So What Happens If You...?

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

...put a set of bass pickups in a guitar?

Does a single coil bass pickup still sound like a single coil? Thicker? Or is it all bass eq'd out the wazoo?

[RobB]

...put a set of bass pickups in a guitar?

I dunno? Prolly waste a half an hour soldering when you could have spent that time playing guitar?

[Caddie]

Nathan, with all due respect, you might wanna cut back on the brainfertilizer.

Cheers!

caddie

[hamerhead]

You should try every possible combination and report back. In depth.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

I'm not going to do it...I just wonder what would happen if you did. It seems like if there is any chance of ending up with a unique sound, there's a guitarist out there who would have tried it.

The thought was inspired by the Presidents of the United States of America. Apparently the bass player has a few thick guitars strings on his bass, and the guitarist has some thin bass strings on his guitar, and they call them the bassuitar and gitbass or something like that. Their clean tones seem very rich/full, and that made me wonder what would happen if you used bass pickups on a guitar.

But I have no real need to try it out, just wondering if it is has been done and what was the result, if anything noticeable.

[hamerhead]

Quitter.

[Caddie]

Try a Monaco Subtone, 6 string, 26 ½ scale. or try a short scale bass like a Hamer B8s.

Long scale vs short scale bass

Pres of USA. If I recall correctly didn't their bass player have just one string on his bass. And the guitar player had 2 or 3 strings.

Movin to the Country

Gonna Eat a lotta Peaches

Cheers!

caddie

[Tres Aardvarks]

The form factors aren't the same (even for HB bass pups), are they? If they're not, you'd have to route out.

I think a better indicator would be to look at something like a Chapman Stick, or Warr guitar where there are bass and guitar strings, and see what they are doing. http://warrguitars.com/

[Teh]

I think the primary issue would be the position of the pickup magnets v. string position. If the strings aren't lining up above the magnets, the field won't be generated when you hit the string and your tone will be thin and weak.

[BadgerDave]

Except for the issues with pole pieces lining up, as has been mentioned, I don't think there would be much of a difference. The DiMarzio X2N pickup works well as a bass and guitar pickup (if you like super hi gain guitar pickups). I have a six string Jerry Jones Baritone/Bass 6 that uses lipstick pickups, that are usually used on guitars and it sounds killer. I believe Rickenbacker uses the same pickup designs for some guitar and bass models.

[tomteriffic]

Boz Scaggs was in the Steve Miller Band for at least the Sailor album. He used a Guild 335-style with one of those "big enough to dance on" Gibson bass pickups in the middle position. For the era, the tones on that album are pretty good, so??? That one has horizontal coils and magnets and the pole-pieces are just there to direct the flux, so the string alignment may not be of any consequence.

I had a Fender Musicmaster bass way back when. As part of an overhaul the original pickup got replaced. When I pulled the cover off I found a stock mid-60's Fender guitar pickup. It was replaced with a much more powerful Bill Lawrence blade-type single coil, but what had been in there hadn't been awful.

[tomteriffic]

Correction: Boz's guitar was a Hagstrom.