EddieG Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Guys, I need a wee bit of help. I'm having a 5-string, 33" scale bass built, and I've been asked for my input on where I want the pickups (two single coils) to be sited. I've looked around online, and found various sites about the physics behind pickup placement, natural harmonics etc but nothing about where the optimum place is that they should actually be, or some sound samples etc. I'm not sure about the distance to have them placed from the 12th fret for the tone that I want. I usually play an early 90s Burner, with the balance at about 100/75 in favour of the bridge pickup, pretty Hadrien Feraud sounding. Does anybody more knowledgeable have any suggestions? Should I go with comparable measurements as the Fodera 33" scale basses like the Matt Garrison and Janek models (and what exactly are they??) or should I try something a bit different? I'd like to get as close to the tone of my Burner as I can. Any suggestions or help would be most welcome, ta! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowieBass Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Of the things that contribute to tone I can think of pickup placement, pickup type, electronics, strings, and instrument construction. Pickup placement is clearly important but so are quite a few of the other factors. If you know what's gone into your Ken Smith Burner then replicating all of those should get you pretty close (making adjustments to the pickup position as appropriate to the shorter scale length)... but I suspect you'd only find out exactly how close, once the new five string is ready to play... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iiipopes Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 For a 5-string bass, I would put the active element of the "neck" soapbar pickup where the D-G segment of a traditional P-bass pickup is. You will have do to the math to get the proportionate distance from nut and bridge going from 34 to 35 inch scale, but of all the 5-string basses I have played, to me this gives the best compromise between depth and clarity. I would put the active element of the "bridge" soapbar pickup no closer to the bridge than the "70's" Jazz Bass bridge pickup position so that the tone retains body and is not brittle or thin sounding. That is where I have my pickups: an EMG 40CS humbucker soapbar centered as described for the neck position since it is a dual coil humbucker; and an EMG 40JX flipped around so the stacked coil is upstream for the proper placement (The bridge pickup rout is too close to the bridge to mount it conventionally. I tried that first, and oh, was it thin sounding. I flipped it and got all my tone back.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowieBass Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 (edited) NB: The OP is having a 33" scale length bass with two single coil pickups... Edited July 6, 2015 by HowieBass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBus Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 This sound cloud link might help. I had the same dilemma a few years ago while doing the rebuild of my SGC Nanyo. It only gives examples for the bridge pickup which is the critical tone for me. Status - 10mm from bridge ESP - 25mm from bridge Jazz - 55mm from bridge Status and ESP are humbuckers, Jazz is single coil https://soundcloud.com/bassbus/status-esp-jazz-back-pickups Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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