Bass Emporium Newsletter - Volume III, No. 3 Secrets of Electric Bass Pickups Store Survey Contest Winners Owners Manuals Missed a Newsletter? New String Survey Evidence Melody Cables ProTec Cases and Bags Please participate in our NEW On-Line Survey!
Hello LowEnders!
What's in this issue:
Secrets of Electric Bass Pickups
On-Line Store Survey Contest Winners
Owners Manuals On-Line
Missed a Newsletter?
New On-Line String Survey
Evidence Melody Cables
ProTec Cases and Bags
Although the Majority of an Electric Bass Guitar's sound is produced by the neck and body (considering both materials and construction) the overall "sound-scape" still depends greatly on the pickups (or transducers) that are installed in the instrument. There are lengthy discussions between musicians and luthiers about the pros and cons of different models, materials and construction and it all seems very complicated at first. But, pickups themselves are easy to understand.
There are two basic pickup types - magnetic pickups (what you traditionally have in an electric bass) and piezo-electric pickups (which are commonly found in an Acoustic Bass Guitar). Magnetic pickups consist of magnets and coils and will only work with strings that are made of metal or employ enough metallic material to "energize" the coil/magnetic structure. "Piezo" pickups work through a combination of vibration and pressure and these will work with many different types of strings and do not require the string to be made out of metal. Magnetic pickups are futher divided into Dual-Coil pickups and Single-Coil pickups. Dual-Coil (humbucking) pickups minimize interference from transformers, flourescent lamps and other devices, while Single-Coil pickups are more sensitive to outside interference and have a 60-cycle hum present.
There are different magnet arrangements employed in different designs of pickups. Some pickups (like the traditional Fender Precision Bass and Jazz Bass design) have individual magnets (rods or bars) which go through the pickup and under every strings, while other pickups have their magnets below the coils with a soft iron core going through the coil connected with the magnet below. Some of the core can be made into screws that protrude through the top of the pickup and allow individual adjustment of the level differences for string balance on the bass.
The magnetic filed lines flow through the coil(s) and a short section of the strings. With the strings at rest, the magnetic flux through the coil(s) is constant. Pluck a string and the flux changes, which will induce an electric voltage in the coil. A vibrating string induces an alternating voltage at the frequency of vibration, where the voltage is proportional to the velocity of the strings motion (not its amplitude). Furthermore, the voltage depends on the string's thickness and magnetic permeability, the magnetic field, and the distance between the magnetic pole and the string.
There are so many pickups on the market that it is difficult to get a comprehensive overview. In addition to the pickups that come with an instrument, replacement pickups - many of them built by companies that do not build guitars - are also available. Every pickup produces its own sound; one may have a piercing metallic quality, and another a warm and mellow sound. A pickup does not "have" a sound; it only has a "transfer characteristic". It transforms the sound material that it gets from the strings and alters it, every model in its own fashion. For instance: Mount the same Bartolini Soapbar pickup in a chambered Modulus and you will get a quite different sound from mounting this same pickup in a Fender Precision bass. Also, the best pickup is USELESS when you have a poor bass body, neck, hardware and strings! The basic tenants of product quality still apply: Garbage In - Garbage Out!
Replacement pickups allow the bassist to sculpt sounds without changing to another instrument (within the limitations of body, neck, hardware, etc., of course). Different pickups also have different output voltages. High output voltage makes it easier to overdrive the input stage or an amp or an effect to get funky "brown" sound when you dig into the bass. Low voltage output pickups produce a cleaner sound, but may also require a preamp to product the proper operating voltage. The output voltage of most passive pickups falls between 100mV RMS (low output) up to 1V RMS (high output).
This article only covers passive magnetic pickups, but there exist Active pickups as well (EMG, some SeymourDuncan, etc.) and the general properties laid-out above still apply, however the active pickups require a power source (usually a single or double 9V battery to operate). The advantages of these pickups are that they usually have a high output and low noise. The downside is that if a battery goes out - you're out of luck and for some players are the too "hi-fi" in sound (meaning that they are often too clean and articulate). Most builders of fine basses will use passive pickups that use an active preamplifier on-board. This allows the player to go "passive" by deactivating the preamp either for tonal reasons or if the battery were to go dead.
We just finished the contest associated with our Store Survey which was completed on February 28th, 2006 (we have a new String Survey and contest in the works right now). The grand prize winner of the Radial Pro DI is Mark Knell. We had (15) other contest winners of T-Shirts and their names will be posted on the website (in the archived newsletters section) after they have been contacted. Congratulations to these winners (who can participate again) and good luck to the upcoming winners of the new contest!
Some of our customers were not aware ouf the collection of owner's manuals and specification guides that we have on our website. If you go to "http://www.bassemporium.com/manuals.php" you will see about 170 owner's manuals, specification sheets, wiring diagrams and brochures. This is a great resource and we are adding to this repsoitory all the time. If you can't find what you are looking for, please let us know and if we can find it, we will add it to the site!
All of our back-issue newsletter (excpet for the New In Stock information) is archived at "http://www.bassemporium.com/newsletters.php". So, take some time and go back through and see if any of this information is informative or helpful in your quest for tone!
We have created a new survey that asks questions about your string preferences and use. It is only a short 12-question survey and can be found at "http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=342751674616". Please help us understand your needs and inform us of your string choices. As a reward for you help we are giving away (16) prizes. We are giving away (15) Bass Emporium T-Shirts and a grand prize of (1) Boss TU-2 Pedal Tuner. So, click on the link above or go to the homepage of the website. The survey will be active until April 30th!
Response has been tremendous to the Evidence Audio cables that we have been stocking since the first of the year. So far, we have only been stocking the Lyric HG series and the Siren series of Evidence Audio cables. These are their flagship models and sound fantastic. We are now adding the Meldoy line of cables which is a much more cost-effective soluction. The Melody(tm) cable is the Little Brother of the Lyric HG; yet still beats up the competitors' kids without help at a great price. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour just purchased 76 LyricHG and Melody cables (using over 1500 fett of high-def cable) for his upcoming "On An Island" tour and it seems to be an all Evidence Audio stage for Bass, Keyboards, Guitar, Recording, etc. Check out the Melody cables at "http://www.bassemporium.com/bass_emporium.php?Evidence%20Audio".
We are now stocking the way cool ProTec instrument cases that will fit most any electric bass. These are an "UltraLight" format case and are somewhere between a hardshell case and a gig-bag, yet offer extremely great protection for your valuable insttument. We are also stocking the ProTec rack bags in 2-space, 3-space and 4-space configurations. These offer great protection without the bulky size and weight found with its ATA counterpart. You can see these at "http://www.bassemporium.com/item.php?sku=PBG401" and "http://www.bassemporium.com/bass_emporium.php?19inchRacksandBags".
We now have a new on-line STRING survey tailored so that we can help you better in the future regarding stocking and selling Bass strings. This survey consists of about 12 questions and can be answered online. One of the struggles that we have is making sure that we handle the products that you are looking for, have these in stock and have them at the price that you want. Help us to improve our business by filling out the survey so we can know what you want. You can fill out the survey anonymously if you prefer, or you can include your email address (at the end of the survey) to enter for some prizes. We are giving away 15 Bass Emporium T-Shirts and one Boss TU-2 Pedal Tuner - so, you have 16 chances to win! To fill out the survey you can go to "http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=342751674616" or go to our home page and link from there!
Let us know if you have anything that you would like to see in the upcoming issues of our newsletter. Thanks and let us know how we can serve you!
John