Have you added a pickup?

Nothing wrong with fernandes, you could always get a sh fender pup off the bay...
You haven't said what strings you use or when / if you've changed them recently?
You haven't mentioned your signal chain?

I think most respondents are struggling to recommend a pup or where to put it because all you'll end up with is a hacked up bass that sounds arse.

Good luck
 
I had a Fernandes P-Bass about 20 years ago. I loved it. It was a great bass. Solid as fuck. Sounded awesome. Sadly it got stolen.
 
BeagleFaceHenry said:
I'll never understand this forum. People are so quick to attack. What's with all the hate?

I'm sorry you're getting upset. I saw what you said, I absorbed it, I'm interested, and I'm looking to absorb more.
You said adding a neck pickup sounded bad. I'd like to understand why? I'm trying to learn. What pickup did you use? What sounded bad? If you knew it would sound bad, why'd you do it?

Furthermore, RFR, I'm hoping for some discussion. Don't get upset that I'm hoping to hear from several people, I thought that was the purpose of a forum.

In my initial post I asked 3 specific questions: Has anyone added a pickup to a stock bass? What were the results? What pickup would you recommend? I'm sorry if you thought I was looking for "yes and bad", but I was hoping for more of a "yes, I added an XYZ to a Carvin ABC but it made it sound muddier" etc., and ideally I'd love to hear several people's experiences.
I want to learn. I want to understand. I want to discus. I want details. I want product numbers. Forum with me!
Click to expand...
Haha guilty as charged. :D
Hey, what can you say, after being stuck in La traffic for three or four hours, your mood can suffer.


Ok, onto pickups.

Recently I did a pickup swap (and pots) in a newer fernandes chinese bass. Cheap bass, but had good wood and a very thin finish.
Older fernandes instruments were pretty good with the exception of thick finishes.

Anyway put in a seymour duncan antiquity. The hotter version and some cts pots and an orange drop capacitor.

Results?
It opened the bass up. Noise went down.
Bass was very round and full with a combination of growl and clarity.
It was VERY responsive to attack and where you played.
It made it a whole different instrument that was alive.

Another option for you may be putting in a set of EMG actives with a bass boost.

Personally I prefer passives but some like the emgs.
 
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Thanks for the insight folks, and thanks for the turn-around RFR, faith in forum restored!
I'd still love to hear more stories of pickup adds/drops/mods, etc, but I think y'all talked me out of busting out the router and getting intimate. I may, however, swap out my pickup. I've already dropped the hint with the Mrs for xmas.
 
Bubba brings up a good question: what is your chain when recording this bass? Your dissatisfaction could very well be with something else and not so much with the bass itself.
 
My feeling is that there is generally a lot of unnecessary pickup swapping going on. I think most of it is to do with cork-sniffing and self-delusion. Of course there's a difference between a PAF-style humbucker and an active EMG, or a soap-bar pickup and a Strat single-coil. But is there much difference between most passive humbuckers? Between most strat-type single coils? Not that much, I say. In my experience, different pickups within the same category make some difference, but not as much as an amp or a pedal, or a playing style, or the age and gauge of your strings, or the type of bridge or body your guitar has, especially on a bass.
 
It's nice to hear you say that Bubba. So many people I talk to have a favorite pickup, or can't wait to get rid of pickup, etc. You may have swayed my decision once again.
I can't deny I'm "cork-sniffing" (great phrase). I can't do much about my amp, I try new strings all the time, but I've never tried a pickup swap. And again, I don't have any experience moving pickups and I'm interested to hear people's stories.
Thanks for contributing!
ps. I haven't talked about my specific strings because I can talk strings anywhere, anytime, with anyone. I started this thread to talk pickups. If that's causing any confusion I apologize.
 
I think pickups do make a big difference. My P bass came with Fender Custom Shop 60s pickups. An overwound sound with massive low midrange, especially with the flat wound strings I prefer. No matter what, I was always fighting that sound. I switched to a lower output, more vintage style pickup that solved the problem. The original gold Lace sensors on my Strat had a sterile sound. It needed a pedal between the guitar and amp, whether I wanted one there or not. I replaced them with Duncan Antiquities. Now it sounds great plugged straight into any of my amps, which is how I prefer to play. My SG Special came with the 490r and 490t combination, dark and uninspiring. The Duncan Seth Lovers gave it a brighter, vintage tone. The least favorite of my guitars has become the one I reach for most often.

It's not that you can't improve the results with pedals or a different amp. But if the fundamental sound of the pickup isn't what you want, you'll always struggle to overcome that. Just my view.
 
My view is that you ought to buy the right instrument with the right pickups for what you want to achieve. I'm sick to the back teeth of people who buy vintage Yamaha SG 2000s and swap out the pickups for high gain active humbuckers or do Frankenstein HH strats or Jaguars. I honestly believe it's because they have no talent or appreciation of tone most of the time and they're blaming their instruments for their own suckiness.
 
Pickups make a HUGE difference. Different makes, different magnets, different wire all make a change in the voice of the instruments.
Ultimately everything is in the hands, as in the tone comes from you, but components matter.

People will spend 1500 on up for a good mic, why not spend a little on good pups?

Being that we're on a recording forum, it surprises me as to how many are satisfied with inexpensive instruments with stock electronics.

Recording a better source is always preferable. Be that a voice, an acoustic, an electric or a harmonica, the better the source is, the better the recording, provided the talent and know how is there.
 
RFR said:
Pickups make a HUGE difference. Different makes, different magnets, different wire all make a change in the voice of the instruments.
Ultimately everything is in the hands, as in the tone comes from you, but components matter.

People will spend 1500 on up for a good mic, why not spend a little on good pups?

Being that we're on a recording forum, it surprises me as to how many are satisfied with inexpensive instruments with stock electronics.

Recording a better source is always preferable. Be that a voice, an acoustic, an electric or a harmonica, the better the source is, the better the recording, provided the talent and know how is there.
Click to expand...

But do they record good music? My last recording in the MP3 clinic was a cover, admittedly, but the best guitar sounds on that track were made using a £40 Chord telecaster with an Antoria bridge humbucker and a 100 watt Marshall turned up to the point of getting an Anti Social Behaviour Order.
 
Yeah, that stuff you did was cool. I've heard other stuff of yours as well and liked it too.

I'm not here to judge if people's stuff is shit or not.

But i know this; People can make the best gear sound like shit, and some can make the worst sound good to great.

The gear is like a racecar. Useless without a good driver. And downright dangerous in the hands of a bad one.

Like i said it ultimately comes down to the player. Tone is in the hands. Kids and beginners dont get that, and almost always blame the gear.

But better gear IS nice. :D
 
Well, for those of you following along at home, you may have talked me out of cutting into my bass .... for now.
I experiment with a couple bass drivers but I really didn't dig the overdriven, clipped tones. Last night I pulled out my old preamp that I used on my upright, and I think we have a winner.
 
If you are going with the stock configuration, get a set of stock Fender P-bass pickups. An alternative would be a Mighty Mite P-bass pickup. I have a bass with one and it really sounds good.
 
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