Bass pickups
Marnold,
I have had very good luck with Seymour Duncan pickups in general and notice a difference between them and GFS pups for instance. I should have bought hot SD quarter pounders for my P bass instead of the hot GFS pups which are okay and a big improvement over the stock ones but don't sound at all like quarter pounders.
I know you need specialized pickups for your bass and I'm sure SD makes replacements. You may want to get some; you probably will not be disappointed, based on my experience with SD. You can also call SD and talk to a corporate tech about exactly what sound you are trying to get and get some great advice.
Quite to the surprise of many, I'm sure, I had a set of brand new Fender Vintage Noisless bass pickups put in my J bass. The guy that did the swap said that he had a customer that insisted on them even though he was telling him the smart thing to do was get the Demarzio's.
After he did the job he was so impressed that he put Fender Vintage Noiseless bass pups in all his personal J basses. They sound really smooth and great and don't hum. They go from a smooth J bass tone to a really growling heavy duty bass sound.
Your amp could also have something to do with the tone you are trying to get. You might go to a store with the bass and try out a sophisticated amp with lots of controls and a tweeter. That Acoustic is a great amp though, I almost bought one but got my Marshall MB-30 instead because it could handle the B string on my five string bass with ease, no distortion, cracking sounds, or other bad sounding things going on.
I bought my son an expensive workingpro 15 two hundred watt bass amp that is awesome and has all sorts of tone shaping controls including an aural enhancer. This amp is way too big for bedroom or den jamming.
Strings might have a big affect on trying to get your desired tone. Maybe try some really light gauge strings or even some flat wounds. Although flat wounds have a reputation of being darker sounding, people use them quite a lot more than one might think and find them to sound often quite different from the stereotyped reputation attached to them. I have flatwounds on two of my basses and like them but I also like the roundwounds. Flatwounds would make a major difference in your tone and might be worth checking out, contrary to their preconceived reputation.
Those pickups you mentioned that are used in the high end basses sound like a sure thing. Having bought GFS pups for my P bass I think I would save up a little more and get the quarter pounders if I had it to do again.
I hope some of these ideas are helpful.
Duffy
Winfield, Pa.
