Bass pickup questions

[spellcaster]

I have some questions about bass pickups. I use a Gretsch G2220 Junior Jet as my everyday bass, but also own an Asian violin bass. The violin bass suffers from boomy humbuckers that lack articulation. I'd like to swap in a set of single coil bass pickups but there don't seem to be many choices. I'd use a set of the Gretsch single coils if I could find them (I can't), but assuming I need to shop for something different, what are my options? The Rickenbacker pickups aren't practical price-wise. I found an Ogdni single coil bass pickup on Amazon, which appears to be a Tele-bass type pickup mounted under a Ric-style cover, but can't find any information on them to know whether they're worthwhile. Any other suggestions?

 

[frisco slim]

I would say there are lots of choices. Any number of Jazz Bass SC pickups, plus Seymour Duncan, Lollar, and Fralin all make variations of the '51 P Bass single coil.

 

[Peegoo]

@spellcaster

I've got a Junior Jet and it's a fantastic bass. I paid $200 for it brand new about 20 years ago and it is the one that gets used for recording more than any other bass here. And I have some high-dollar basses.

 

[Bortyeast]

I've had really good experiences with Delano pickups

https://fatbasstone.com/collections/delano-pickups

 

[spellcaster]

@ frisco slim

I appreciate your suggestions, but I was hoping to find something that was in the mini-humbucker format, which would be a lot more installation friendly for a violin bass. That would involve not only a bit different physical dimensions, but also the narrower string spread, which I think is 1 11/16". I know for sure the Jazz Bass pickups would be suited to a full-size bass, and I'm guessing the 51 P-Bass pickups as well.

 

[Peegoo]

@spellcaster

I sent you a PM; check it out.

 

[elihu]

I had the same problem with a Squier Jaguar Bass-muddy sounding with poor note articulation.

I bought a Nordstrand replacement humbucker that fixed it. My tech installed a small 3 way toggle switch and wired it for humbucker, series and single coil modes.

Welcome to Nordstrand Audio

Nordstrand Audio is the home of Nordstrand Pickups, Rocket Surgeon Labs and more...

nordstrandaudio.com

 

[RandomKaren]

I have some questions about bass pickups. I use a Gretsch G2220 Junior Jet as my everyday bass, but also own an Asian violin bass. The violin bass suffers from boomy humbuckers that lack articulation. I'd like to swap in a set of single coil bass pickups but there don't seem to be many choices. I'd use a set of the Gretsch single coils if I could find them (I can't), but assuming I need to shop for something different, what are my options? The Rickenbacker pickups aren't practical price-wise. I found an Ogdni single coil bass pickup on Amazon, which appears to be a Tele-bass type pickup mounted under a Ric-style cover, but can't find any information on them to know whether they're worthwhile. Any other suggestions?

If you are reasonably handy with guitar electronics you can put a coil tap switch in to drop one of the humbucker coils out, giving you a single coil option from the stock pickups.

[edit] just noticed @elihu has already mentioned pretty much the same thing.

 

[PC_Hater]

The Lace Aluma bass pickups are excellent.
I have them in 2 of my basses now.
Immense low end, clean highs, altogether wonderful.
I used to use DiMarzio Model One pickups to get the lows, no need now! A direct comparison shows the Lace pickups have all the lows and then just carry on to higher frequencies.
You might find you use your tone controls on the bass and the amp more...
YMMV etc!

 

[Martinp]

Look at Seymour Duncan custom shop, they have thunderbird bass pickups, and some Lemmy Kilmeister signature pickups that you may find interesting.

 

[RomanS]

Is that muddy violin bass a Höfner-branded one (Ignition, Icon, Contemporary series), or some other brand?
Does it have that counter-intuitive switch-panel? These have all kinds of caps and resistors to modify output and treble content, before changing pickups, I'd replace the panel with a volume - tone - 3way switch setup (or alternatively, a VVT setup, like on a jazz bass) - that might be enough to get rid of the mud.

If you're still not satisfied, make sure to measure the dimensions of the pickups - actual Höfner staple PUs are slightly different in size from Gibson-y mini-HBs, but on many Asian-made violin basses, they use staple lookalikes with Gibson size - in that case I would try using Firebird pickups (make sure that you get some with vintage construction - blade magnets, not indiviual poles under the cover). Those are quite bright for mini-HB-sized pick-ups, and since they have blade poles, it doesn't matter whether you use them on guitar or bass.


BTW, I modded my cheapo Höfner Club Bass with Thunderbird pickups...

 

[Linus Pickle]

@ frisco slim

I appreciate your suggestions, but I was hoping to find something that was in the mini-humbucker format, which would be a lot more installation friendly for a violin bass. That would involve not only a bit different physical dimensions, but also the narrower string spread, which I think is 1 11/16". I know for sure the Jazz Bass pickups would be suited to a full-size bass, and I'm guessing the 51 P-Bass pickups as well.

