You’re Worrying Way Too Much About Pickup Brand (4 Identical Pickups Prove It)

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Today on the Bass Channel, we're talking about how pickup location is arguably more important than pickup brand or style. For this video, I'm using a McGrath Thunderhorse loaded with four identical passive EMG TBHZC humbuckers.

[00:00:14]All the pickups, of course, have the same magnets, the same winding, the same everything, really. The only variable is their position along the string. A bass string, or really guitar string for that matter, doesn't just vibrate at one single frequency. It's actually a standing wave made up of the fundamental plus every harmonic, which is integer multiples of that frequency. Because the string is fixed tight at both the bridge and the nut, the displacement has to be zero at both ends. That physical boundary condition gives us this formula for the nth harmonic at position X. A magnetic pickup only hears or picks up the string motion right above the pole pieces. So, the strength and phase of every harmonic it picks up depends entirely on its exact position. Pickup one, in this case, is all the way at the neck, where you're closer to the center of the string, so the fundamental dominates and many higher harmonics are either weak or missing entirely. This pickup placement gives you warm, round, and fat bass tones, which is basically what you hear on the classic Gibson EBO.

[00:01:11]>> [music] [music] >> Pickup four, in this case, sits right at the bridge, where you're near the end of the string, so higher harmonics are stronger and fundamental is a bit weaker. The result is a brighter, tighter, more aggressive attack, which is basically the exact tone you find on certain black metal editions of ESP basses.

[00:01:35]>> [music] [music] >> Pickups two and three sit right in the middle, each catching its own unique slice of harmonic series. Pickup three, in this example, sits right about where you'd find the pickup on a classic Precision bass. Might be just a hair closer to the bridge, but just for the sake of the point, it's roughly, generally, sort of in the spot of the classic P bass.

[00:02:03]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Same exact TBHZC pickup, four completely different voices, all because of where they sit along the vibrating string.

[00:02:28]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Now, here's where things get really interesting. When you blend two passive pickups, their signals add together electrically. For each harmonic, you're literally adding these two sine terms.

[00:02:58]If the signs are the same, you get boost, but if they're opposite, you get cancellation. The distance between the pickups creates a natural comb filter.

[00:03:06]Certain frequencies get notched out completely, depending on how far apart they are. Here's pickups one and two together, which is pretty close to what you'd find on something like the Epiphone Rumblecat.

[00:03:17]>> [music] [music] >> Okay, now here's where things get dicey when I'm comparing these pickup locations to other popular, well-loved classic basses. We're approximating. I'm not saying that it's 100% identical, so for this next sentence, just hold on to your hats, because pickups one and three is, again, pretty close to the classic Rick 4003 neck and middle growl.

[00:03:46]Pretty close, not exactly.

[00:03:49]>> [music] [music] >> Pickups one and four together, which is the neck and the bridge position, gives you the classic dual humbucker punch, similar to what you get on a Gibson EB-3 or some of the newer Schecter Stargazers.

[00:04:09]>> [music] [music] >> Pickups two and three, which in this case are the two middle pickups, are very close to what you see on some Sirek basses.

[00:04:22]>> [music] [music] >> And pickups two and four, you might think is pretty close to the classic Jazz bass. Might be just a little off on the measurements, but it is a lot closer to the Spector Pulse and some other traditional classic Spector soapbar setups.

[00:04:43]>> [music] >> And finally, at least for the two pickup combinations, pickups three and four, the two closest to the bridge, are pretty close approximately where a single StingRay pickup would be on a Music Man StingRay.

[00:05:09]So, again, I mean, you can hear how the phase relationship and distance completely reshapes the tone. And again, these are all four of the same pickups.

[00:05:17]The only thing changing is the placement.

[00:05:20]>> [music] [music] >> Once you add a third pickup, it gets even more wild. Now, you're summing three signals, which is more opportunities for constructive and destructive interference. With this setup, you can null out frequencies that two pickups could never cancel. The tone becomes smoother, more complex, and completely unique to those three exact positions. Now, again, pickup locations are a little different, but this is sort of kind of similar-ish the thing that we see on the Gibson G3, which is why most of us really like that tone, is that it's canceling phase due to the three pickups in a different way that a Jazz bass or something similar never could.

[00:06:12]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> And finally, the tone that I'm sure you've been dying to hear since the start of the video, all four pickups together. This is every position on the string contributing at once. It's rich, balanced, and full of character that no single pickup or brand or anything could ever give you alone.

[00:07:30]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So, there it is, four identical passive EMG TBHZC pickups. The only difference between every single sound that you heard was their location along the string, which is why I think we should be obsessing more over pickup position than pickup model or pickup type or any of that other stuff. Again, that's also important, but in my humble opinion, I think those two things come secondary to where it's placed along the body, near the neck, near the bridge, etc. As you've heard, the pickup position decides on which harmonics you hear and exactly how they interfere when you combine them. So, using that little bit that hopefully you've learned from this video, you can now make a better decision based on where your pickup is, what pickup type it is, and what brands do different things. Some brands give you more mid-range, some brands give you a more scoopy thing. Whatever the differences are, depending on where it's located, you might need a different thing. So, the biggest thing that hopefully we can all take away from this is that just because you purchase X pickup from X brand and put it in your bass, doesn't necessarily automatically mean it's going to have the same sound that this guy has or that person has or what have you.

[00:09:08]It all works together. So, choose your pickup and your brand and your style and all of that sort of stuff based on the placement. We're not going to get into woods right now, because that's a whole other can of worms.

[00:09:20]But, the point is is that it all works together. It's not a single magic formula of just buy a DiMarzio, just buy an EMG, just buy a Seymour Duncan, and immediately you're going to sound this way.

[00:09:29]Sometimes, but likely not. So, let me know in the comments which combination was your favorite, and what's your go-to pickup position on your own bass. Now, again, if you're not a builder or if you don't have a swimming pool route, it's not really like you can start swapping them at random, but when you're shopping for your next bass, just, you know, pay attention to it. But, if this video helped you understand bass tone on a deeper level, hit subscribe and give the video a like. Of course, if you hated it and you don't like my face, you can give the video a dislike. I'm happy either way. So, until next time, be safe, and I'll see you later.