5 string soapbar on 4 string bass?

[SteveXFR]

I need a new soapbar style pickup for a 4 string peavey but the only pickups I can find the same size are listed as 5 string pickups. Does it make any difference whether they're 4 or 5 string if they're the right size? 

[TheGreek]

I may be wrong (happened once before) but I think that you can safely use a 5 string pup as they will still create the EM field that you need. 

IIRC there was a 4 string bass on here with 5er pups.

[SteveXFR]

Thanks. 

[kodiakblair]

2 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I need a new soapbar style pickup for a 4 string peavey but the only pickups I can find the same size are listed as 5 string pickups. Does it make any difference whether they're 4 or 5 string if they're the right size? 

Getting pickups to fit  Peavey Grinds or Zephyrs can be a hassle. Both 4 and 5 strings models shared the same pickups and the nearest in size are EMGs.

 

I went with Warman Jazzbars in my Zephyr 5. They had a different style shell so I popped them out and used wooden covers. Course this was before I discovered folk selling empty Peavey shells on eBay. If I was repeating the swap I'd place the new pickups in empty shells 👍

 

It's as @TheGreek says there's no reason why you can't use 5 string soapbars .

[SteveXFR]

Thanks. It's an old Peavey International so Im wondering whether its worth the cost of EMG pickups. I thought about putting EMGs in my Zephyr and the Zephyr pickups in the International but to be honest I really like the Zephyr as it is. 

[itu]

 

[kodiakblair]

50 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

Thanks. It's an old Peavey International so Im wondering whether its worth the cost of EMG pickups. I thought about putting EMGs in my Zephyr and the Zephyr pickups in the International but to be honest I really like the Zephyr as it is. 

For some reason I always forget about those Internationals or "Peavey DynaBass . International Series" if addressing it by its Sunday name 😀

Pickups in Zephyrs and International are the same size with the same colour coding and are 4 wire humbuckers in series, dare say they are same part .

 

Empty shells are available for them, I've one in front of me just now👍 Instead of going the EMG road, you could grab a couple of empties and post them to one of the pickup folk for a custom build. It's surprising how affordable that can be 😎

[pineweasel]

14 hours ago, TheGreek said:

IIRC there was a 4 string bass on here with 5er pups.

There's also the original Fender Musicmaster bass, which had a 6 pole guitar pickup.