Bass guitar: Bridge or Neck PU?

[Ermz]

Which one do you guys gravitate toward for metal? Do you find yourselves switching out for different styles, quiet parts or ballads?

On that note... actives/passives, single coils/humbuckers?

 

[sparkyness]

Both pickups on full all the time...I change my picking/plucking position to change the tone or switch from pick to fingers (or vice-versa). My picking hand will naturally go closer to the bridge for faster or more intricate passages and closer to the neck for fatter sounds. The tonal ranges on most basses (especially with high-end pickups) can be pretty diverse just using the above method.

In terms of pickups. I like EMG actives in a P/J Humbucker/Single Coil combo (ala my Spector NS-2), but loved my Fender Jazz with two passive single coil Barts.

 

[BrettT]

I have 2 Fender Jazz basses with the Deluxe active electronics, and generally always have the pickups blended 90% bridge, 10% neck. The neck pickup is too boxy sounding for metal, IMO.

 

[slashvanyoung]

I think the old Billy Sheehan approach is pretty cool. His pickups were wired independently and each one got its own output jack for driving an independent amp/channel. So basically one delivered a massive low end and the other one the high-end definition without the compromise of a blended signal.

Don't know if he still does that.

 

[Tachy]

When use active pick ups, like emg, I prefer both, with passives I go with the bridge

 

[wishtheend]

On my ESP w/ EMG 35DC and 35CS, I go 100% bridge.

 

[egan.]

I go with both as well.

 

[KeithTidd]

on my active, i have a blend knob which i use. It blends between a humbucker MM style bride, and a p style neck. on my jazz's i use both pickups full on.

 

[ze kink]

I don't own a bass right now, but when I still had the BTB406 I used the blend pot a lot. I usually used a different position for each song, and for the distorted / fuzz parts, I usually switched the bridge pickup 100% on.

 

[mondocane]

active EMG's, both full on all the time. never played a ballad anyway. ;-)

additional onboard EMG BTC blended in for other flavours.

different picks helps to change attack too. practise with headphones to discover different nuances. sometimes even same picks but different color = slightly different sound. really.

 

[AudioPhile777]

both bartolinis... awesome.

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

both bartolinis... awesome.

Exactly that.

 

[Ermz]

Had a tracking session today. 2 full humbuckers worked out fine! Everything else was lacking majorly.

 

[26]

half OT but....
just found this. :zombie:

 

[Fox Mulder]

Any change of preferences 2years, 4 months later?
I blend both 50/50. Would love to know what you guys are doing. Cheers!

 

[Max Morton]

Both as a bass player and as a sound engineer I prefer "both" on in most cases. Seems to sound best on majority of instruments. Not too honky and at the same time defined enough.

 

[::XeS::]

Be carefull before saying "active pickup".... lot of times the pickups are passive and only the electronic is active.
Anyway I usually use the "middle" position with flat eq, but yesterday hironicaly I was trying this exact thing with my bass. I found very nice to use the neck pickup with the highs cranked from the bass.
It depends on the genre

 

[Bereavement]

for metal, I really like humbucking soap bar type bass, or Fender P bass type of sound.

I don't really switch pickups during parts in Metal (for other genres I will)
I prefer Active electronics in Metal and I much more prefer passive sound in other genre.

 

[sprack]

Another vote for these. Have a set in my J-bass and love them.

both bartolinis... awesome.

Also, the stock Carvin PU's are great.

 

[MindMunch]

I always use both EMG 35DC (active, humbucker) at the same time.
If you don´t have to option to use two pickups, just a single EMG 35DC in the bridge will do the trick, like Les Claypool's setup.

I like the tone better hitting the strings closer to the neck instead of the bridge (took me a while to get used to it)