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 pole pieces for an angled sound signature.
Soapbar Pickups
Soapbar pickups are dual-coil humcancelling bass guitar pickups designed to match the tones of different basses. Their blade designs rather than pole-pieces give fuller frequency response with no hum, plus are sealed against dust, sweat, microphonics and microphonic noise contamination. Finally, due to having no exposed blades or pole-pieces they’re lightweight yet don’t generate “dwink” noise when touched or hit against with body of guitar.
These pickups offer a rich, warm tone for bassists who favor classic styles of playing bass guitar. Furthermore, these models can handle high output amplifiers without muffled or distorted tones without becoming muted or muted – an essential feature for many heavy metal genres and other aggressive music genres.
Tonally, these pickups resemble Fender single-coils in many respects; they produce bright, snappy and twangy tones similar to single-coils but feature greater dynamic range and are better at withstanding overdrive conditions than single-coils. Furthermore, these fuller sound pickups produce deeper lows than their single coil counterparts.
These types of bass pickups create a wide variety of tones. Their large shell of a soapbar shape allows manufacturers to experiment more with creating sounds. Due to their increased popularity, however, some standardization has occurred; nevertheless there remains an impressive selection to suit any musical genre.
The two most sought-after soapbar bass pickups are BC and EMG models, which offer similar tonality as J and P pickups, yet feature more treble, higher mids and lower highs compared to J/Ps. As these pickups can accommodate any genre imaginable (particularly rock), they make them particularly well suited to heavier genres such as metal.
B-Axis Pickups
Bill Bartolini first created our b-axis series Precision Bass(r) and Jazz Bass(r) pickups back in the ’70s as an evolution of his original designs (originally known as Hi-A). They offer tone closer to that found on acoustic instruments’ bridge structures – creating powerful yet harmonic tones with more percussive sounds that resonate through your entire bridge structure.
Sweetwater bassists love how the b-axis P Bass and J Bass pickup sets provide immense tone, superbly clear articulation, rich harmonics, and incredible versatility. This is thanks to their high-output Alnico V split-coil design which produces big low tone without compromising clarity on top strings – while their fully enclosed design prevents unwanted feedback and microphonics for long term performance and studio bassist use.
Please be aware: Due to their manufacturing process, plastic housings of pickups may show minor processing and handling marks as well as pre-soldered cable ends; these characteristics do not impact performance or functionality and are therefore not grounds for return. Each set contains both bridge and neck pickups which have been tuned specifically.
Custom Pickups
At the inception of the electric bass guitar replacement pickup industry in the early 1970s, Bartolini was one of the pioneering companies to offer high-quality replacement pickups to replace those originally supplied on Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Gretsch and other instruments. Their range of humbuckers and single coil pickups helped luthiers upgrade instruments with tones surpassing that of original equipment while offering their customers cost-effective alternatives to buying an entirely new bass guitar.
Bartolini’s unique tone recipe relies on string vibration and its interaction with magnetic fields generated by pickup coils. Other factors, including placement, string type construction/type and playing technique all affect overall tone of an instrument; however, pickups themselves play an integral part in creating its distinctive voice – therefore we offer several series with varied sensing structures to help you find your voice.
Bartolini single-coil pickups feature a warm tone with a strong low-mid emphasis, ideal for players seeking punchy yet clear sounds that cut through any mix. There’s also the Classic Bass series which provides more open top end than its Original series counterpart for players seeking added clarity and brightness in their sound.
Whatever style or configuration of pickups you’re after – J-Bass style pickup, vintage-style single coil neck pickup or 5-string soapbar – Bartolini has something perfect to meet the needs of both your instrument and musical genre. Choose from various sizes, shapes and prewired on-board electronic harness configurations until you find exactly the one for your guitar or bass!
Bartolini’s commitment to quality and innovation has earned them the respect of today’s most esteemed luthiers and bass builders, such as Ibanez, Tobias, Pedulla, Spector, Roscoe and many more. Our two or three band bass preamp designs can further increase versatility of Bartolini pickups.
Electronics
Bartolini Electronics of San Luis Obispo, CA provides bass and guitar pickups as well as preamps to exacting standards for acoustic stringed instruments. Their extensive line of pickups can be mixed and matched to meet the individual voice of any instrument and genre; various sensing structures capture string vibration for superior tone production.
Bartolini goes beyond replicating certain tones with its pickups (such as Jazz Bass(r) or Music Man(r) style pickups) by employing magnet configurations, coil orientation and other factors to produce its signature tone in all their pickup shapes – from J-style bass pickups through five string soapbars or P-style pickups.
Original Bart upgrade pickups provide full and warm tones to complement the vintage feel of your bass, enhancing its voice while offering bottomless lows without producing unwanted noise or muddiness. Both split coil (S) and dual coil (DU) versions are available.
The B-Axis series pickups were specifically created to address the unique characteristics of acoustic basses, which have naturally differing bridge and treble ends due to construction bias, bridge structure and string construction. To capture these asymmetric responses the pickups use two coils that ensure complete string coverage and even response for full string coverage with powerful punchy pickups that showcase outstanding articulation and harmonic responses.
Classic Bass Series pickups are passive designs intended to work seamlessly with most existing electronics in most basses, making them an excellent option for those seeking the Bartolini tone with more top end output. Models ending in 1 offer slightly warmer tones with increased top end output while those ending in 3 provide an open and brighter tone.
The PBF77D Humbucking Bridge Bass Pickup will give you all of the power and definition that many players demand from a bridge bass pickup. Its humbucker design helps reduce feedback while eliminating microphonics when you play hard.