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Immo
March 26th, 2011, 07:30 PM
I recently got from a friend an almost complete post-soviet telecaster-style bass painted in beautiful candy apple color. Unfortunately, the neck was a horror - bent in a way allowing it to be a base for a boomerang. Additionally, the pu's, as usually the ones form the Eastern Block do, had weak output and lacked bass.
Fortunately, I had a Seymour-Duncan SCPB-3 pickup in my stash, as well as lot of hardware - everything you need to build a bass - and bought a new neck - 100% maple one. The new neck makes the scale over 2" longer. I've already designed the scratchplate and love it. The color's so cool I'd never change it.
The question is - where to put the SCPB-3?
The body has two holes for pu's: one, angled, next to the neck cavity and the second one next to the bridge. The angled one is big enough to incorporate everything of a size of a Gibson MiniHumbucker, while the bridge one would barely spare a space for J-bass pu. I want to have only the SCPB-3, nothing more, on that bass. I want it to sound thick, but maybe not too muddy, close to P-bass, no J-bass bridge-pickup mids.
My luthier said he'd put the SCPB-3 in the angled hole to get lower tone.
I'd agree with him, but the other hole, remaining insanely empty, would have to be covered by pickguard anyway and the whole design will look silly - a scratchplate sized like a dinner plate and small pu at the far end:
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6263/wrongs.png
I asked a friend with a original single coil P-bass and he said the original pu - with 34" scale - is located 27 cm (~10 4/5", am I right?) from the 12th fret. In my design it'd look something like this:
http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/3435/classic.png
But then again there are some old screw holes which could spoil the looks (I haven't checked it yet). And I'm not searching to recreate the original tele sound (I'll come to that later in my "custom-shopping" career), but would rather have an original sounding AND great looking bass. And I love symmetry. So I thought about routing a new hole for placing the pu perfectly between those two original pickup holes - about 29-30cm (~11 3/5" - 12") from the 12th fret and again, with the fully masking scratchplate it'd look like this:
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/317/rightts.png
I know that playability and sound are far more important then the looks, but then again, with sooo much output SCPB-3 gives, the sound should still be thick, am I right?
What are your suggestions? Which of the options is best for the sound in your opinion? Is there a better idea?
Fortunately, I had a Seymour-Duncan SCPB-3 pickup in my stash, as well as lot of hardware - everything you need to build a bass - and bought a new neck - 100% maple one. The new neck makes the scale over 2" longer. I've already designed the scratchplate and love it. The color's so cool I'd never change it.
The question is - where to put the SCPB-3?
The body has two holes for pu's: one, angled, next to the neck cavity and the second one next to the bridge. The angled one is big enough to incorporate everything of a size of a Gibson MiniHumbucker, while the bridge one would barely spare a space for J-bass pu. I want to have only the SCPB-3, nothing more, on that bass. I want it to sound thick, but maybe not too muddy, close to P-bass, no J-bass bridge-pickup mids.
My luthier said he'd put the SCPB-3 in the angled hole to get lower tone.
I'd agree with him, but the other hole, remaining insanely empty, would have to be covered by pickguard anyway and the whole design will look silly - a scratchplate sized like a dinner plate and small pu at the far end:
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6263/wrongs.png
I asked a friend with a original single coil P-bass and he said the original pu - with 34" scale - is located 27 cm (~10 4/5", am I right?) from the 12th fret. In my design it'd look something like this:
http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/3435/classic.png
But then again there are some old screw holes which could spoil the looks (I haven't checked it yet). And I'm not searching to recreate the original tele sound (I'll come to that later in my "custom-shopping" career), but would rather have an original sounding AND great looking bass. And I love symmetry. So I thought about routing a new hole for placing the pu perfectly between those two original pickup holes - about 29-30cm (~11 3/5" - 12") from the 12th fret and again, with the fully masking scratchplate it'd look like this:
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/317/rightts.png
I know that playability and sound are far more important then the looks, but then again, with sooo much output SCPB-3 gives, the sound should still be thick, am I right?
What are your suggestions? Which of the options is best for the sound in your opinion? Is there a better idea?