Bartolini's - what do people think of them?

[yourchoiceguitar]

Anyone used them??

Basically I was asked by someone if I could get Bartolini pickups so looked into it and can now get all of them.

However I must be honest I haven't used them myself and have only gone on on-line reviews to get an idea about them.

Has anyone out there used them - if so what are they like? eg. sound, cost, how they compare to others.

Hope people don't mind me asking I am just trying to get an idea of what they are like to play.

Thanks

Adam

[thisnameistaken]

They look nice enough.

I had Bart soapbars in an old 6-string Corvette I had in the '90s and they worked. I didn't put any other kind of pickups in that bass so I don't really have anything to compare them with.

A friend of mine's got Bart J and M -type pups in a MM copy he built. Again, they work, but I've never heard that bass with anything else in it.

[Linus27]

I have a set of Barts in mt ESP 400 series Jazz and it sounds amazing. After some testing and playing with Old Horse Murphy, we came to the conclusion that out of my Stingray, Lakland Darryl Jones, Fender MIA Jazz 75 re-issue and ESP 400 Jazz, the ESP with the Barts sounds the best.

They are a bit expensive but they do sound wicked.

[BassLand]

Bartolini, the pickups/pre-amps in 4 out of 5 basses (of mine). All the electronics are the same, all the basses sound different.

[Doddy]

I've got Bartolini's in both my Tobias and my Roscoe and really like them.
I find that they have a really smooth,clean,full sound-and sound great for
recording.

[Doctor J]

Had sopabars in one bass, MM and J in another, got a NTCT and NBMB pres in a couple of other basses. Love their pre-amps, always found their pickups a little too polite sounding. I'd love them to sound a bit more aggressive, bit more growl, they're just not in your face enough.

Edited September 28, 2009 by Doctor J

[Rich]

I had Barts in my old Sei Flamboyant 5. They sounded awful. Really woolly. The eq was a nice 18v Schack, so there was no problem there. If I'd kept the bass, the Barts would have definitely been replaced.

[Rumple]

I had J Types in one of my Jazz Basses and although I liked the look of them I didn't like the sound, I now have Delano passives pick-up that I prefer the sound of.




R.

[chris_b]

My Lakland has Bartolini pickups. That's one reason why I brought it and I put Bartolini pickups on my Fender over 20 years ago. I’m not sure how people don’t like them cos to me both basses sound great.

Also Bartolini seems to be the pickup of choice for most boutique basses. I can’t see my next bass having anything else.

[Linus27]

[quote name='chris_b' post='610786' date='Sep 28 2009, 01:15 PM']My Lakland has Bartolini pickups. That's one reason why I brought it and I put Bartolini pickups on my Fender over 20 years ago. I’m not sure how people don’t like them cos to me both basses sound great.

Also Bartolini seems to be the pickup of choice for most boutique basses. I can’t see my next bass having anything else.[/quote]

I put Barts in my ESP Jazz about 20 years ago. How do you find the output in your Fender? My ESP Jazz has quite a lower output and I was wondering if this was something with the earlier Barts.

[chris_b]

[quote name='Linus27' post='610811' date='Sep 28 2009, 01:39 PM']....I put Barts in my ESP Jazz about 20 years ago. How do you find the output in your Fender? My ESP Jazz has quite a lower output and I was wondering if this was something with the earlier Barts....[/quote]
My Precision is very loud, with a fat, full and punchy tone. At the start I just replaced the Fender pickup. That gave me the tone, but the volume didn’t change much. Later I got Charlie and Doug Chandler to build me some active electrics based around a Bart preamp, not sure which one (TCT?) and that gave me much more of the same but with increased volume and tone control.

[Rayman]

Trouble is, everyone's opinions/tastes are slightly different. Some will like them, some won't.

The Barts I've heard have been fantastic. They can be a little clean and polished in terms of tone, but I've never heard anything other than a wonderful tone from them. My Kinal has a Bart pre and Aero pups, nice combination indeed. The best Jazz I ever heard was Lakland DJ4 with Aeros in it, tone to die for, and coupled with a Bart pre, it's tone city baby.

[JTUK]

I have Bart soapbars with a shack pre and they are fine. I don't run them as twin coils much as this gives power over sound..and I am not a fan of twins for this reason.

My thinking goes back to when I had access to all sorts of pick-up winds and whilst most thought more winds = more power, it was at the expense of the character of the sound. Since this coil-winder had orders for most pick-ups out there, this was a very informed lesson.
If I want more volume I use the amp... single coils for me.

Bartolinis were well regarded then along with EMG's, now there are more names about.

Basically, I think a decent set of pick-ups with the money invested in a good pre-amp is the better way of thinking...

I have a pre that is adjutsable from 100hz to 8k... but that is a LOT of playing around..Sometimes you can have too much choice.
I try not to get too carried a way with all this tone variation... set up the amp for your basic sound and vary it from room to room if you have to ...but it should only take a tweak here and there at the most.. Even better if you can do it onboard the bass... or you can tie your amp in knots.. which is the road to enless twiddling..

All in all, people have their favourites but Barts are decent, IMV

[Shockwave]

I have Barts, Soapbars, P and J's I really do not like the way they sound. For clean fingerstyle funk they arent bad. But for balls out rock they are far too polite sounding. I find them very hard to get any sort of growl out of them. They have a dark clinical clean tone that i really do not like. The Pre-amps are very similar as well. There are better pickups out there for the money.

[BigRedX]

As Rayman says everyone's taste in pickups will be different. Bartolini pickups are good quality and if you like the sound then that should be enough.

[Protium]

I had a dual coil in the bridge position of a Squire VM jazz which sounded nice and clear but the output was pretty quiet (passive).
I've got a Bart soapbar in my Pedulla with 2 band Bart preamp which sounds awesome.

[dub_junkie]

my only experience with Bartlonis is their MMC musicman replacement. I swapped it out for a Basslines one and the Duncan sounded much more like the musicman tone. The term "polite" mentioned a couple of times in this thread is spot on when describing their MM pickup. It wasnt a bad sound at all,it sounded polished and warm but just not what I was after.

[bassmanady]

[quote name='Rich' post='610772' date='Sep 28 2009, 01:03 PM']I had Barts in my old Sei Flamboyant 5. They sounded awful. Really woolly. The eq was a nice 18v Schack, so there was no problem there. If I'd kept the bass, the Barts would have definitely been replaced.[/quote]
I have had 6 basses with Barts in and i thought they were ok as i play mainly finger style,my favourite bass was a Sei Flamboyant 5,the tone was really full and warm,great for finger style..but i could not get any form of slap/funk/rock sound out of it..still wish i had kept it.

[yourchoiceguitar]

Cheers guys! Really appreciate the feedback - the response has been more than I expected!

All in all it looks as though they are very decent pickups which is great news - like I said before I'd only read reviews on websites and you can never get too much of a view, all a bit all over the place.

I am now defo happy to sell them with the confidence that they are good pickups and now can get my advertising hat on to make sure people know I sell them all.

Thanks again!!

Adam

[Jb1]

What have you got?
Someone on here was asking for a set the other day

[RhysP]

IMO they are the best bass pickup you can get.

[yourchoiceguitar]

I can get the entire range and will beat Thomann by at least 20%, 30% for Bass Chat users so hopefully something that people will find handy