Guitar humbucker sized bass pickups, what to use?

[Dave W]

Could be a different model with the same coil winding, but if it has polepieces I don't think it's an X2N even if he says so.

[Deathshead]

agreed, it just looks like a similar bobbin thats it...

[SGD Lutherie]

went back and forth the other day about the model g and the bassbucker, the this guy posted a pretty interesting pic of one cracked open, he swears its a x2n with pole peices instead of blades..

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=569920&highlight=bassbuckers

This is an old thread, but that was referring to a post of mine at TalkBass. I was saying the Model G is an X2N with poles. That photo is of a Model One. It uses the same bobbins, but is wound differently.

I know the G is the same as an X2N because the coils have the same resistance reading as an X2N. However, the X2NB is not wound as hot. I've converted some Model Gs into guitar pickups by adding blades.

You really don't want an overly hot pickup on an bass. As you wind a pickup hotter, you end up with a bandpass response. So you have a big hump in the mids, and the highs and very lows get lost. You also have to think that a bass puts out a lot more signal from the larger strings, and that hot guitar pickups are made extra bassy to give the guitar some balls. Bass already has bass! This is why the vintage T-Bird pickups sound so good. They weren't wound very hot and stayed nice and bright.

I make guitar humbucker size bass pickups. One recent customer replaced an X2NB with one of mine and said:

I've had a couple of rehearsals with the pickup now, and it's a keeper. It is, of course, lower output, so I did have to increase the volume of my amp a bit (went from 2 to 3 on my VBA 400, and per your suggestion adjusted the pickup close to the strings - a lot closer than I had the X2N-B). The tone is WAY better/balanced, so I also adjusted the EQing on the amp. It sustains longer (I always thought pickups had little effect on that, unless they were super low output... live and learn, hehehe...), it's MUCH "clearer" sounding (by that, I mean I can hear the individual notes a lot better now), and as I said previously, has more "girth". All in all, an excellent pickup.

That's not posted as an advertisement, just to point out that some of these guitar pickups masquerading as a bass pickup are not always the best choice tone wise.

[Dave W]

I don't like overly hot guitar pickups either, for the same reasons, it's just a lot more apparent on bass. Think of all the guitarists and bassists who made great music on their standard strength pickups before overwinding to increase output came along.

[SGD Lutherie]

Think of all the guitarists and bassists who made great music on their standard strength pickups before overwinding to increase output came along.

I agree 100%

I dislike those Duncan JB pickups as well. They are really dark and muddy when played clean.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

The worst culprits of overwinding are the Epi guitar-sized humbuckers that this thread was discussing replacements for. Deathshead and I got the exact same model bass, a black Epi Les Paul Standard, at around the same time and both of us opted to replace the stock Epi pickups, mainly because they sounded just plain bad. While their output impedance wasn't anything especially high, the sound was always distorted and very nasal. The only useful tones were at extreme volume rolloff, which is impractical. I went with RS's last pair of Bassbuckers, Lindy Fralin's 60's T-Bird tribute in a guitar-sized pickup case. You can read about my experience with them here and here.

[SGD Lutherie]

Yeah, lately I have been getting orders for humbucker sized pickups to replace the Les Paul basses.

[maxschrek]

My Hamer B8s came with Dimarzio X2Ns.....I liked 'em for a while
but eventually got tired of the fact that no matter what I did I couldn't
clean up the sound. I replaced them last year with a set of of the Pitbulls
and I have to say it's been quite an improvement. I can still get gritty
when I want or chimey clean. Lots more low end, too.


T