Bass Pickup Positions, and Combinations - Bass With 5 Pickups
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Here's a demo of a bass I modded with 5 pickups, to test how different pickup positions and combinations (series / parallel) affect tone.
In each of the sound demos, I play the same 21 example pickup combinations, in the same order.
Timestamps:
Fingerstyle, roundwound: 1:43
Slap, roundwound: 3:20
Pick, roundwound: 5:09
Fingerstyle, flatwound: 7:46
Discussion / conclusions: 9:38
String isolation test: 11:57
Sympathetic resonance: 12:29
Special thanks to my daughter's LOL Dolls, who photobombed half the shots. :)
More info:
Pickups are all Dimarzio Area Js side-by-side humbuckers, with separate wiring to the "E-A" and "D-G" coils. The 3 pickups on the bridge side are the bridge-spaced version, and the remaining 2 are the neck-spaced version, to best follow the string spacing.
In all demos, volume and tone are completely open (100%). If more than one pickup is on, they're equally mixed.
Controls and electronics are the same as a Jazz (or Precision) bass, all passive.
The extra switch between the knobs is a tone capacitor selector switch, but for all of the demos it's set to the same value as a stock Jazz (or Precision) bass.
Bass is direct into a Focusrite Scarlett interface. Only "effect" is some light compression.
Strings on roundwound demos: DR FAT-BEAM (FB-40)
Strings on flatwound demos: Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats (TI JF344)
If you're interested in the demo basslines, they're based on:
Intro: Original (my band's track).
Fingerstyle, roundwound: One Nation Under A Groove (Funkadelic), live 1981-04-17 Landover, MD show. Bassist: Rodney "Skeet" Curtis.
Slap, roundwound: Motor-Booty Affair (Parliament). Bassist: Rodney "Skeet" Curtis.
Pick, roundwound: Original (my band's track).
Fingerstyle, flatwound: Help Is On The Way (The Whatnauts). Bassist: Rodney "Skeet" Curtis.
You guessed it, I'm a huge Skeet fan. Thank you Skeet for some of the best basslines ever recorded!
Musicman Stingray photo credit and licensing information: Catfish Jim and the soapdish / CC BY-SA (creativecommon...)
Warwick Streamer photo credit and licensing information: Warwick hq / CC BY-SA (creativecommon...)
Background music: Original (mine).
This is one of the most unique, informative and well-executed bass videos I've ever seen. Thank you.
Many thanks!!
You bet! 👌
@@mikedeeez SUCH a valuable video. Many thanks. I love the full punchiness of the second-from-neck pickup. Is there any way you could measure the distance from the nut to the center of that pickup?
@@BunchyMutt Thanks! Sure thing. From the EDGE of the nut (i.e. the side closest to the 1st fret), the distance to the centerline of that pickup is 29-1/8".
@@mikedeeez awesome, many thanks! Can't wait to translate that to a few different builds and scale lengths
5 pickups = 5 places to put my thumb.
Floating thumb gang disagrees
Pick gang
@@Skelterbane69 pickups as ramps gang agrees with Carpe
5 string = a thumbrest on B string anywhere you want
@@jwajI wish I could play with a pick
No one asked, everybody waited. Thank you!
Dude this is seriously so awesome! Hahaha
Hi dude, love your content btw.
It’s absolutely shocking how few basses with wild pickup configs like this there are.
There’s definitely a market for this kind of thing.
Ask your local guitar guy.
In this bass, there are precision, jazz, and stingray basses in one
And clavinet 03:44
And Rickenbacker, and Warwick's, and some Dingwalls, and B.C. Rich's. Most of them out there in fact.
@@gingerjam2192 the clav thing is so cool. Thst alone makes me want a bass with that position
@@Ampher03Some Alembics have that pickup position. The Stanley Clarke signature model definitely does, and Zach Smith uses it a lot in his stuff with Pinback and Three Mile Pilot. It can sound super guitar-like because Alembic pickups can get so clear with the filter turned up. "Good To Sea" is a good example.
