Silly question. Why the slanted pickup?..... Update 3rd Feb.. Jon Shukers reasonings

[BigRedX]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1359292360' post='1952517']
It's certainly an improvement - and I thank you for that - but though the bridge pup and bridge are aligned and the neck pup and fretboard angle are aligned, [i]they are still out of alignment with each other![/i] I can see I'll have to have words with Sheldon and get a custom number sorted!!
[/quote]

I don't have a problem with the Digwall, because the frets and pickups all slant at increasing angles centred around the 8th fret. Therefore the bridge pickup should be at a greater angle than the neck pickup and the bridge itself should be at an even greater angle. They mirror the increasing angles of the frets.

[discreet]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1359292618' post='1952521']
...the bridge pickup should be at a greater angle than the neck pickup and the bridge itself should be at an even greater angle.
They mirror the increasing angles of the frets.
[/quote]

You're right, but... it still looks 'wrong' to me aesthetically. Not that it should matter, as Dingwalls are great.
I think my solution would be a dark (preferably black) pickguard, so in practice you wouldn't be able to see the pickups from any distance...

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1359292360' post='1952517']
It's certainly an improvement - and I thank you for that - but though the bridge pup and bridge are aligned and the neck pup and fretboard angle are aligned, [i]they are still out of alignment with each other![/i] I can see I'll have to have words with Sheldon and get a custom number sorted!!
[/quote]

Just live with your OCD and buy my bass rather than order one from Sheldon!

[discreet]

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1359293447' post='1952543']
Just live with your OCD and buy my bass rather than order one from Sheldon!
[/quote]

Thanks for the offer, but it would have to be a Super P4... Olympic white, maple fb, black/white/black pickguard...

[barkin]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1359279030' post='1952297']
Its funny but I`ve always looked at slanted pickups and thought "I want more bass on the thinner strings, not less".
[/quote]

Me too. I'm putting a bitsa P together at the mo', and it's getting the D/G pup more neckwards than the E/A.

[Beer of the Bass]

I suspect the neck pickup in the bass in the OP has been slanted to match up the polepieces with the string spacing. Since the bass has a Musicman style bridge pickup and a Fender style neck pickup, and Fender five strings use a wider string spacing, it's going to look a bit odd with exposed poles unless the neck pickup is slanted. Ideally you would have pickups made in the correct spacing, but custom parts are out of the reach of many smaller makers. I have put together a bass myself using Fender style pickups with MM spacing, and chose to slant the pickups. In my case I felt it went well with the lines of the body and I haven't noticed any unevenness across the strings. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/137533-swamp-ash-5-string/page__view__findpost__p__1336777"]http://basschat.co.u...ost__p__1336777[/url]

Edited January 27, 2013 by Beer of the Bass

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1359297001' post='1952605']
I suspect the neck pickup in the bass in the OP has been slanted to match up the polepieces with the string spacing. Since the bass has a Musicman style bridge pickup and a Fender style neck pickup, and Fender five strings use a wider string spacing, it's going to look a bit odd with exposed poles unless the neck pickup is slanted. Ideally you would have pickups made in the correct spacing, but custom parts are out of the reach of many smaller makers. I have put together a bass myself using Fender style pickups with MM spacing, and chose to slant the pickups. In my case I felt it went well with the lines of the body and I haven't noticed any unevenness across the strings. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/137533-swamp-ash-5-string/page__view__findpost__p__1336777"]http://basschat.co.u...ost__p__1336777[/url]
[/quote]

In the case of the bass in the OP, unless the person who originally had the bass made deliberately wanted the pickup angled like that, it's lazy building IMO. When you've spent over £1500 on a custom bass paying another £20-30 for a properly spaced custom pickup over an off-the-shelf item is is hardly going to be an issue.

[Beer of the Bass]

Do the bigger pickup companies like Seymour Duncan do custom spacing? Since Shuker builds to order, I'd guess the customer specifically asked for these particular pickups and this was the way to make them fit. I'm sure the various options will have been discussed with the customer. I get the impression that luthiers often end up compromising from an "ideal" design philosophy in order to accomodate customer requests and this is likely to be what has happened here.

[Chris2112]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1359281752' post='1952338']
When Jon was making mine I asked about the advantages of the individual brodge/saddle pieces - he gave me the theoretical blurb then said the real reason he uses them is it doesn't matter if a customer wants a 4 , 5 or 6 string - he just puts his hand in the box and fishes out the correct number without the need to keep tons of different bridges in stock !
[/quote]

I suppose if he finds some practical benefit to them then good. When I first got my Ibanez BTB405QM all those years ago, I had the Ibanez catalogue. The monorail bridge was a big feature on the BTB series supposedly because it helped to isolate each string for a better, more even response in sound. Would it have sounded much different with a single piece bridge? I don't know, but it was a great sounding bass all the same!

[Fat Rich]

[quote name='Chris2112' timestamp='1359309203' post='1952865']
I suppose if he finds some practical benefit to them then good. When I first got my Ibanez BTB405QM all those years ago, I had the Ibanez catalogue. The monorail bridge was a big feature on the BTB series supposedly because it helped to isolate each string for a better, more even response in sound. Would it have sounded much different with a single piece bridge? I don't know, but it was a great sounding bass all the same!
[/quote]

Don't know about your Ibanez but I swapped the monorails on my Status S2 Classic for a single piece bridge and it made a massive difference, much tighter and focussed sound.

[ZenBasses]

Now with an update to The OP