Pickups on a bass are key components of its sound, and there are multiple varieties: single coil, split coil and humbucker. At its core, a bass guitar pickup consists of a magnet and copper wire coil. When vibrating strings cause changes to their magnetic fields, small electrical current is generated within the wire coil by […]
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Sweetwater offers Bartolini pickups to upgrade your bass guitar with passive designs that eliminate hum and produce powerful tone that stands out in any mix. Bartolini provides an impressive variety of pickup shapes, ranging from specific retrofits for Fender(r), MusicMan(r), Washburn(r), soapbars and humbuckers – as well as their B-axis design with Alnico V exposed
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Positioning your bass pickups correctly is essential to creating the optimal sound from your instrument. Low pickup settings produce muddy tones that reduce overall effectiveness of tone production. Most body-mount pickups include a dense foam piece to push them upward when secured to your guitar body. Use a feeler gauge to depress strings at the
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There are multiple methods for creating a bass guitar pickup. These include magnetic, piezoelectric, and optical approaches. Magnetic pickups are the most widely used type. These pickups work by sensing vibrations of steel strings and translating those vibrations into an audible signal that can then be amplified acoustically. Coiled wire, magnets, and pole pieces all
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Pickups are the invisible force behind amplifying sound from strings to make a bass’s final sound as distinct as possible. Their influence can have a significant effect on its final tone. The two primary pickup styles are single-coil and double-coil (also referred to as “humbuckers”) models. With the latter model using two separate coils to
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Selecting the appropriate bass pickups can make all the difference in your tone. From jazz-like sounds to deep rock riffs, incorporating quality pickups can take your bass playing to new heights. Bass guitar pickups typically fall into two main categories: single-coil and humbucker. Learn more about each option to help decide which will best meet
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Setting pickup height can significantly impact your bass guitar tone. Here, we discuss various factors that will help you select an ideal pickup height for your bass. Humbuckers perform best when placed close to the strings, though there may be issues such as “wolf tones” (more common with single coils) that arise due to magnetic
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Pickup rings may be just what your guitar needs to really make an impressionful statement on stage and in concert halls alike. These simple metal devices can significantly boost both tone and performance of any instrument they grace with their presence. Basic pickup rings attach to the bottom of a guitar’s body and suspend a
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Bass guitars feature various pickup types that work to convert string vibrations to electric current, including J, P and humbucking pickups. A bobbin doesn’t play an active role in shaping the sound of a pickup, but rather supports another essential component that does. Subtle changes to its construction can influence how its coil sounds. Flatwork
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Bass guitars can be very sensitive to things that alter how their strings vibrate, leading to all sorts of issues from not sounding right to strange warbling after tones. Your active bass may have died due to either its battery dying (replace it if necessary) or one of its wires having suffered damage due to
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