Also Alembic and Warwick
It’s amazing to hear a Precision, Jazz, Stingray, Rick, PJ in one bass. Leo definitely knew that not all pickup placements are desirable. I think I could get sounds anyone would want with 2 quad coil MM at the bridge and neck with only a few switches. Great video Man!
Thanks!! Completely agree; even after trying dozens of settings on this bass, the "classic" Leo pickup setups are often still the best ones for most cases. (2) quad-coil MMs is a great idea - you could get lots of flexibility. Nice.
Yes! like the Peavey T-40, I'm just starting to learn bass on a PJ, but I already want to build a P bass with the Peavey T-40 configuration or similar, I will call it the P40
Hey man. Would be cool if you could show us a wiring schematic for this.
Thanks! At the moment the wiring diagram is kind of in bits and pieces, but I'm going to try to put it all together, I'll let you know if I do. I may even make a video of it if I can get time.
Just posted it: ruclips.net/video/d-yygyrbAOE/видео.html
Instantly one of my favourite bass videos. Every luthier should watch this. Funny, but the classic split coil is still my favourite. I know it was mentioned but I do wish the pickups continued up closer to the neck. (Fingers crossed for a sequel.)
This video will be really helpful for all the bassists in the coming years. The double inverted split coil sounds really good!
This would actually make for a good session bass. Having that much versatility in one instrument would be really practical for session musicians
Haha, man , when all 5 are on, there's a clear reason why you don't just throw pickups in any old position. Phase issues like crazy, almost no high end coming out at all. This is a great experiment. I appreciate the effort!
Boy you were killing that liquid sunshine Parliament 🤘🏿🤘🏿🤘🏿 keeping it funky
I like the Streamer position. Just aggressive enough but still some fullness. I’m about to do something similar with a double Musicman pickup setting.
Sounds awesome, good luck with the build!
I think pickup position is the most overlooked aspect in bass guitar design. Great job, 😎🤙🏽💥
Many thanks!!
And I thought I was crazy to have put 3 Bartolini single coils on my 5 strings !!! Congratulations Mike for your experiment: the tonal palette is varied with a number of combinations. You did an incredible job in wiring! Mythical!
Many thanks!! Hey, the 3 Bartolinis sounds awesome too, nice! What kind of bass?
@@mikedeeez Thanks! It must be said that the Bartolini have a beautiful sound. Being able to combine them, alternating and mixing them both in series and in parallel, is fun. The bass is a 5 strings of lutherie but I didn't like his hand made pickups. I had to do a total and radical restyling .. Your work is incredible: unimaginable to have all these sounds in one instrument! I'm shooting your video to all the bass players I know!
@@bigwave1827 You rock, thanks!! Wow, your bass sounds sweet. Happy playing!
I think you've just answered every begginers first big question, you know the one that keeps you awake when you start learning to play 😂
Brilliantly done sir 👏
Great comparison - Thumbs up for taking the time to do this!
I thought thus guy was nuts but he recorded a very intelligent video with great playing and graphics...CONGRATS!
the "streamer" position sounded awesome to me
This is excellent - and sounds like I expect, which is reassuring! I’ve always felt that pickup position was bizarrely overlooked considering what a fuss people make about pickup type, and had long been planning to make some videos explaining/demoing this. Great work!
Wow, thank you!! Very much appreciate the comment; it's seriously an honor. I think I have watched/liked every single one of your videos, and Barefaced are literally my only bass and guitar cabs (I'm up to 5 BF cabs, and counting!). Nothing but respect for you and your products! 🙏
I totally agree about pickup position. It seems like this really forms the vast majority of the basic "character" of the sound. Yes, many other factors like pickup construction do modify the sound to greater or lesser degrees, but (for example) a pickup right near the neck will simply never sound the same as a pickup near the bridge because the basic harmonic content is so different.
