Bass Pickups

So, I'd like to pose a question to you all:

If you were to put any new bass pickups into your guitar, what would you choose and why?

I don't know....

... I do know I would be doing a fair amount of online reviewing of the various and myriad brands out there to choose from!!

Which style of pickup?

P bass, J bass, full humbucker style? Active/passive?

Be a little more specific.

Well, I guess the broad nature of the question posed intends all of the above for a general discussion.

For my purposes here currently, passive P-Bass pickups.

Thank you for any input!

peacius wrote:
For my purposes here currently, passive P-Bass pickups.

Well the Concord I HF600B/Hardpuncher, same thing, is an excellent pickup.

Copy of a Dimarzio DP122 and sounds just as good.
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Westbone wrote:
Well the Concord I HF600B/Hardpuncher, same thing, is an excellent pickup.

Copy of a Dimarzio DP122 and sounds just as good.
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Now that is some interesting information! Thank you for that, Westbone   

I was looking on over at westone.info and see they are listing the Concord I and Thunder I-A models as having the same pickups in 82/83. I'm just now starting to look into specific pickups and wiring them in. Are all active pickups just passive pickups with a preamp in the guitar? Some of the articles I've read talk about active vs. passive pickups and do not mention the preamp. Anything that can demystify the subject would be helpful.

And since we are on the topic of bass pickup comparisons, what would be the equivalent to: Magnaflux pickups in the Spectrum LX?

Thanks!

Westone use no active bass pickups at all, just the active circuit preamp either switched on or off.

There are no equivalent to the Magnaflux pups. due to the physical size but they are a very good sounding pup.

peacius wrote:...I was looking on over at westone.info ...

Oh No, that's an old tombstone site. The information is extremely dated.  

Please refer to our own, member supported website www.westoneguitars.net which you can always access from the link above in the menu bar.

It's as up to date as we are able to make it, and it's much easier to use.

Westbone wrote:Westone use no active bass pickups at all, just the active circuit preamp either switched on or off.

There are no equivalent to the Magnaflux pups. due to the physical size but they are a very good sounding pup.

Ah, ok, that makes complete sense! I had a feeling things were done that way. So since the Thunder IA has the same Hardpuncher pickups that the Concord I did, would it make sense for me to build my Frankenbass with some different pups that the DiMarzio's? I certainly understand the accurate view on putting this thing together, but herein lies a chance to see different tones than what I have on current basses. 

For the sake of entertaining the original question, let's put the DiMarzio's aside and think elsewhere. What pickup would you choose if you weren't trying to hit that original sound? Aguilar, Seymour Duncan, EMG, Fender, etc?


I really appreciate your suggestion and knowledge about the Hardpuncher vs. DiMarzio's. Thank you! 

Barry wrote:Oh No, that's an old tombstone site. The information is extremely dated.  

Please refer to our own, member supported website www.westoneguitars.net which you can always access from the link above in the menu bar.

It's as up to date as we are able to make it, and it's much easier to use.

I didn't know it was that far gone! Maybe I just liked the vintage feel of the site   From now on I'll solely go to westoneguitars.net, which I have frequented often in the past! Just that night I had been looking there for info (maybe the .info tricked me). 

How long has .info been obsolete for, and how long have ya'll been running your site?

The westone.info site comes up first in Google because of the domain name which is why most people go there first when looking for Westone.

For reasons too complicated to relate here we did not obtain the rights to it and used westoneguitars.net instead which was readily available.

The original creator of the info site, David Blair, ceased his work on it and was about to delete it completely but he decided to give the contents to another forum member who presently hosts it but does not update it.

We eventually were also given a copy of that old site and I built the new site based initially on that data. As we developed it, many other features and information were added, thanks to the forum members who have contributed photos and restoration specifics.

We'll be coming up on our 4th year next Spring.

Have a look through the Site News forum for a complete account of what we've been doing here.

peacius wrote:


For the sake of entertaining the original question, let's put the DiMarzio's aside and think elsewhere. What pickup would you choose if you weren't trying to hit that original sound? Aguilar, Seymour Duncan, EMG, Fender, etc?

Suggest you ask on the BassTalk forum.

Lots of good info on there.

Alright will do, Westbone! Thank you very much for the comparison from old to new. If I come across some other guitar that I'm looking to keep more on the original side I'll inquire with you for a good fit!

OK. Everything Westone works well.....

Have you seen this baby. Great sound but there again actives give tone a lot more scope.
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I had forgotten about that resto Damian. Beautiful work mate!

Westbone wrote:OK. Everything Westone works well.....

Have you seen this baby. Great sound but there again actives give tone a lot more scope.
link

Dang that is a nice restoration! You really brought some great character into it. Quite an upgrade for a Thunder I into a Thunder II or III A. Sweeeeeeet!

For my purposes I ended up going with the EMG's, and I really like them thus far. The band mates thoroughly enjoyed the tone, too. Of course the tone is fairly limited being passive, but still a good sound.