Soapbar pickups ?

[BigBeatNut]

Okay, so I know the difference between a single coil and a humbucking pickup, but what exactly is it that makes a 'soapbar' pickup a 'soapbar' ?

Appearance only ? (no pole pieces, wider than a single coil).

Or something technical ? (Like, say, humbucking but with vertically stacked coils ? Or hi-fi response ?)

hmm ?

[EssentialTension]

I think originally 'soap bar' was merely a reference to one of the two variant casings on a single-coil Gibson/Epiphone P90 guitar pickup, the other being the 'dog ear':

P90 'soap bar':


P90 'dog ear':


So I'd guess all that makes something a 'soap bar' pickup is the rectangular casing.

Someone's going to say though that it will be a casing without any pole pieces showing.

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited February 16, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[BigBeatNut]

[quote name='andyjingram' post='900476' date='Jul 20 2010, 09:01 PM']Nowadays, in terms of bass though, you can safely assume that they are humbuckers with (at least in intention) a 'modern' tone. Seems to work out that way.[/quote]
That (soapbars -> 'modern' tone) makes sense of the 'death to soapbars' type of sentiment I've seen in some corners of talkbass recently.

Thanks

[mep]

Soap Bars can also be used on either a 4 or 5 string bass asa most of them are quite long. At least that's the case with the Seymour Duncan Basslines fitted to my Aria Pro 2 SB600 fretless. Very organic sound.