My theory as to why there are tons of video comparisons of pickup types is just that there are tons of PRODUCTS available to compare. Manufacturers can offer lots of different pickup variations as aftermarket mods because it's sell-able - which is fine, and yes, pickup construction definitely makes some difference.
But you can't really "sell" pickup positions, other than saying your instrument gets the pickups right where "classic guitar X" has them - and that's really not very sexy marketing. 😄 And modding the position in an existing instrument is obviously quite a bit more difficult than just dropping in a replacement pickup.
But it sure makes way more difference, at least in my experience!
@@mikedeeez well there’s a surprise, I wasn’t expecting you to know who we are let alone be such a well-equipped Barefaced owner! 🙌 Would you be up for me borrowing some of this video to make my own video talking about what you’ve done and what you’re showing, obviously directing viewers back to you for the full version?
@@BarefacedAudio Thanks for asking! Absolutely yes - please feel free to! Just happy to share the knowledge, and having anything in a Barefaced video would be a complete honor.
And many thanks again for all your help via emails guiding me to the right BF cabs over the last couple of years! 👍 Cheers
At some point I'd like to do a video featuring the BF cabs - it's in the queue of planned videos. It'll be a complimentary plug for BF for sure.
Would love to hear the 2nd and 3rd pickups from the neck together, as well as reverse p/j. Also, this bass needs a pickup in the rice neck position, since we're going this far anyway.
Great experiment, great video, great work all around.
This is great. Glad someone finally did something like this!
This was awesome! But man I recognized the sound of the jazz bass configuration without looking at the screen! Same for the Precision! Iconic placement/sound!😅
When I hear any two pickups that are next to each other I can't help but think abt nolly
Love it!
6:18 the best tone ever, that warwick-ish tone
Seriously instructive, the 5 pickups at the same time sound so massive !!! Love that.
Thanks!!
Awesome experiment.
Thanks for the comment!! It's an honor, I have been a huge fan of your Stingray magnet/EQ and Stingray vs. Sterling videos for years! Great videos - cheers.
best video to watch for those that will make a custom bass
Thanks!!
Wow, that's amazing. I bet some studio musicians would kill for a bass like this one
All combinations render a unique and amazing sound! As a simple man I can’t accept this… I would spent hours switching all over back and forth not deciding which would be the best! 🤯 Great experiment! 🧪
You left space for 3 pickups and there are space for the switches, keep going!
This was a really cool video, great experiment. One other thing to mention though is that the same model pickup in the bridge and neck positions aren't actually the exact same for most companies; the bridge pickup is usually overwound to compensate for the tighter vibration at the bridge end of the strings, i.e. smaller wave amplitude which leads to a weaker signal, to keep the bridge and neck outputs balanced. So that's another factor if you bought all pickups for 1 position.
Thanks!!
You are absolutely right; that is a great point. I was actually surprised to find out that according to Dimarzio's website, both the neck and bridge Area J models supposedly have the same resistance (7.80 Kohm), although I'm not sure if that's true; I should have tested them. I agree it seems much more common to have the bridge pickup overwound. And even if they do have the same resistance, I'm not sure that this literally means they have the same output. So yes, I totally agree that there may be a slight difference.
I wish I could have gone with all 5 the same, but the string spacing wouldn't have matched. :(
very interesting and love the animation showing the positions. now you just need like 2-5 more starting at the neck and meeting the others in the middle.
Thanks!! Ha, yes, I kind of regret not doing that now. Just 5 pickups seemed crazy to me when I built it, but now I kind of wish I had gone all the way to the neck!
