Guide to Bass Pickups

Posted by Solo music gear on January 22nd, 2019

The bass pickups can be referred to as the heart of the analogue instruments. Capturing the vibrations of the string via a magnetic field these transducers produce the sound through an amplifier after converting the vibrations into the electric current.

Various Pickup Designs

The bass pickups are available in a wide range of designs having specific features and styles. Some designs are better for a particular style of music while others are suitable to other genres.

Commonest of the bass pickups are the single coil pickup and the split coil pickup. The former is found on the Jazz while the latter is found on the Precision bass.

Split Coil Pickup

These Bass Strings pick the signal that is out of phase. For this reason, they are also called the ‘humbucker’ as they ‘buck the hum’. They are meant to eliminate the slight hum that is audible in case of single coil guitars.

Single Coil

The modern basses use the single coil pickup. The tone of these pickups is bright and they can sound very aggressive as well.

Music Man Pickups

These types of pickups have larger magnetic pole pieces. These bass pickups have a punchy and clear sonic sound. They also provide a thump similar to the split coil pickup.

Rail Pickups

These pickups get their name from the two rails like configuration. Instead of the pole pieces that are there on the single/split coil, these Bass Pickups have configuration like that of a train track.

As these pickups are not bound by string spacing, they are able to produce very high outputs and that too more consistently.

Soap Pickups

The shape of the pickup is what gives it the name of a bar or soap pickup. These pickups are usually the split coil pickups but manufacturers have even added rails in the enclosure.

These bass pickups are somewhat similar to the rail pickups in the sense that they are consistent and loud in terms of placement of the strings.

Rickenbacker Pickups

These pickups might be having a unique shape but they are similar in operation as the regular pickups. However, the way they sound is what makes them different from the rest of the pickups.

These pickups are known to produce deliberate and subtle tones. Although these pickups cannot deliver high volume output, they are known for their definition and warmness.

Upgrading Bass Pickups

The bass guitar can be customized in any way that you want. You can even experiment with the bass pickups. You can get any type of musical style by changing and experimenting with the pickups.

So, it is up to you to change and upgrade the Bass Pickups as you want them to be. You can also choose pickups as per their genres.

To be able to choose the right pickups, you will https://www.solomusicgear.com have to do some trial and error. Moreover, you will have to research for the types of pickups available, read reviews about them and listen to samples before choosing any one of them.