Grandon Westlund - The Bass Kahuna

In my basic experience, most basses will sound about the same regardless of the pickups in it. Now, let me qualify that statement.

In my humble opinion, the overall sound of the bass is the sound of the bass. What I'm referring to is the actual "timbre" or "voice" of the instrument, not the amount of treble or bass, that is the "tone". The pickups in the bass will reflect this overall sound. Some pickups might have higher output, or maybe a bit more high end or low end response due to the type of magnets used, etc....

Here is what I'm referring to. Take a standard run of the mill p-bass with stock pickups. Put in a DiMarzio pickup and it will now have more output and distortion, but will still sound like P-bass. Now put an EMG active p style pickup in it. It still sounds like a p-bass, but maybe you can now get the same sound out of it with a lighter touch, or in my case, I get much more pleasing overdrive out of it than with the stock pickups, however, the "voice" of the bass is still pure P-bass.

Active pickups simply give you more output (ie: you now have an onboard pre-amp which gives you the active signal... the pickups are still passive...), and the onboard preamp now allows you to cut AND boost the treble or bass, but the overall voice of the instrument is not changed.

Basically, in my humble opinion, putting a Music Man Sabre pickup in a Rickenbacker bass does not suddenly make the Ric sound like a Music Man Sabre, nor putting Rick pickups in a Fender Jazz does not make the fender jazz sound like a Ric, and putting strat pickups in a Les Paul does not a strat sound make....

A pretty good test of what a bass' voice is, is to put the top horn of the bass against the bone of your skull right behind one of your ears, and then play it. Try that with your Warwick and see....

So, if you like the sound of an inexpensive Vester bass and it is passive, then that is all you need! I have played some very expensive basses that I did not like the sound of at all. If the bass sounds like a mutt to you, then chances are (again, imho...) that changing pickups will not change that. If that connection between the bass and your soul through your hands doesn't work, pickups won't change that.

The Bass Kahuna - Grandon Westlund

The term "passive" when used in talking about an electric bass refers to the fact that the volume and tone controls on the instrument can only cut or turn down the volume and the treble of the signal being generated by the pickup. If you were to remove the controls and wire the pickup directly to the output jack on the bass, you would basically have the same sound as if the controls were still there and turned up all the way. The controls do not "add" anything, only subtract or take away volume and treble. This is why passive electronics on a bass do not have seperate treble and bass controls, just one tone pot.

"Active" is when you have a small electronic pre-amp built into the bass. There is no such thing as an "active" pickup. The EMG actives are still a passive pickup, but with a small on-board pre-amp built right into the pickup cover so you don't see it. The "Active" pre amp allows you to cut AND add volume and tone. Typically they allow you to cut or add +/- 9 to 18 dB of volume, treble, bass, and some pre-amps have a midrange control as well.

An active system will not change the overall tone or "timbre" of your instrument, but will simply give you more of what the instrument already has to offer. A p-bass with an active pickup still sounds like a p-bass, but you have a stronger signal and more cut/boost of the treble and bass. Don't look for an active pre-amp to make a p-bass sound like a Warwick or vice versa...

Generally, a single coil pickup is a bit brighter in it's overall tone, with a bit more of a "pop", and a bit smoother low end. A humbucking pickup will have a bit higher output and more mids and less pronounced highs and sometimes, depending on the pickup, the placement, etc., slightly muddier lows (on a bass, imho anyway). An example is the difference between a strat and a les paul (yes, there are other things that affect the sound of the two, but you get the idea).

The Bass Kahuna - Grandon Westlund

Note: always do a setup with the brand and gauge of strings on the bass that you want.

1.) - Get the relief in the neck where it needs to be (ie: the right amount of forward bow in the neck).

I prefer to run my necks with a bit less relief than most think is appropriate. You check this by fretting the string at the 1st fret and the last fret and then check the gap between the string and the frets in the middle of the neck (ie: the 8th fret is about the middle, not the 12th fret). I check this by eye, but some use the thickness of a few business cards or feeler gauges, etc. There are many specs floating around with this gap but I like about 1/16" - 3/32" tops.

When making changes to the relief with the truss rod, only move it 1/4 turn at a time, then tune the bass up and play it as usual for about 12-24 hours, then check it again, only making 1/4 turn adjustments at a time until the desired amount of forward relief is reached.

2.) Set the nut height.

This is done by fretting each string at the 3rd fret and then checking the gap between the 1st fret and the bottom of the string. There should be ever so slight a gap, but a small gap none the less. File each nut groove down (slowly, just a blonde one at a time!) until that gap is just there. I tend to run the gap on a low b of a 5 or 6 string just a bit more than the other strings.

3.) Set the action where you want it, and check for buzzing.

If there is any buzzing on the neck now, you'll need to shave / level the frets and redress them, but that is another discussion.

4.) Set the intonation.

Using an electronic tuner, tune each string via a 12th fret harmonic. When in tune via a 12th fret harmonic, check it by fretting the string at the 12th fret. If this reads sharp, move the bridge saddle back, if it reads flat, move the bridge saddle forward (back = away from the neck, forward = towards the neck). Keep doing this until the string reads in tune when playing both a 12th fret harmonic and fretting it at the 12th fret.

That's a basic setup!

Most repair shops / guitar techs consider this a basic setup. Any fret leveling and redressing would not be in a basic setup and would usually require digging deeper into your wallet.

The Bass Kahuna - Grandon Westlund

Magnetic guitar and bass pickups (there are other types, like Piezo's but that is another discussion...) work by having a coil of copper wire wound around a "bobbin".

A magnet is placed beneath the coil (or in a few select pickups between the coils like the old Gibson EBO pickups... again I digress...). This magnet produces a magnetic field around and through the coils of wire. When you pass a metal object (ie: the bass string) through the magnetic field close to the coils, as it passes through the magnetic field the magnetic field must "flow" around and through it, thereby producing changes in the flow and pattern of the magnetic field. These changes in the flow and pattern of the magnetic field produce a small amount of electrical current in the coils of the pickups, which is then transmitted through the cable into the amplifier.

This is reverse of the old trick of winding wire around a big old nail and then hooking each end of the wire up to a battery. When passing the electrical current through the wire in this instance we then produce a magnetic field around the nail.

Stronger magnets produce a bigger magnetic field around the coils and more windings around the coils means more current in created in the wire thereby producing a "hotter" pickup. Typically, stronger magnetics and more windings around the bobbin produce stronger midrange along with the hotter output, and less highs.

Now... I know all that from my electronics theory back in tech school and college... however, the ongoing "discussion" around how to change the "tone" of a pickup (or why bart's sound different than DiMarzio's which sound different from EMG's..) has never produced an agreement between pickup manufacturers and is a bit full of "voodoo" and "opinion" with no real hard data that says "if you do this, it will sound just like a bartolini....".

The gauge (or thickness) of the wire, the type of insulation used on the wire, the size and type of magnets (alnico vs. ceramic)... yada yada yada... is a constant ongoing "discussion".

The Bass Kahuna - Grandon Westlund