@@mikedeeez boosty collins style i would love that
@@mikedeeez slap would’ve been a pain tho
What a gem of a video! ♥ The only thing I miss are these combinations (from left (bridge) to right (neck))
1: off, 2: J, 3: off, 4+5: Reverse PJ
1: off, 2: off, 3: off, 4: J, 5: J (parallel)
1: off, 2: off, 3: J, 4: off, 5: J (parallel)
You could also do even more of a crazy mode by putting in 3 pickups and putting them on rails! 🤩♥
Great. Best for me was the P, J and PJ, which shows (to me) why these pickup positions are popular.
This is about the coolest bass I've ever seen with reference to electronics. Holy cow.
What an effort?!? After this, I'm waiting for the version which contains a pickup per fret.
Thanks for this. Seems like you just did what Leo previously did, which is good for us as we hear those combinations for ourselves.
That pickup closest to the bridge is such a cool sound and I think it would be a cool mod for a Passive or Jazz bass to blend in for more twang.
Thanks! Totally agreed.
Slap with that pickup kinda gets close to a clavinet sound
I like the sound of all 5 pickups. It looks like you have room for 3 more. Do it!
BASS player here, WHAT A MANIAC!!!!! And I thought I was coucou !!! All 5 sounds monstrous !!!
The amount of work you had to put in to this video is amazing
Well done on the vid very impressed
Will watch with again with headphones later
Thanks for the time you spent doing this
This video is gonna blow up
Such an underrated video, I feel like especially on bass, pickup positioning makes such a huge difference. Thank you for this, great video!
beautiful experiment! thanks! my quick conclusion is 2 pickups combinations provide the best sounds, and any of those combinations are great.
I mean all of those combinations are great
This is priceless info for builders and those looking for "their" sound.
Time for the Bass With 10 pickups.
(to approx basses with humbuckers close to the neck and double HB basses)
That second pickup (from the neck) sounded hotter than the rest. U noticed that?
Finally, the legendary bass guitar final boss, the JJJJJ Bass
Thank you so much for this, you've saved much time and expense to help me realize that I am, after all, a precision pup man.
Wow that's a lot of tone I like what I'm hearing👍🏿
🎸🎵🔊👍🏿
This is awesome! I like to mess with pickup wirings in my guitars, but I have never moded their location due to obvious difficulties. And the pickup placing is very important for basses
Thank you so much for this... I really digged the streamer config with mics 2 and 4.
Big respect for your hard work....
👍👍👍👍👍👍
Many thanks!
Nice demo. All the magnet pull affects the tone of the strings too
Stick that in a Jazz and I'm all over it.
Great job.
Finger:
2:06 2nd + 5th
2:23 2nd + 4th
2:28 2nd + 3rd
Slap:
3:49 2nd + 5th
4:08 2nd + 4th
4:13 2nd + 3rd
Pick:
5:49 2nd + 5th
6:18 2nd + 4th
6:25 2nd + 3rd
Without a doubt, this is one of the best ideas and well executed demonstrations I've ever seen on the entire Tube of Yous, and you Sir are truly a Scholar and a Gentleman.
In the immortal words of Skinny Pete: "Yo, church bro!!"
Complete, utter and pure respect (with a healthy dose of I'm-not-worthy full two hand bowing).
Killer idea, killer demo!!! Thank you!!!
You are very welcome!! My pleasure.
I'm a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant I believe it has made life much easier for a lot of people And especially for me Thank you so much for the hard work I really appreciate it🙏🙏🙏🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
You're welcome, my pleasure!!
When the leftmost and rightmost pickups are on together it almost sounds like a Danelectro 58/59-- the wide space between the pickups gives it that same hollowness. Love this idea!
Not only do I love basses with multiple pickups but I also love that you played some Parliament and some Whatnauts in the demo!
Thanks!! YES!! Funk on! 🤘🤘
Because SCIENCE! ✊
Well played, my good Sir.
Kudos ❤
reverse p bass neck and bridge fully open in series sounds amazing to me..sir..you just made up my mind for me about what I'm going to do with the extra pickups I have laying around..time to get out my tools..I need this setup in my life..great stuff!
