Pickup Types

[topcat3355]

I have a 5 string J-Bass guitar, and I was thinking of replacing the bridge pickup. However I'm not sure whether the idea I've got would work, or whether it would be worth it. I have found a passive pickup replacement which is a Soap Bar shape. I've heard that Soap Bar pickups are known for their warmth and punch and thought that if I routed out the body and replaced the bridge J-bass pickup with the soap bar one. Question is, would it be worth it or even work at all? The dials at the moment are 2 volume controls (one per pickup) and a tone control.
[url="http://www.basscentre.com/bass-guitar-pickups/seymour-duncan-ssb-5b-phase-ii-passive-soapbar-bridge-pickup.html"]http://www.basscentre.com/bass-guitar-pick...dge-pickup.html[/url]

Thanks for any help

[henry norton]

OK, well for a start why did you want to replace your current bridge pickup? Routing out the body for a different pickup is quite a radical mod considering how many direct replacement Jazz V pickups there are already out there that will drop in to the current route. If you want more tonal variation you might want to look at an active circuit before replacing pickups. Let us know your reasons.

Welcome to the forum by the way

[topcat3355]

well, the bridge pickup isn't really picking up much low end! I would replace it with another j-bass pickup but they seem to cost more than soapbar ones. I'm in a band and the drummer owes me a favour, so I was going to get an upgrade on the standard one

[Delberthot]

The bridge pickup generally doesn't pick up a lot of low end, that's generally why most basses have another pickup nearer the neck or an active EQ that you can use to boost the bass frequencies.

[henry norton]

+1 on that but if it really is thin and weedy sounding there might just be a problem with the pickup itself rather than the type of pickup or its position. If you're happy with the neck pickup and you're handy with a soldering iron you could try swapping them over to see if the pickup is at fault. That asides, you can get some fairly bassy, high output Jazz bridge pickups so don't go digging holes in your bass to get more bass (if you know what I mean). Humbuckers are to all intents and purposes two single coil pickups, meaning they're generally more expensive so if you're looking at really cheap humbuckers (in comparison to single coil Jazz pups) the chances are they won't be very high quality in build or in tone, so you might just be giving yourself the same problem again.

Maybe you can call in the favour from your drummer by asking him to "PLAY QUIETLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!"