# Bass pickups



## Imported_goods (Mar 4, 2006)

Hi all,

I'm just about to embark upon my first build. I'd like to build a fretless bass, and I was wondering if passive electronics are suitable for a fretless? I much prefer the passive tone of my current bass and almost never use the active electronics on it.

Also, where can I find Bartolini pickups in Canada? Their website is unfortuntely very unhelpful in locating dealers/distributors. I found some on guitarpartscanda.com, however their reputation seems to be terrible and was hoping to find another dealer...

Thanks a million!


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## Dr.StephanHeimer (May 1, 2006)

I would definitely go with passive pickups. Are you building a 4 or 5 string bass? 

I'm not a huge fan or Bartolini's, Fralin pickups are amazing, I've also been wanting to try out Duncan antiquity pickups. 

What style of bass and what type of tone are you going for?


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## Imported_goods (Mar 4, 2006)

Dr.StephanHeimer said:


> I would definitely go with passive pickups. Are you building a 4 or 5 string bass?
> 
> I'm not a huge fan or Bartolini's, Fralin pickups are amazing, I've also been wanting to try out Duncan antiquity pickups.
> 
> What style of bass and what type of tone are you going for?


It will be a four-string, 34 inch scale fretless. My current bass has P-J pickups, but I rarely use the J pickup, and I have a friend who has an old Stingray which has, to my ears, a really nice tone.

I was thinking of putting in a single MM-type pickup, which is why I was looking at Bartolini, which makes pickups specifically for passive setups...


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## martyb1 (Aug 5, 2007)

I just finished building this one for a friend of mine in Alaska
He picked it up on the 31st of Dec and then played with me in my New Years gig








He was undecided on what to use for pickups in this too.He finally decided on a Curtis Novak pickup Linky
He was very happy with them,even through the old Yamaha amp he used that night.
Here is a link to the entire build if you are interested
The SP-Bass


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## peter benn (Mar 29, 2007)

And if you're in a dusty old ma and pa store where the stock hasn't moved for eons, one of the first reissue Precision pickups in the '90s was the Fender Original Vintage, priced around $92 or something.

I had really good luck getting one about six years ago. It's not extremely loud, but it is fine.


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

martyb1 said:


> He was undecided on what to use for pickups in this too.He finally decided on a Curtis Novak pickup Linky
> He was very happy with them,even through the old Yamaha amp he used that night.
> Here is a link to the entire build if you are interested
> The SP-Bass


Man, you build some awesome guitars. Thats a great little picture/essay you have on building that bass.


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## james on bass (Feb 4, 2006)

I've always liked the tone of Bart's and they do sound great passive as well. A lot of shops seem to be able to get them.


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## Imported_goods (Mar 4, 2006)

martyb1 said:


> He was undecided on what to use for pickups in this too.He finally decided on a Curtis Novak pickup Linky
> He was very happy with them,even through the old Yamaha amp he used that night.
> Here is a link to the entire build if you are interested
> The SP-Bass


Thank you for both links; your work is really impressive.

I've just finished drawing my plans and am just about ready to make my templates, so it was really nice to see how you used your templates in your build...I think my neck pocket is what daunts me the most right now; I'm going to have a pretty deep neck pocket and I'm building my own neck, so I'm going to wait till my neck is finished before making a template for it and routing the pocket. I'm just terrified of screwing up the neck angle or something like that .

Thankfully I've got lots of "practice" lumber lying around...


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## Imported_goods (Mar 4, 2006)

Paul said:


> A friend just put together a Warmoth bass, using p'ups and pre-amp from Nordstrand.
> 
> This is a full time pro-musician, and the Nordstrand is his new gold standard.
> 
> ...


There are no specs on the Nordstrand website, so I can't figure out whether their p-ups need an active preamp or not...I'll email them to find out. Since they're available through Steamco, that might be a good way to go if I can get a schematic from them for a passive setup. Thanks for the link!


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## bleedingfingers (Sep 25, 2007)

I have Nordstrands in my p bass that I put together this summer 
and I am very impressed with the tone and also passive output is almost as hot as my active 5 strings that are loaded with barts .

I used 250k pots and a .047 orange drop cap and it really nails that 
growly old school pbass tone .

Also has plenty of high end if you run the tone control wide open.

The guys at Nordstrand are great and will answer all your questions 
and my next build will definately have Nordstrand pickups. 

Hope this helps.

Cheers B.


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