If you want a drop-in replacement, I'm pretty sure the Gretsch stock pickups are standard Thunderbird size, so any Tbird replacement should fit.

It's not a problem if your magnetic field is wider than the string spread, but a larger pickup would involve routing out some more of the bass body, which isn't something I'd want to do.

I'm assuming based on your comment about the price of Rickenbacker pickups that you want to stay under $200 total, this will limit your options but it won't be impossible. What price do you have in mind?

A cheaper way to get a bit more top end out of your pickups is to use higher value pots, I'm guessing the bass comes with 250K as that's pretty typical for single coils. I prefer 500K pots on my single coils. You could try swapping those out first and see if that makes enough of a difference. (There is some confusion about the pickups in these basses because Gretsch advertised them as having humbuckers, but a bass YouTuber did some investigation and figured out that they were single coils. If you look on their website, they now say that they are single coil. Thus, coil splitting isn't going to be an option.)

 

[spellcaster]

Just for fun, I looked back at what I was paying for Rickenbacker pickups, and it turned out to be around 100.00 USD for Hi-Gains and around 200 USD for Toasters. Either way, it becomes a pretty expensive upgrade on an Asian-made bass. If it was the only bass I was going to use, I'd at least consider it, but the Gretsch G2220 will always be my go-to choice.

I'd absolutely love to be able to buy that set of Gretsch bass take-offs that were advertised on Reverb US for 60.00, but the guy doesn't seem interested in shipping to Canada even with the carrot of extra money and payment in advance.

It may be that this is just too expensive an upgrade to consider. I guess the change to 500 mf pots might give me some gains, but the humbuckers are just soooo dead that I can't imagine a pot change brightening them up enough to make it worthwhile.

 

[Guerilla Electro]

aren't the Gretsch Junior Jet pick ups humbuckers too ?

As Roman S said you should really try first to get rid of the weird caps and resistors arrangement , or just drop a simple Volume + tone control : you can buy a 3 way 500K vo/tone wiring harness for a few $ on ebay .
amazon link wiring harness 9$ I put the exact same in my bass 2 years ago , works just fine .
ebay link

or you could try Epiphone firebird pickups : those are really super bright , articulated and punchy : Epiphone FB720Ni ( nickel covers) you can find them for 40$ on ebay
they are 2.66 inches long and 1.09 wide so exactly the same dimensions than Hofner pickups ( I just checked using digital calpiers )
I have one stored just for this , but I need to so some routing in my bass .... I already put a set in a Danelectro and in my Bigsby Tele , and these pickups are insanely good , they are real firebird pickups , and they are so cheap it's really a no-brainer ! They are so high output I 'm sure they will sound great in a short scale bass !

 

[spellcaster]

The Gretsch Junior Jet (G2220) pickups are single coils. Apparently the original Gretsch single pickup model was a humbucker, but when the two pickup model came out and fender claimed they were humbuckers, there was a real hue and cry from people who bought them and discovered they were single coils. They actually were compensating customers who bought them and then discovered they'd been misled. I liked the fact that they're single coils and I've had a lot of people I played with in bands comment on how clean and articulate they sound.

After I'd gotten used to the Gretsch single coil sound, I took my Hofner to practice one day for the first time in a long time, and was really dismayed with how muffled and boomy the bass sounds......I don't know if it's just the pickups or if the change to the D'Addario strings is a factor, but I'm quite dissatisfied with the sound now. That's what's got me thinking about changing the pickups. I've had a couple of suggestions repeatedly...One being to change components in the Hofner control panel, and the other being changing to the Firebird pickups. I haven't heard the Firebird pickups, so it would be a risk to just blindly change them without knowing what to expect. I do know that something needs to happen - As it stands, the Hofner's destined to be a stand queen that never gets played.

I looked on eBay for the Epiphone pickups you mentioned, Guerilla Electro, but can't find them. Any of the Firebird pickups shown are described as humbucking, and when I search for Epiphone single coils, the only search results are for P90's. I did like the idea of something that's a direct bolt-in....I can see where trying to change the style of pickups in a violin bass might turn into a can of worms.

 

[RomanS]

Firebird pickups ARE humbuckers - but due to their construction (blade magnets inside the coil, rather than bar magnets on the bottom and steel slugs inside the coil), their tone is much more single coil-like.

Unless you can find a pair of these Gretsch Junior Jet pickups used, or have some small "boutique" shop wind you a custom set of SCs in miniHB size ($$$), you won't find anything like that.

Also, even if you don't want to replace the stock circuit in the violin bass right away, at least try wiring the pickups directly to the output jack first (alligator clips) - that filter network of extra caps and resistors (cutting bass on the bridge pickup and treble on the neck one) plays a huge part of why Höfner basses sound like Höfner basses...

 

[Guerilla Electro]

Mine look just like that with grey wire ( you can see other with black and red wire ) , and they have the F720 Ni sticker

I found you a seller located in the US
ebay link epiphone fb pickups