A bass guitar’s sound relies heavily on its pickups. From gritty power rock to slap-style funk, these pickups dictate how your strings vibrate and what kind of tone is produced by them.
Ignition Violin Bass features a vintage sunburst finish and traditional knobs; its body is constructed of flamed maple and spruce woods for ultimate sound quality.
Neck
There are various violin bass guitar pickups that can be found on bass instruments. Humbuckers are among the most commonly seen, while piezos and magnetic pickups may also be utilized on an electric basses; piezos/magnetic pickups tend to be found more commonly on acoustic basses though they may still be found used on electric basses as they use heavier string gauges than guitars so require a different type of pickup for sufficient output.
Violin bass guitars are an unusual type of instrument composed of a small scale, hollow body archtop with a violin style bridge designed to produce a distinctive deep tone similar to an upright double bass. While usually seen in rock and jazz bands, violin bass guitars can also be found playing dance music or reggae music genres.
Some violin basses feature a third pickup located alongside their bridge pickup for increased traditional sound, but this can have negative ramifications on tone. An extra pickup may increase mud and noise production and cause strings to vibrate differently, reducing clarity of sound as well as hindering hearing other instruments in a band.
Modern violin basses typically feature humbucking pickups, although some models still use single coil pickups. Humbucking pickups tend to offer more tonal options and come equipped with numerous benefits like greater mid-range response and decreased distortion.
Those searching for vintage violin bass guitar should consider the Hofner Contemporary Beatle Bass. Equipped with Staple humbucking pickups designed to replicate Hofner’s signature tone from its famed 1960s designs, this bass can provide any player looking for rock, pop, or jazz music the ideal vintage tone they seek.
Reverb offers an excellent selection of violin bass guitars for sale, from vintage models dating back to the 1950s. Many are in good condition and priced below retail; professional musicians should focus on selecting an instrument of high-quality that will perform reliably regardless of circumstances.
Bridge
Bass guitars possess an entirely unique sound from their electric counterparts. Due to the heavier strings on bass instruments and their lower pitch tones, finding an instrument-specific bridge pickup with wide bandwidth that complements their natural sound is key for successful performances. Furthermore, these pickups should accommodate dynamic range requirements of your music compositions as well.
While guitar pickups can handle higher gain and distortion levels, bass-specific pickups are designed to withstand additional voltage without losing their clarity or producing string vibrations that affect tone quality. Furthermore, these pickups tend to be less sensitive to string vibrations, giving bassists fuller, richer tones as well as being better equipped for high-speed playing with vibrato and other effects.
There are various methods you can use to adjust the output of your bass guitar’s bridge pickup, including changing coil count and magnet size. Before making any alterations to its electronics, however, it’s wise to consult a professional first – this will help ensure any modifications don’t cause irreparable harm to your instrument.
Bass pickups typically outshone guitar pickups when it comes to durability due to being constructed using more resilient metal casing, making them more resistant to wear-and-tear environments like touring or recording in a studio.
Some basses feature removable bridges to provide easy access to their pickup, enabling players to change its placement within the body of their instrument and explore different tones and sounds. If this approach doesn’t suit you, fixed-position bass pickups provide another viable solution without needing extra hardware.
Dual-coil bass pickups can be an ideal choice for bassists. Designed to divide the magnetic field evenly across two pairs of strings, these pickups produce high-quality tone with plenty of sustain – as well as working great when used with high gain amplifiers. Unfortunately, dual-coil pickups may pick up external noise such as radio waves or fluorescent lighting and create an audible buzz or buzz when in use – however these should always be considered carefully before selecting them as your pick up of choice.
Pickups
The sound of a bass guitar depends heavily on its pickups. Their location impacts how much vibration occurs in its strings, changing how much energy is transmitted to an amplified signal. Each pickup also has unique sonic characteristics due to their construction; there are various kinds of bass guitar pickups.
A typical bass guitar pickup consists of a magnet surrounded by a coil of copper wire. When strings vibrate, this disturbs the magnetic field and causes slight voltage variations within this coil – these fluctuations are picked up by the pickup and transmitted to an amplifier where they are amplified before turning back into vibrations of strings.
Single and double coil pickups for bass guitar are two primary categories. Single coil pickups provide one tone while double-coils produce a noiseless tone without losing some of their high tones that single coil pickups provide.
Additionally, there are various mounting techniques for bass guitar pickups. Pickups designed to work best when used at the bridge position are known as bridge pickups; those which perform best when placed nearer the neck are called neck pickups. Some may be designed to work both positions; this practice is less frequent on acoustic basses due to practical considerations (not blocking up signature artist fingers or plectra), rather than for sound reasons.
Some pickups are active, meaning that they have an internal amplifier to amplify the signals generated by strings; this helps increase low frequencies and can make bass guitar sound fuller and warmer. Conversely, passive pickups rely entirely on natural vibration of strings to generate an electrical signal and transmitting it as electricity to produce an electric signal.
Hofner “blade” or “staple” pickups found in the Cavern bass and some earlier Rickenbackers are an excellent example of this phenomenon, offering clear and more vibrant sound than conventional humbucking pickups with their steel “slugs.” These pickups still humbuck, yet feature steel staples instead for improved clarity of tone.
Electronics
Paul McCartney made the Violin Bass famous during his Beatles era; it is an archtop hollow-body bass guitar with a short scale neck, narrow fingerboard width and string spacing; this unique instrument requires original flatwound strings strung with original specifications to produce its iconic sound – something no other bass can emulate or overdrive in rock bands as an effective driving bass line.
Violin bass guitar pickups, commonly referred to as “thumpers,” feature two ceramic bar magnets encased in copper wire coils. Vibrations caused by string vibrations alter their magnetic fields, creating small voltage fluctuations within the coil, which are amplified by instrument electronics and translated into sound waves. There are two main types of pickups used on bass guitars: single-coil and double-coil pickups – with the former producing lower, warmer sound than its counterpart.
Piezo pickups, which don’t use magnets to sense string vibrations, are more often found on acoustic bass guitars and can be highly sensitive to changes in string tension; this type of pickup may produce thin or brittle sound unless pre-amped.
Guitar and bass pickups each possess unique properties due to being tailored for specific purposes. Bass strings require low-frequency sounds that require increased coil winding for bass pickups; while guitar strings tend to produce higher-end sounds that need fewer coil turns for their pickup.
A violin bass guitar features two volume potentiometers and three slide switches; with one near the headstock controlling neck pickup (known as bass pickup) while another nearer the bottom controls bridge pickup (“treble pickup”). These switches have various positions:
Piezo pickups, which use an optical sensor to detect string vibrations and convert them into electronic signals, are less common but still viable options. Due to their extreme sensitivity, these pickups must be combined with an excellent preamp in order to produce good sounding bass lines.