Bass pickups

[MT01]

If the EMG 81 can be considered the industry standard pickup for a modern metal guitar tone, then what would be the equivalent industry standard for a bass?

If thinking of buying a used cheap and cheerful bass and the first thing I'd do is put some decent pickups in it.


This is the one I'm looking at the moment:

RBX374

Recommend me some pickups please!

Thanks

 

[Metaltastic]

Wow, that's fucking sexy, and I have a huge amount of confidence in Yamaha as a company - there have regularly been threads like this with people asking that very question (what's the bass equivalent of the EMG81), but I never remember getting a unanimous answer, sadly...

 

[narcossintese]

EMG 35-DC

 

[DanLights]

I'd like to know this too. I googled the emg 35-Dc and they seem cool. any other options?

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

as far as I know, EMGs are basically the "industry standard" for metal bass players. generally you want to get 35/40/45s if you need one to fit in a humbucker position.

 

[DanLights]

how about a single-coil/jazz type mic for the same purpose? My strinberg has one humbucker type and one single coil type, Normally I only use the neck (single coil) one cause it sounds better to my likings. I'm not even a big fan of active mics really, just asking to see if it could work for me

 

[Jaymz]

EMG 35-DC

Whats the 40 version like?

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

Whats the 40 version like?

as far as I know it's the same as the 35, just for 5-strings (and the 45 for 6-strings)

 

[Rex Rocker]

The thing with bass pickups is that there are so many housings that it's really hard to get a 'metal standard'.

I'm not sure EMG's housing will fit that bass.

 

[MT01]

The thing with bass pickups is that there are so many housings that it's really hard to get a 'metal standard'.

I'm not sure EMG's housing will fit that bass.

I had a feeling someone was going to say this eventually.

 

[narcossintese]

as far as I know it's the same as the 35, just for 5-strings (and the 45 for 6-strings)

Yep, that´s it. I use two EMG 35-DC, but some guys like Les Claypool use only one on the bridge. I researched a lot before buying these and they really deserve their fame. I would never go back to passive pickups. You can check some details and endorsers of it here.

 

[Rex Rocker]

I had a feeling someone was going to say this eventually.

Sorry.

The pickups' lenght (perpendicular to the strings) definitely looks wider than the EMG 35 extended housing (35mm). Maybe the 40 extended housing would fit (40mm), but I kinda think those pickups look a bit less wide (the distance 'parallel' to the strings).

I can get you the measurements for the EMG 40 housing if you want. I have a set of HZ-40's in my bass.

 

[Ben Johnson]

Happy EMG xC user here.

 

[Jaymz]

Might be a silly question, but if you are low on funding can you replace just one of the pups with a 35-DC, or is it both or nothing? Im pretty clueless on basses.

 

[Rex Rocker]

Might be a silly question, but if you are low on funding can you replace just one of the pups with a 35-DC, or is it both or nothing? Im pretty clueless on basses.

Well... you can. I think it's sort of like the same deal with guitar. You just have to get 25K pots for the actives, 250K/500K/1Meg pots for the passives.

When blending both pickups, that would be a bit weird, tho. Especially since many bassists (including myself) tend to like both pickups engaged.

 

[Jaymz]

Yeah thats what I thought. Bah, im recording soon and id love to swap out my Spector's passive EMG's for a set but I need to spend the money on a DI/reamp setup before that

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

I'm pretty sure they're Soapbar sized, which the EMGs aren't - I also have a feeling the screw hole on the bottom is in a completely different place to any other soapbar you'll find, so you'll probably need to make a new hole.

Steve

 

[egan.]

I wouldn't call EMG's a bass standard b/c out of all of the bass players I know personally the only ones playing EMG's are using spectors. Obviously nothing wrong with that, but I know more guys using stock warwick, musicman, and fender pups than anything else.

Personally I would rather buy a bass that sounds the right to begin with. I know it's really popular in this forum to spend $200 after you buy a new guitar but there are a lot of great sounding instruments in the $500 range rather than buying a a $300 guitar and upgrading.

All of that said I would definitely recommend passive pups with an active preamp over active pups for bass. This is close to being a standard for "active" bass (emg is the only active bass pup maker I can think of off hand). [Edit: just noticed that duncan is making a few sets]

My personal pup preference is barts but the duncan basslines series is fantastic as well.
For something super aggressive I would pair some basslines with an aguilar preamp....or just buy a stingray.

 

[egan.]

Yeah thats what I thought. Bah, im recording soon and id love to swap out my Spector's passive EMG's for a set but I need to spend the money on a DI/reamp setup before that

I would add a preamp before swapping the pups.

 

[Metaltastic]

I wouldn't call EMG's a bass standard b/c out of all of the bass players I know personally the only ones playing EMG's are using spectors. Obviously nothing wrong with that, but I know more guys using stock warwick, musicman, and fender pups than anything else.

Personally I would rather buy a bass that sounds the right to begin with. I know it's really popular in this forum to spend $200 after you buy a new guitar but there are a lot of great sounding instruments in the $500 range rather than buying a a $300 guitar and upgrading.

All of that said I would definitely recommend passive pups with an active preamp over active pups for bass. This is close to be a standard for "active" bass (emg is the only active bass pup maker I can think of off hand).

My personal pup preference is barts but the duncan basslines series is fantastic as well.
For something super aggressive I would pair some basslines with an aguilar preamp....or just buy a stingray.

Barts aren't active? I guess it's the active preamp (with passive pups) part that throws me off, but that's awesome that you still get the benefits of having an already-amplified signal outputting from your jack (namely, less tone-sucking potential)