www.FretlessBass.com

Hey, so I have this super cheap but kinda nice SX bass. Has a P/J pickup config. Jeez I hate that noisy J single coil racket. So much so that I never use it. Same with an Ibanez I once had, thing buzzed and whirred- drove me bats.

Ebay, Dimarzio DP123 bridge pup, short, short money. No noise, sounds GREAT, I would reccomend to anyone.

Played that bridge pup for hours it sounds so nice. Fingertips are a little sore right now. Utility of this bass is no bumped up by a huge percentage.

Yay!

Yeah I love Dimarzio too, although I haven't upgraded my USA Jazz yet, I waiting for it to come back, it's having an epoxy job done on the neck, but when it's back think I'll go Dimarzio

Many moons ago I had a '71 Jazz with DiMarzio J-bass pickups and a Badass II bridge. It was my warhorse for many years.

I had to sell it when I came down with 5 string disease.

Does anybody uses bartolini
I have an Ibanez Gary Willis 35
And I just ordered a bartolini soapbar with a preamp aguilar OBP-2

I just got my bartolini installed and it does sound amazing, very clear.
does anybody have any comments about other pickups
i wanted to get something different like CITRON, KENT ARMSRONG or DELANO Pickups but
i've never played a bass with any of those pickups so i decided to just get what I know.

This is an important subject for discussion!!!!!!

I think that pick-up type, brand, and position greatly effect Fretless bass sound.

Some things are common to fretless in general, like position. Jaco used the bridge P/U almost exclusively, so that should say something about tone.

The Fender Jazz P/U is a single coil and when only one is used is non-humbucking. That says something too, humbuckers may have a slight sound coloration due to dual series coils being wired out of phase.

The brands that I have personal experience with are:

Fender - or Fender type, you can't go wrong with a vintage style Jazz, preferably scatter wound, rather than the high production machine wound asian stuff.

Bartolini - My P/U of choice since 1988 consistantly good. Lots of choices and they are all good.

Lane Poor - nice sound, very clear but poor (heh, heh) EMR noise rejection.

Alembic - Overrated, too edgy

EMG - Edgy, too brilliant, unless you like metal.

Pick-ups I want to try for Fretless:

DiMarzio - I have heard some very good things and would like to play a set.

I too would like to hear from players who have experience with some of the more custom P/U makers like Nordstrand etc.

Another thing I wanted to discuss is the difference between soapbar pickups, P stile, Jazz pickup etc.
Any comments?

I've been looking a P-Bass pickups and found some reviews online. Some said the Lindy Fralin P-Bass pickup has excellent tone even with the tone knob all on treble.

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... -Bass/10/1

I also am interested in the DiMarzion Split P-bass pickup with 2 rails per half - each half being a humbucker. Several reviews mentioned the pickups filter out finger noise. Go here and select Split-P.
http://www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/

Ed S.

A couple of things to keep in mind when evaluating P/Us.

First, the true sound of a bass does not come from the P/Us. It comes from everything except the P/Us. Theoretically, P/Us are supposed to provide an impartial, uncolored, electrical representation of the instrument sound, this is known as transparency. In the real world this concept is rarely achieved but some makers have come close.

This transparency may be a goal of some P/U makers, but just the opposite may be true of another maker. Some P/U makers are seeking a particular sound that they, or their product buyers desire. This is where your personal experience is needed for input on this topic, by describing your impressions of various P/Us that you are familiar with. Even the ones that come on el cheapo bargain priced basses. Some such as the Conklin GT series, are very good considering the cost.

The primary difference between inexpensive P/Us and those that are perceived to be better is in the high frequency zone. Any machine can wind a P/U with lots of bass frequencies, but getting air, presence, bite, and mids, from an oscillating string gets into the arena of pickup winding and construction as an art.

For fretless, we usually need a good growl, mwah sound, this seems to reside around 700Hz so a P/U with a bump in this region might be a good idea. A fretless axe needs to have clear harmonics, without it being too edgy or biting, so you might want a little less high frequency response than a fretted instrument set up for slap. The same P/U in a fretted axe might sound too mid-rangy or honky. This variable characteristic is called voicing. A good P/U maker knows how to voice the various parts to get a desired sound.

The tone control on passive basses (no battery) is basically a device that flushes the treble content down an electronic sink hole. They don't boost treble, they cut it. So when you have the tone pot fully on (usually clockwise) that is the true sound of what ever P/Us are in the bass. Assuming that there is not some other electrical problem such as capacitor leak on the backside.

Active basses (internal pre-amp) are completely different. The tone controls on an active bass are usually Bass, (sometimes Mid), and Treble. These normally have a center detent that identifies where the pre-amp maker thinks a neutral sound (neither boosted nor cut) should be. Setting all of the active tone controls on center detent is the best place to evaluate P/Us on an active bass.

Some preamps have a distinctive sound so the neutral tone position may still not give you the most uncolored option. In this case you pretty much have to start swapping P/Us or pre-amps.

PJ pickup configuration for Fretless Bass

What do you think about this configuration for a fretless bass???
Pros and cons!!!!

I've been debating getting Barts for my bass. I love the sound out of my fretless with the EMG HZ's, but as you say, they are more geared towards a metal sound. It just makes me wonder what a Bart in my bass would sound like... orgasmic? LOL

i just defretted a friends bass and it had a p & j configration with two volume nobs. the single coil jazz pickup's output was lower then the humbucking percision, so when you used both pickups the overall output and tone suffered.
i talked things over with my friend and brain, the owner of bestbassgear.com and we settled on new pots with a volume, blend and tone--leaving the percision in cause it worked fine and replacing the jazz bridge pickup with a bartolini split coil hum-cancelling jazz pickup. what i like about barts are their high output, transparency and concistancy at low volumes.
so my advice on a p & j configration are use a blend and a pickup at the bridge thats gonna match the output of the percision. also jazz pickups come in two lengths so make sure you measure before you order.

PJ pickup is really good for rock playing. the P pickup gives you the bottom end and the J gives you the middle growl. when they are both on the bass sounds thick and decisive. a Precision like Tony Franklin's or Pino Paladino's 72 Precision specials are real versatile.

I've been playing fretless bass for 19 years now and bass in general for over 30 years. I'm 42. I use the fretless for certain applications. I use a P special [P&J set up] on my fretted basses. The Jazz'z are all fretless.

I can tell you that my experience has been that the Fender Jazz set up for fretless is probably the most used. If you use a really well made pick up for both slots you will not get noise.

I use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders for the rear and Vintage for the front. I hear a lot of good things about Lindy Fralins, and other high end pickups.

Here is a word to the wise. I know a lot of players love them but I'd steer clear of active electronics and pickups. Active basses sound great but they take away from your real ability to pull everything from your bass. It also can leave you exposed to forgetting to replace batteries. This can ruin a night for you. Trust me passive is the best way to really grind it out. But that's just my opinion. If you like Active go for it.

Pickups are only part of the puzzle. the nut, bridge and machines as well as string tree make a difference too.