Parallelogram pickups for multiscale basses

[Jolltax]

Question for you fellow multiscalers out there :

 

I enjoy playing my Ibanez EHB but the pickups annoy me as they are not good as a thumb rest, when playing they are not straight and at the moment its annoying me :

 

 

Ever more annoying is that Ibanez seem to have recognised this problem as they give you a thumb rest which is a parallelogram creating a weird mountain range for your thumb.

 

WHERE are the parallelogram shaped pickups which run parallel with the strings, surely this is what we need? Do they exist?

 

 

Grumpy today (must be my age)

 

J

 

 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by Jolltax
I'm an arse

[LeftyJ]

As much as these make sense aesthetically and ergonomically, that would make them just about impossible to replace with anything else when the tone doesn't suit the user. Using regular soapbar pickups makes much more sense because the pickups are easily interchangeable - since many soapbar sizes are standardised and used by several manufacturers. 

 

That said, there are some manufacturers who give their soapbars a little notch for your thumb (Yamaha did this on some RBX models, and Ibanez on the SRX series pickups, and Delano does it on those weird oval pickups of theirs) and then there's Dingwall who give the ends of their soapbars a curve so there's always a small area pointing "up". None of these use standard sizes. 

[Machines]

1 hour ago, Jolltax said:

Ever more annoying is that Ibanez seem to have recognised this problem as they give you a thumb rest which is a parallelogram creating a weird mountain range for your thumb.

 

WHERE are the parallelogram shaped pickups which run parallel with the strings, surely this is what we need? Do they exist?

 

Kind of, but they won't fit your EHB. Dingwall's are rounded and there's a sweet spot for anchoring.

 

https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/product/dingwall-fd3n/

[Jolltax]

My point is that having gone to the trouble of actually making a multiscale bass with so-called custom pickups to then ergonomically compromise it seems an odd choice and reflects the fact that the market is still developing.

Perhaps its just a matter of time as the multiscale market appears to be growing if recent new models by Sire (M6?) and others are anything to go by. Mind you, the new ones all seem to have the same issue - the market will decide, I guess.

 

My instinct is that very few players swap the pickups on their basses (more likely to swap the bass) and I think the 'standardisation' argument has already left the building years ago - my Ibanez pickups are already 'custom' so the point is moot anyway.  Its like arguing 'everyone should have a P-Bass because I've got one'.

 

I bet some enterprising individual with a 3D printer could knock something out that would be an improvement ....

Edited 17 hours ago by Jolltax

[tauzero]

I can't think which bass, but there's one I've seen recently which had a long thin thumbrest running above the pickups. Something like that, possibly even with a lower edge like a mountain range to fit onto the pickups and ramp (if fitted) would be a solution - 3D printed perhaps.

[itu]

It would be easiest to use a thin carbon fibre plate/strip. Weighs nothing, is stiff, and could be taped to pickups (3M VHB). Can be removed if necessary. 

[tauzero]

Considering the bass I was thinking of is about 5m from me, you'd have thought I would remember.

 

 

Of course, the Variax doesn't have a conventional pickup so a thumbrest is necessary for the non-floating-thumb types (like me).

[LeftyJ]

4 hours ago, Jolltax said:

my Ibanez pickups are already 'custom' so the point is moot anyway

True, they're "regular" Nordstrand Big Splits but with a wider spacing to match that of the EHB and to compensate for the fanning. They still use a standard soapbar casing for the sake of being able to change them out without having to do routing though. Swapping pickups is most definitely still a thing, although I haven't heard of many people who weren't happy with their Nordstrands 

[MichaelDean]

Yeah, I don't even think about it on my Dingwall. My thumb just rests on the curved edge. Plus it's properly rounded over onto the top of the pickup. No harsh edges. Much comfier than a p bass pickup, and better than the sharp edge of some jazz pickups. 

 

I often wonder why more aren't curved - the Mustang pickup looks really cool to me. And then I remember the massive Delano things and I reconsider my position... They're too oval and I can't see them as a "cool" option. Quirky? Yeah. Cool? Never.