idea.

 

But ideally you would attach the neck of the bass in question to a test "body" plank where you can moved the pickup around freely to test where you think it sounds best (connecting the wiring temporarily with some of those small metal clamps).

 

Edited February 20 by Baloney Balderdash

[DF Shortscale]

3 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I would chose C.

 

Both A and B seems extremely close to bridge to me, C would be relatively closer to where you'd normally would place a bridge J pickup.

 

But ideally you would attach the neck of the bass in question to a test "body" plank where you can moved the pickup around freely to test where you think it sounds best (connecting the wiring temporarily with some of those small metal clamps).

 

I hear you, C was my original choice too, the only thing stopping me was that I measured all my favourite basses and the distance between the 2 pickups (outer edge to outer edge) was always around 10cm. Perhaps a measurement from the bridge would make more sense than measuring the distance between pickups. I'd like to approximate 60's J bass pickup locations. I won't be doing the routing myself so I may not be able to find the sweet spot in the way you suggest, which I know would be the ideal scenario.

[Baloney Balderdash]

20 minutes ago, DF Shortscale said:

I hear you, C was my original choice too, the only thing stopping me was that I measured all my favourite basses and the distance between the 2 pickups (outer edge to outer edge) was always around 10cm. Perhaps a measurement from the bridge would make more sense than measuring the distance between pickups. I'd like to approximate 60's J bass pickup locations. I won't be doing the routing myself so I may not be able to find the sweet spot in the way you suggest, which I know would be the ideal scenario.

And is these measurements taking account for the relative ratio of the scale length?

 

And yes, distance between pickups will mean little, measure from 12th fret to pickup poles, and remember to take account for above.

 

Also, I don't understand why you couldn't set up a test rig like I described and then give the measurements or mark on the real body the position that you find from that to the one routing the pickups cavities?

 

Edited February 20 by Baloney Balderdash

[DF Shortscale]

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

And is these measurements taking account for the relative ratio of the scale length?

 

And yes, distance between pickups will mean little, measure from 12th fret to pickup poles, and remember to take account for above.

 

Also, I don't understand why you couldn't set up a test rig like I described and then give the measurements or mark on the real body the position that you find from that to the one routing the pickups cavities?

 

Re relative scale length - no, but I measured another of my short scales for reference (Atelier Z) and the bridge pickup on that one is pretty much in the optimal spot, so I was going with that as the reference point. 

Re. test rig - I can't do this myself because I have significantly less than 2 brain cells, but I could definitely ask the guy doing the modding if he'd be willing to do this. 

[Lozz196]

I think @Baloney Balderdash has got it right, position C to approximate where a J pickup would most likely be situated. 

[itu]

If the pickup is very close to the bridge, it should be stronger to compensate the smaller signal level.

[Aidan63]

I'd find the position of a nice ringing harmonic and put it there, that seems to be a method generally used

if it's a mustang then the big bridge plate limits the options a bit but Ped's Mustang replacement extra neck pickup sounds great on the clips he's posted, though some of the positioning for that was to do with the previous pickups' rout

[Lfalex v1.1]

16 hours ago, itu said:

If the pickup is very close to the bridge, it should be stronger to compensate the smaller signal level.

 

Yup. Overwound (perhaps) or at least able to be set relatively high close to the strings) compared to the very neck pickup.

 

Personally, from my experience,  I'd favour "A".

 

Does distance from the bridge affect pole-piece alignment on this bass? If so, bladed pole-pieces are your friend. 

Again, another preference of mine (in two Warwicks and an Ibanez)

YMMV

[DF Shortscale]

1 hour ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

 

Yup. Overwound (perhaps) or at least able to be set relatively high close to the strings) compared to the very neck pickup.

 

Personally, from my experience,  I'd favour "A".

 

Does distance from the bridge affect pole-piece alignment on this bass? If so, bladed pole-pieces are your friend. 

Again, another preference of mine (in two Warwicks and an Ibanez)

YMMV

Should be ok, I have a Dimarzio Model J going in there. I’m hoping that’s loud enough, I have a PJ with a quarter pounder in the P position and a Model J at the bridge and volume wise they match, despite the loud P pickup. Should also be ok in terms of string spacing. Interesting that you prefer the pickup right by the bridge, I think it might be a little too quacky back there for me, would probably sound good with both pickups on but I do like to solo the bridge sometimes.

[fretmeister]

B and C - a MM style.

 

But apart from that I'd measure up a 60s and 70s J and work out the relative positions and pick the one that I liked best.

[Andyjr1515]

On my own bass, I would go 'B' because when I add a bridge pickup I am usually looking for a tangibly different tone that can be mixed or used by itself for different genres and venues.  Even here, I would still use a higher output pickup as suggested above because the signal strength really does drop off the closer you get to the bridge.

 

If I didn't want so much the tone differentiation but wanted to primarily add depth of tone, then I would go 'C' with matched pickups.