Adapting a guitar pup for bass use

[drbassman]

If I wanted to take a guitar humbucker with an 8.5 ohm reading and use it in a bass  (I know Fender beat me to this idea with the Musicmaster!), what would be the best pots for the volume and tone controls to reduce highs and enhance low frequencies?  I remember that using 250's on humbuckers would warm them up and reduce highs, so would that be a good start for this purpose? 

I was also wondering if leaving the cap off the tone control would increase low freqs as ell.  My electronics ignorance is showing again! 

[Chris P.]

Are we talking Rickenbacker pick ups here?

[Dave W]

I wouldn't do anything out of the ordinary. Just use what you would normally use for a humbucker (pots and caps) and see how it sounds. Don't automatically assume that it will sound trebly or not warm enough just because it's from a guitar.

I owned a Rick 4004 and 650 (guitar) at the same time. Pickups are identical. Sound was completely different with the different tuning, scale length and strings, i.e. the guitar didn't sound like it had a bass pickup on it, and vice versa.

[exiledarchangel]

+1. Maybe you want to try a .47 cap instead of a .22, that's all.

[drbassman]

Thanks guys.  Nope, not talking Ric pups.  Just some inexpensive guitar humbuckers that fit perfectly on a bass project I'm cobbling together and wanted to giver a try.

[shadowcastaz]

I remember being told the pup reads the magnetic vibration,so its the string that makes the  vibration(noise) over a  pup(guitar or bass) so I think your good except for string spacing,Me thinks .

[Dave W]

String spacing may or may not be an issue. Some pickups have a big falloff in output if the strings aren't exactly aligned. Other pickups have a wide magnetic field. He'll find out soon enough.

The Strat type 6 pole pickup in the original Musicmaster was low output but it had plenty of low end on a bass and I've never noticed a problem with the misalignment on the ones I've played.

[drbassman]

the pups are soap bar, chrome cover deals.   String spacing shouldn't be a problem.  I think I'm gonna try the 500K pots with a .47 cap.

[Saf]

on a musicmaster bass the string run throug the middele of to pole piece of the strat pickup and indeed I think the pick ups sounds great for bass.

I have an gfs lipstickhb in use on one of my bassguitars and even used a bass for a while that had an set of epi LP Hb's in it. It sounded great. Just try it out and let us know.

[drbassman]

The pickups are Artec mini humbuckers, which are probably a lot like Epi humbuckers anyway, so I should be OK.  Thanks for all the input guys.  I'll post a picture as things progress.  It'll be a surprise for you guys!