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How Do I Prevent Pickups Interacting?
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 5/8/2006 6:19 PM |
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Paul D. |
How Do I Prevent Pickups Interacting? I like to "Hot-Rod" old basses. My favourite pickup configuration is 2 (very different) passive pickups with a rotary switch which gives all (in phase) options, ie: 1. Bridge Only 2. Both in Parallel 3. Both in Series 4. Neck Only My question is this: Is it possible to somehow isolate the pickups from one-another (using capacitors?) so that they don't "see" each other? When they are connected in parallel, there is a mid-cut effect which I'd like to avoid. I know that this effect doesn't happen with active pickups because the 2 coils don't see each other and thus don't interact. Cheers. |
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| 5/9/2006 6:45 AM |
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| David Schwab |
My pet peeve! The only way I know how to do this is using an active circuit. One way is to use an FET mixer... you can do a google and find some simple circuits. This will isolate your pickups from loading one another. It also wouldn't hurt to use a buffer right after each pickup, and then to the mixer, but the mixer should work fine. You might need to experiment with input resistor values unless you buffer each pickup. One of my basses has FET buffers after each pickup running into an op-amp mixer with tone controls. Great sounding bass. For series connection just wire the bass so in that position your signal goes to one mixer channel. If you use pickup buffers bypass the one buffer for the series connection. | |
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| 5/11/2006 5:59 AM |
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| DuncanM | Something like this : J-Fet" target="_blank">http://www.albertkreuzer.com/preamp_onboard.htm">J-Fet Preamp |
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| 5/18/2006 9:54 AM |
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| Zhangliqun |
If they're totally isolated from each other, then you don't have that middle position twang or sting. You have what sounds like two guitar players playing, one on the neck pu, on one the bridge. If that's what you want, I think it would be a lot easier to get this effect by wiring your guitar for stereo, like a Lucille or other 345's and 355's. Carvin also used to do that -- you could plug the two pickups into separate channels or even amps. |
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| 5/18/2006 10:12 AM |
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| David Schwab |
On 5/18/2006 3:54 PM, Zhangliqun said:
Not exactly, since both pickups are picking up the same source. What you get is more sound in the middle position. I don't hear "twang" or "sting".. I hear missing tone! Look at a Les Paul for example. The middle position sounds like crap. You get less than with either pickup by itself. This is because each pickup is loading the other... you loose signal. Then you also have four pots loading the pickups. Look at active basses.. you can blend the pickups, and you still get the sound of two pickups, but without that parallel coil mid scoop sound.
And Rickenbacker... they marketed that as Ric-O-Sound. That gets the same results, but it isn't easier! You need to rewire the guitar for stereo. Then you need a stereo cable, which either splits to a Y, with two mono plugs, one for each pickup, or a breakout box, like Ric made. Then you have to either have a two channel amp, where you can use both channels at the same time, or two amps. That's easier? Then if you want onboard active EQ or something, you need a stereo unit, with ganged pots and the like. Plus, forget about plugging into your favorite stomp box, unless you have two. And three legs, so you can stand on one as you switch both boxes on! I have 2 stereo Ric basses... not the same thing at all.  | ||
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| 5/18/2006 11:03 AM |
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| Zhangliqun |
"Look at a Les Paul for example. The middle position sounds like crap." We are definitely from two different worlds there. Think BB King and Jimmy Page. That is one of the classic blues tones. "Look at active basses.. you can blend the pickups, and you still get the sound of two pickups, but without that parallel coil mid scoop sound." I play as much bass as I do guitar at gigs and sessions and I have an active bass -- and it does get that same interacting tone. That tone is what MAKES the classic Marcus Miller sound and all his bass playing descendants, that "ping" and "snap" that is the heart and soul of funk bass. |
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| 5/18/2006 1:35 PM |
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| David Schwab |
On 5/18/2006 5:03 PM, Zhangliqun said:
Which Page recordings are we talking about? He played a major portion of his famous recordings on a brown Tele... (Whole Lotta Love, solo to Stairway, etc.) I'd much rather hear the neck pickup on a Paul soloed than both pickups on. In fact I'd wager when Page did play a LP, he was using one or the other. He also has his LP set for series and out of phase wiring, so I'd guess he wasn't always crazy about the stock two pickup sound either! Same is true with Clapton, who is said to have used the bridge pickup almost entirely on his Gibsons, and Beck, whom you can hear switching from neck to bridge on a lot of recordings. The two pickup setting on a Gibson wounds weak and sort of like an acoustic guitar. BB's tone I never cared for at all... very bland. Of course it's personal preference... I rarely used both pickups at the same time on my LP Standard, or the ES-330TD I had (P-90s!) ... in fact I rarely use two pickups at the same time while playing guitar. I have a Tele/Strat/LP hybrid I built, and it gets the neck/bridge Tele setting... I hate it! I do use the 2 and 4 positions though.
OK.. you are talking about Jazz basses. For REAL old school funk, you need a P-bass.  If you are talking about slapping... well that's different.
I'm sick of Jazz basses. I never liked them, and I still don't. I love Marcus, but I hate that tone. He gets a harsh sounding top end. I'd rather hear Stanley's slap tone. Or Larry's... and even though he used a jazz, he doesn't get that tone. Most people don't put both pickups up full... it's mostly bridge with some neck mixed in, or the neck with a little bridge. It's a very midrangy bass. You crank both pickups and you kill the mids. That's my opinion of course, but I've been playing bass for 37 years now... so I know what sound I want to hear from a bass. No one used Jazz bases when they came out... it was all P bass... everywhere you looked. (of course I played a Ric!) The Jazz craze is a more recent fad, and that along with SVT's... I'm just waiting for it to be over! Everyone sounds the same these days. Ok.. rant over!
My active bass gets no interaction between pickups, except for the usual phase cancelation you get from having two pickups on at the same time. That's not the same thing as the pickups loading one another. Not all active basses are created equal! If you are talking about the Marcus Fender... that's not an active bass. Having a passive pickup bass with a pre-amp wont do it either in most cases. | ||
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