ES-Jazz bass hybrid build

[Simon Barden]

Very nice indeed. Really glad it all came together for you.

The 'mudbucker' position is only really muddy if you have a Gibson 'mudbucker' pickup. It had/has a very high inductance that moves the resonant peak of the pickup well down into the mids, with almost no treble. Otherwise the position will pick up a lot more of the first and second harmonics than a bridge pickup will, but there will still be all the higher harmonics present.

[fender3x]

The 'mudbucker' position is only really muddy if you have a Gibson 'mudbucker' pickup. It had/has a very high inductance that moves the resonant peak of the pickup well down into the mids, with almost no treble. Otherwise the position will pick up a lot more of the first and second harmonics than a bridge pickup will, but there will still be all the higher harmonics present.

That seems right on all counts. My first bass is the only one that I have ever had with an actual mudbucker. It was single pickup Epiphone Newport. It was a very high quality bass construction-wise, but it only had one sound. My next bass was a '75 Precision, bought in '78 which I have had ever since. I have avoided pickups in that location ever since. We'll have to see how it does in a mix, but I can totally see soloing the neck pickup, the coils of which are right where the 22nd and 23rd frets would be.

These might be a very good replacement for the PB stock pups that come with ESB-4 basses. They are a drop in replacement for a standard humbucker, but with wider rails for bass spacing. Of course you have to find them, or convince one of the Bill Lawrence companies to reissue them.