3-pickup basses

[12stringbassist]

Bison with 3...

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

There is a very well known band...atm I can’t get the name out of my head, who plays a three pickup Fender JB. Fender did a short run of these. They sound very, very distinctive. Basically a Strat Jazz Bass

[Doctor J]

I made this a few years ago. 70's spaced J bass which I installed a reversed P into. The neck J and P are wired to a 3 way mini-switch and the output of that is routed to the blend pot with the bridge J. It's Vol-Blend-Bass-Treble

There are some interesting tones to be had but, in all honesty, you're not really missing out with just two pickups and an onboard preamp.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Doctor J

[Doctor J]

7 hours ago, Ratae Corieltauvorum said:

There is a very well known band...atm I can’t get the name out of my head, who plays a three pickup Fender JB. Fender did a short run of these. They sound very, very distinctive. Basically a Strat Jazz Bass

Nicky Wire used something like that on the Everything Must Go tour.

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by Doctor J

[paul_5]

I done a thing with both of my Jazz basses:

 

Usual J pups with a MM hum bucker in the 'sweet spot' with individual volumes for each pup. 

Recently I've put both Jazz pups on a stacked knob and put a master tone control on there just to add a bit more functionality. 

The switch is an on/on/on - enabling individual coils of the MM, or both in parallel for that classic 'Stingray' sound. 

I was a bit twitchy about routing the bodies, but they turned out great, and sound amazing too!

[Reggaebass]

PRS made a very nice 3 pickup bass which you don’t really see that often, Robbie Shakespeare plays one 🙂

 

[bigsmokebass]

@Cuzzie's favourite 3 pickup bass 😜😂

[Cuzzie]

I do quite like it!

has someone mentioned the musicman Big Al SSS earlier in the thread?

[medicollie]

Waiting to receive this bad boy any day now. Thinking to turning it into a fretless. 

[Count Bassy]

On 21/12/2016 at 23:09, chris_b said:

or active EQ will do that.

Wash your mouth out with Scott Devine's soap!

[Lesfunk]

https://www.reverendguitars.com/basses/triad

 

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by Lesfunk

[durhamboy]

I've been toying with a couple of 3 pickup bass ideas and have almost decided on one of them, still thinking about the other.

One is to do a version of the famous Lee Sklar P bass with double P pickups, the bridge P set behind where a normal P would be and the neck/middle P set in front, both reversed as with Lee's. A Jazz pickup will then go in the gap between the P's, (there's a roughly 3" space between the P pickups, which in Lee's bass is where the battery etc.for his EMG pickups is) which is pretty much where a J's neck pickup goes anyway. That would give 7 combinations, each pickup separately, all together and any two together. 

The other possible 3 pickup I've been considering is to have what is basically a Warwick Thumb placement of two J pickups back close to the bridge and a J neck pickup added to basically allow a Thumb type combo and a "normal Jazz bass combo. 

I think both concepts would provide distinctly usable sounds and some genuine usable versatility, but only building them will tell the story....  At least being own builds, it's only really wasted hours of work (and maybe a couple of wasted bodies) if it turns out the end results weren't worth the effort.   😉

[ped]

On 21/12/2016 at 23:09, chris_b said:

Every bass is costed down to the last screw so more pickups equals more expense. Do you actually get a better sound with three pickups? Actually you don't need more pickups to get a better sound. A better or active EQ will do that.

Plus if enough people show an interest it will be done. Until the interest is in the hundreds it won't get done.

Not better, just different. EQ can’t mimic a pickup placement whatever you do to it!