Using "guitar" pups in a bass

[daan]

I have a Hondo Jazz copy, it has some "issues"  one of them being the pickups. They fell apart, I had them rewired (the pickup guy said he was able to just re-asemble them instead of actually rewinding them) which was fine, except 2 of the 3 wires coming out of the pups don't actually have WIRE inside the plastic insulation... and I tried taking one apart to see if I could fix it myself. So anyway, I already have a fake P/J style bass that I like the sound of, so I don't just want to put Fender-style pups in this bass (not that they'd fit, it's routed for humbucker-shaped pups now) and also I love the sound of the P-90 pups in the guitar I have. Has anyone here put a P90 in a bass? What would that sound like, does anybody have any experience with that?
An older guitar I used to have, got a set of Gretsch Electromatic pups put into it that I suspect were just guitar "mini humbuckers" with no visible pole pieces, and that sounded great. And the stock pups are close enough in size that I could cut new pup rings to size for minis easier than plugging and re-routing the wood.
So how about it?
Oh yeah, posts about 70's rock, model trains, WWII aircraft and stuff like that are welcome in here too. 

And, I heard that wearing fish nets while playing increases your "tone" by 73%. Is that still true if you have your OEM leg hair still? 

[Dave W]

There's no difference between a guitar pickup and a bass pickup in my book. In general standard bass pickups tend to have a little more output even with the same number of winds since they're usually a little larger physically but that's irrelevant to me.

Besides the examples I could give (Rick toasters, Rick 4004/650 humbucker, original Fender Musicmaster) what it all boils down to is how it sounds. It either sounds good to you in the bass or it won't. In any case it won't sound like it does in a guitar for the simple reason that it's covering a different clef and scale length.

Go for it.

[Pilgrim]

The Squier Bronco and the Fender Musicmaster bass both used guitar pickups.  Plenty of both are/were sold and enjoyed as basses.

[Chris P.]

Also Duesenberg (6-polo humbuckers), Danelectro, Gibson with the 335-bass... All guitar humbuckers. I guess a P90 will sound a bit P-ish?

[Highlander]

I'm not taking the P90's (I think) out of my SG... Al banned me from meddling...

[fealach]

I recently put guitar pickups in one of my basses, though not P-90s; Epiphone Goth Les Paul.   Not much bite, but a good classic rock sound, from nasally to mud.  I suppose it might have more treble if the strings weren't 6 year old half-rounds.  I put in a series/parallel switch, fattens up the bottom.    Was going to trade it in, not so sure now.  It's pretty fun.

[Pilgrim]

I'm not taking the P90's (I think) out of my SG... Al banned me from meddling...

I was going to comment, but then i saw a squirrel....

What was the question?   

[exiledarchangel]

Has anyone here put a P90 in a bass? What would that sound like, does anybody have any experience with that?

Old mosrite bass single coil pickups were built like guitar P-90s. Also Dark Star pickups construction is a bit P-90ish (if we throw away that bulky pole elevating mechanism ofcourse).

I think you will have some good results if you choose pickups with lower dc resistance, vintage or whatever they are called. Stay away from overwound pickups, except if you are going for a particular (muddy) sound.

[Dave W]

.... Stay away from overwound pickups, except if you are going for a particular (muddy) sound.

IMHO that's sound advice for any situation, bass or guitar. Exactly what happens depends on the design, coil shape and size, etc. But clarity usually suffers with an overwound pickup.

[Highlander]

What was the question?   

The answer to the question is ... forty two ...

The problem was the way you posed the... squirrel...? did you say squirrel...?

[lowend1]

The Music Zoo sells the chrome, guitar-sized Gibson TB+ on ebay for $55 each. I've purchased two of them and have been very satisfied.
http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=8141.0

[uwe]

Much like crossdressing, it sometimes works and it sometimes doesn't. Trying is believing.

[daan]

OK so now that 2 of my girls are in school again, and the other one actually napped (YAY FREE TIME) I could futz with this again. I had gone to the guitar store to find a used P90 (since I don't wanna spend more on a "test" pup than I spent on the entire guitar) They had a GFS humbucker sized P90 that I bought. When I told the guy what I was doing with it, he told me they had an old violin-shaped thing that was too far gone to save, and sold me the pickups off of that for $7. Can't beat that, he even checked 'em out with his tester before I bought them so I knew they worked. I got the 90 into the neck (middle?) space(It didn't fit into the bridge route, and I didn't want to enlarge it), messed with the wiring aaaaaand...
All I got was a tiny bit of noise if I pulled up on the pot and kind of shook it. I tried changing all the wires around and got nothing. I think I have to see if I jarred something loose on my control plate or something. And I realize my plate and the original guardplate don't line up. I do have a chunk of guard plate material, and my mother-in-law has a band saw she'll let me use, if I get a new blade for it. I could try to make a new guardplate since this project is already spiraling out of control (or just circling the drain, ha ha)

I did put the violin bass pups in, they were exactly the same size as what I already have. Except they work... I did get the bridge pup to work, that made plenty of sound with the "tap on the polepiece" test. The neck one, not so much.



I really wanna know what my fake 90 will sound like, so I'll play with the wiring some more and get back to you. Hopefully before Christmas...
Playing this reminded me how much I like this bass, even though I spent more time now filling dents and drilling holes into it rather than actually PLAYING it.

[Dave W]

A mother-in-law with a band saw! As Martha Stewart would say, that's a good thing.

[maxschrek]

Send it to Carlo and have him put some Thunderbuckers in it