Thanks for this video. I have two PJazz style basses with the reverse P configuration so I wish you had have recorded that one as well as I swear by that setup and don’t play any others anymore. Great comparison video and I wouldn’t mind borrowing that bass for a few experiments myself.
Thanks!!
I agree, I wish I had done that configuration, as well as some others. Unfortunately I just ran out of time - too many combinations to try! You're totally right, "J / reverse P" sounds great on a lot of basses, thanks for the suggestion! Cheers
Found you with that 2eq vs 3eq video which was phenomenal work when I was deciding whether to buy a Stingray special.
This video is on a whole nother level. This is a genius experiment and deserves a million views.
Keep doing what you're doing.
My pleasure - many thanks!! Rock on! 🤘🤘
One of the best video i've seen. Interesting, useful and well made.
I'm mainly interested in the "rick" and "mm" sound, which we don't normally hear on a jazz bass.
you should make more of these basses and sell them!
Check out Fender's signature Flea bass.
I love the sound of all the pickups on that sounded way better than I thought
Finally! A question that noone asked, but was curious of the answer.
The 'reverse P' sound was consistently my favorite, and I've had a positive reaction every time I've played a bass with a reverse P.
So right now I'm in the middle of modding my P bass to a reverse P...
Thank you for all the work you put into this and for sharing.
absolute mad lad! i love it. very cool experiment. that's a lot of magnets pulling on the strings.
Thanks!!
You're right, and I also thought it might sound really "dead" because of all of the magnets. But when I play it, honestly I can't really tell a difference from any other bass. I think I've seen other videos where people did experiments with "magnet pull", and the results seemed to be that it actually wasn't a huge deal? But who knows - I'm sure everyone's personal experience may vary!
Love that idea of all equal pickups compared to placement
We need moooooooooore pickups even close to the neck.
Seriously, great video and some sound combinations were really crazy. The bridge pickup alone is uselss as a bass pickup but in a combo with the neck one it gave the sound an interesting tone.
that's great, thanks! The difference is HUGE even for few cms
Really perfect bass! Suitable for most styles of music
Most? ^^
Very cool experiment. I've had an idea for a long time of putting 4 pickups on a jazz bass. I was thinking of putting 2 in the normal positions and the other 2 in the Ric positions (basically at the nonexistent 24th and 36th fret positions).
Very cool. You seemed reluctant to state that pickup position *is* THE *main* factor in determining tonal quality. Of course other variables affect it, but those are like icing - the pickups are the cake. Chocolate (P-bass), Vanilla (J-bass), and Lemon (Stingray) being the 3 main varieties. Good job.
Many thanks!!
You're absolutely right. I GENERALLY tried to keep my own judgements and opinions to a minimum - I thought it might be better to mainly present the results, and let viewers draw their own conclusions. But yes, personally, I completely agree. It definitely seems like pickup placement, pickup type, electronics, and possibly string type (e.g. roundwound vs. flatwound) make the biggest differences. Of course technique makes a huge difference too, but that's separate from the instrument. :)
You can easily fit four more up to the neck! Or maybe a Gibson EB pickup+one more singlecoil. That would be something!
hey good work man - this is worth a PhD in bassology
Ha, thanks!!
Great "one-stop" video that helped with pick-up placement for a bass mod project I've got coming up.
Thanks!! Best of luck!
What's interesting is how little difference there is comparatively between the two "neck" pickups but the Rick pickup position sounds very different to either pickup next to it. also the one really need the bridge(70s jazz bass style?) sounds so much like a funky clav. almost useless as a "true" Bass sound but really unique and interesting when split too
Closest to bridge almost sounds like a Rhodes at times. Super cool!
