When it comes to bass guitar pickups, choosing the type that suits your sound can make a big difference in terms of what kind of sounds can be created. From tube light rumble to string balance across strings – there are various pickup types you should understand in order to produce optimal sounds from your instrument.
The single-coil pickup, consisting of a coil of wire with pole pieces underneath the strings, produces an exceptional sound.
J Pickup
The J pickup is designed as a single-coil pickup, but can also function as a humbucker when wired correctly. It utilizes two coils with reversed polarity that have special windings to cancel out any noise produced by its use – giving you the clean tone of a single-coil bass without noise-generating single coil pickups while adding more definition and punch to your sound.
These pickups are constructed using 42-gauge Heavy Formvar wire and hand-polished magnets to produce a warm tone, designed to replace the stock bobbins on a Fender Jazz Bass and available as either passive or active sets. Offering vintage blues to fingerstyle funk and punk rock tones – making these pickups an excellent choice for players seeking more grit in their bass sound!
Lindy Fralin bass guitar snare pickups offer classic tones and durable builds quality, made of top-of-the-line materials with low profile designs to fit seamlessly into most snare drums. Each set includes neck and bridge pickups that work for jazz, punk, hard rock, metal as well as many other genres and styles such as jazz. Furthermore, these pickups come with different finishes so you can find what best matches your instrument!
The EMG JVX single-coil pickups for bass guitar offer an outstanding way to experience jazz bass music. Perfect for passive and active basses alike, this set of active snare pickups works on both passive and active basses – ideal for anyone seeking to take their music further! These pickups provide plenty of headroom making volume control difficult at times.
EMG snare pickups feature a ceramic magnet and thousands of wraps of feedback-dampening copper wire, creating a thick yet balanced tone with full midrange frequencies and clear highs, perfect for rock and metal genres. Furthermore, these pickups come equipped with raised pole pieces on A and D strings for more targeted tonality; their price may be prohibitive but their sound more than makes up for it!
P Pickup
The P pickup is one of two primary types of magnetic bass guitar pickups; commonly referred to as Precision bass or single-coil pickup, its characteristic sound often suits basslines with heavy bottom end and midrange frequencies.
P-style bass pickups boast one major advantage over standard J-style pickups: eliminating hum. This can be accomplished using an alternative construction technique: rather than wiring two coils parallel, they’re connected in reverse polarity and reverse winding to effectively eliminate any unnecessary noise and create fuller, richer tone without unwanted buzzes or buzzes.
As you might imagine, there are numerous variations to this type of pickup construction. These variations include anything from coil length and magnetic pole pieces used to creating sound to overall tone of a split-coil pickup. All these factors will have an effect on its sound.
If you’re searching for a classic bass tone that blends thunderous lows of P-style basses with midrange clarity and string-to-string balance, an Aguilar AG-4, 5, or 6-P/J-HC bass pickup set could be just what’s needed to meet those criteria. These well-balanced pickups allow you to tap into an assortment of tones, from traditional through modern and beyond.
Though many bassists claim there’s no difference in tone between Precision and Jazz basses, each boasts unique sonic characteristics which can transform your musical style. From quacking with clear-cut spank to warm resonance and warm wobble a P or Jazz bass will provide the ideal tone for any genre or musical style.
We have created a video to assist in making an informed decision, by comparing the tones of both Precision and Jazz basses. Within just minutes, you’ll hear how each bass responds when exposed to different techniques like slapping and fingerstyle playing; helping you discover your ideal bass sound!
Humbucker
Humbuckers are one of the most iconic forms of guitar pickups, made up of two coils but featuring other distinguishing characteristics like coil splitting or “coil taps”.
Coil-splitting involves short-circuiting or bypassing one of the coils to eliminate their mutual hum cancellation effect, but maintain the sound of each individual coil. It is commonly found on humbuckers but can also be found on single coil pickups with some configurations; typically activated using a switch such as mini toggle or DPDT push-pull and often located either on the control board or knob for activation.
The original humbuckers were developed to address noise produced by strings vibrating against each other. Credit for early designs belongs to Seth Lover of Gibson who created the PAF (Patent Applied For) in 1955, and Joseph Raymond Butts from Gretsch who created Filter’Tron around this same time.
Humbuckers offer more of a thicker tone and louder volumes at equal amp volumes, making them suitable for styles like blues and rock that require full sound; additionally, these pickups work very well when combined with overdrive effects or distortion effects.
Humbucking pickups often feature two magnets and coils connected by wires that are held together with an adhesive baseplate made of steel or brass that serves to both hold them together and attach them to the body of a guitar. It typically bears the manufacturer’s signature.
Recently, manufacturers have produced humbuckers with narrower coils to simulate the sound of single-coil pickups more closely, producing more twangy and bright tones similar to those found on Telecaster guitars renowned for their iconic twang. Heavy metal guitarists often choose these pickups due to their ability to handle high gain applications.
No matter your musical genre – from jazz guitar to heavy metal – there is a humbucker available that will meet your specific needs. To select one that works best with your guitar, experiment by placing each type in different performance situations and seeing which works best in terms of sound and feel.
P90
P90 pickups from Gibson are widely considered their first successful single-coil pickup, providing an outstanding combination of high output and biting treble response. Their sound is lively, lively, and full of character making them suitable for almost any genre of music, while responding very well to picking attack giving plenty of dynamic effects.
These unusual-looking “soap bar” pickups feature magnet bars made of Alnico II which are placed directly below the fibre bobbin bottom, separated by a metal spacer and have polepiece screws visible sitting above this spacer – giving these pickups their unique name of “soap bars”.
P90 guitar pickups are among the largest single-coil designs, taking up much of a body’s space on its bobbin and often necessitating large bodies to house it. Their thick tone and ability to withstand moderate distortion without creating unwanted hum canceling noise make them popular across genres and musical genres – jazz guitarists in particular often prefer P90s for their clarity and spanky tones!
However, they can also be used in higher gain styles with reduced definition. Like single coils, they respond well to picking attacks and offer dynamic effects; however, their tone tends to be thicker.
Many guitarists often mistake humbuckers for single-coils or P90s because their shapes resemble each other and both feature plastic covers, yet these two pickup types should never be interchangeable. Humbuckers tend to produce smoother tones due to their out-of-phase coils canceling each other out to produce an overall thicker sound with smoother overtones but lack clarity and brightness compared to single-coils or P90s.
P90s have a slightly warmer tone than their humbucker counterparts, yet can still produce bright tones depending on what type of guitar is being played with them. They make for an ideal option in rock, blues and metal due to their strong articulation and punch. In addition, P90s produce plenty of mids while providing strong bass response.