Why a single pickup, when you can have two?

[Sambrook]

As always, apologies if this has been discussed to death...

I've always been drawn to 2 pickup basses- before messing with any eq, you have 3 distinct tones. A no-brainer, surely?

HOWEVER, I am hypnotically drawn to the Sire D5 at the moment; in butterscotch or sunburst it just looks the biz. BUT, only one pickup, tone on, tone off, that's yer lot, mate.

Am I missing something? Any cogent argument that 'allows' me to get the Sire will be very welcome...

[Happy Jack]

Because one was good enough for Jaco.

 

Oh hang on ... wait ...

 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

7 minutes ago, Sambrook said:

I've always been drawn to 2 pickup basses- before messing with any eq, you have 3 distinct tones. A no-brainer, surely?

 

2 tones - as we all know, bridge pickups are unusable on their own...

[Lozz196]

15 minutes ago, Sambrook said:

As always, apologies if this has been discussed to death...

I've always been drawn to 2 pickup basses- before messing with any eq, you have 3 distinct tones. A no-brainer, surely?

HOWEVER, I am hypnotically drawn to the Sire D5 at the moment; in butterscotch or sunburst it just looks the biz. BUT, only one pickup, tone on, tone off, that's yer lot, mate.

Am I missing something? Any cogent argument that 'allows' me to get the Sire will be very welcome...

Butterscotch

[Skybone]

Must admit, always been drawn to twin pickup basses.

[SurroundedByManatees]

Depends. I like 2 pickup basses mostly for their expanded versatility.

For a stingray though I would keep to the 1 pickup version as other configurations just don't look right to me. 

[Happy Jack]

10 minutes ago, Skybone said:

Must admit, always been drawn to twin pickup basses.

 

That's because they have more magnets.

 

[Bolo]

My main bass has a single EMG humbucker in the Stingray position and a volume knob. It's great.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, Sambrook said:

 

Any cogent argument that 'allows' me to get the Sire will be very welcome...

It allows you concentrate on what your playing rather fiddling with the controls.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*If you have the ‘right’ capacitor fitted, you can have more than just than an on or off tone control. Breeds some fiddling, however.

Edited May 17, 2022 by ezbass

[Downunderwonder]

Sometimes I forget to mess about with the pickup selection between tunes. I still sounded good and nobody noticed, not even me.

[Boodang]

Why one pickup when you could have 3! Buy the Sire and get your local luthier to install a couple more... sorted.

[kodiakblair]

9 hours ago, Sambrook said:

BUT, only one pickup, tone on, tone off, that's yer lot, mate.

Am I missing something?

Aye, something pretty important.

 

Right hand playing position, simply moving towards the neck or to closer the bridge makes a big difference.

[MrDinsdale]

Having finally got a p bass after exclusively playing j style basses it's quite liberating not having all that distraction of an extra pickup position.

 

Tbh I mostly just have a blend of both pickups anyways that I stick with for 90% of the time.

[FinnDave]

Why bother with two pick ups when one is enough?

 

I do have a couple of Jazz basses, but invariably have both pick ups on full - can't be doing with fiddling around to get 'the right tone'  - if it sounds bassy, that's good enough. 

[MrDinsdale]

The only criticism I have for a single pickup is not having as many places to rest my thumb when playing the E string.

[neepheid]

I've always found bridge pickups to be utterly gutless and unappealing on their own and also found in most circumstances using both pickups together is the most polite and sterile sound that particular bass can make. So even if I have a bridge pickup it never gets used. Only 1 of my 4 current basses has more than one pickup.

 

Still have a strange urge to have another 3 pickup bass for some reason though. Probably just how it looks and how relatively unusual that is in the bass world - no doubt I'd find one setting and stick with it (probably neck + middle on the Gibson G-3 I wish I had never sold...)

[Happy Jack]

21 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

The only criticism I have for a single pickup is not having as many places to rest my thumb when playing the E string.

 

That's why they invented the 5-string Precision.

[BigRedX]

IME multiple pickups are one of those things that sound great when you are playing on your own, but seem to weaken the sound in a band mix. I always end up using just one of the pickups on its own.  However I don't know which pickup as going to sound the best until I am playing with the other instruments, so having more than one is useful for getting the right basic sound. The exception to this is having two pickups wired in series which sounds good on its own and in the band mix.