Woow I loved this experiment! My favorites are P and MM St
Well executed and rather scientific. Well done
The tone at 4:51, omg so good
I really want to see the modification vid
Thanks so much! I‘ll definitely have to consider a bass with Streamer placement in the future. And contrary to my previous line of thinking, P/J is just not my sound. That being said, within the positions, the actual pickup still makes a huge difference. I‘ve gone through a lot of models and as passive Js go, there really wasn’t that drastic of a difference between brands of the same quality bracket, with the sole exception of G&L. The G&L JB pickups somehow sound like post processing from the get go. No need to touch any eq anymore.
Great project!
One of the greatest bass video on YT. Thx!
Many thanks!! 🙏
Definitely a cool and well constructed video.
The jazz bass bridge position as well as the one closer to the bridge with pick and the round wound strings were my favorites. They’d sound great with some overdrive
Thanks!! Nice - agreed those are super cool sounds, and yes they do both have great bite when I tried them with some overdrive!
The show steeler was the switch array that was hardly mentioned. I didn't know that I liked the sound of 5 jazz pickups!
This is nuts!! Fantastic video and resource.
I definitely prefer the PJ and J-bass sounds, all the classic tones seem to be classics for a reason.
The reverse P was not great to my ears, and anything with a pickup right by the bridge is my worst nightmare, lol.
The man, the legend. Hats off, my dude
Excellent! I’ve been wanting to do a 3 pickup Jazz bass like Mark Adam’s for a minute.
NICE, that would be great. Go for it! If you do, drop me a reply if you don't mind! I'd really be curious what that neck position sounds like. Cheers
Great vid! I had a bass that was a Sixer set up Anthony Jackson style; NO controls, 1 Bartolini, I found I had to move my fingering hand a LOT to get the tone I wanted, love how it made me more sensitive to what I wanted the sound to be. Now I find that I play at a bit of a diagonal (It's a Music Man Humbucker type of PU set up) One the treble strings I tend to play closer to the neck (warmth and mids) and with the bass strings closer to the bridge (treble and clarity vs heavier tones). It tends to emphasize the tone and give me clarity. The end result is similar to this vid in terms of tonal variety.
All 5 with a pick sounds amazing
Interesting approach, although everything quite like I expected it to be. Only surprise to me is, that the 5 PUs in series actually sound really good.
What's your impression concerning the influence of the magnetic field of all those PUs on the tone?
I heard some discussion about the cons of having more than one PU in a bass or guitar because it keeps the strings from oscillating free...
I had some ideas of building a custom bass with two Nordstrand Big Split Mans (that's a combination of 2x 2 split single coils in a MM style housing with lots of wiring options) that comes pretty close to your 'Monster bass'. But I'm actually afraid of that magnetic field effect on the tone.
I don't think it would affect the tone particularly much, however it would definitely reduce the sustain to (at least) some extent.
There's a bunch of of basses around with two MM-style humbuckers and I'd hope that no serious manufacturer would let an instrument that doesn't meet a certain standard of sustain go into production.
Good luck
Hold up a strong magnet to your strings while you play to find out the effect for yourself.
@@ts4gv Nice idea. Maybe I will give that one a try. Thanks!
@@wilhelmtheconquerer6214 You're probably right. But It's especially the Musicman Stingray HH models, that have this reputation of generally sounding not as good as the original one PU Stingrays. Maybe I just have to find out by myself...
@@bones2532 don't they have the pickups in different positions compared to the one pickup iteration, though?
I know for sure that if you want a single MM humbucker rout in a warmoth body they will put it in the "sweet spot" which is a bit farther away from the bridge than the standard bridge position-option (most likely because that's were MM place theirs would be my guess) and, as we know from vintage Les Pauls and Stratocasters, the pickup placement greatly affects the tone, even though the pickups are identical in every way
This is incredible! Just think of the Geddy Lee signature Jazz Bass we can build with this knowledge!
Thinking about pickups and placement for a possible build -- will be going back and re-listening to this lots! Thank you!
I'm giving a "like" because you're out of your mind... and I dig it!!
Ha, thanks!!