In the market for some killer jazz bass pickups? Final thoughts That leaves us the option of finding something with the same depth and width – a bootless errand, IMO. Most of us aren’t willing to route the cavity on a guitar to fit a bass pickup. There’s a significant difference in the size and dimensions. So, it’s possible but not easy to find something that will fit an electric guitar.įor instance, Seymour Duncan single-coil strat pickups for guitar measure 0.73” in depth and 2.76″ in width on average.Ħ Best Pickups For Classical Guitar (That Aren’t Trash)Ī single-coil bass pickup – the SD Quarter Pounder – measures 0.74″ in depth and 3.63″ in width. A bass pickup is not designed to fit a guitar-routed-out slot and vice versa. Pickup Size and DimensionsĪ bass pickup and guitar pick don’t have the same physical shape and size. The string spacing of a 6-string guitar and 6-string bass are not identical. The problem doesn’t disappear if you use pickups made for a 6-string bass either. That means there is no way the four pole pieces of bass guitar pickups can line up with the six strings on a guitar. The range is vastly different than bass pickups. Neck pickup and bridge pickups generally have a string spacing of 50mm and 52mm respectively.

The standard string spacing for a 6-string electric guitar is 52mm. The standard string spacing for a 4-string bass guitar is 19mm. The six poles in guitar pickups are spaced for guitar strings. It is measured at the bridge by calculating the distance between two adjacent strings.ĭifferent manufacturers use different string spacing, which means there are lots of variations to look out for.īass and guitar pickups are designed keeping the number of strings and string spacing in mind.īass pickups use four magnets or pole pieces located at a distance determined by the string spacing of bass strings. String spacing is the distance between the strings of a guitar or bass. You can remedy this problem with rail pickups, but there are very few of them for bass. Luckily, many modern bass pickup designs use a single rail, long blade, or one long pole piece across the width of the pickup. It can yield uneven output across the strings, especially on strings outside the effective range of the pickup magnet. The biggest problem, if you use them interchangeably, is the pole pieces don’t line up with the strings. A J-style bass single-coil sounds very similar to a Strat single-coil.

Let’s take the example of single-coil J-bass and Strat pickups that share the same basic design. A bass pickup has four poles as most bass guitars have four strings. There’s one pole piece per string in single-coil pickups and two per string in humbuckers. If you look closely, you will notice that your guitar pickup has six of them. Poles are steel screws or magnet pole pieces on a guitar pickup. Let’s look at the three biggest challenges to overcome in that regard. However, the different number of pole pieces and size difference between the two types of pickups will pose a challenge.Įxpect varying degrees of success based on the specs of the guitar model and bass pickup.Įither way, you can’t get great sound from your guitar with a bass pickup unless it fulfills very specific concerns.

Theoretically, you can put bass pickups on a guitar and vice versa. Bass Pickups on a Guitar: Should You Do It? Still, you may not enjoy the results when you try to use them on a guitar.īelow, we will discuss the pros and cons of the maverick idea in more detail. So you can look up rail pickups and lipstick pickups with blades made for bass guitar. The best thing you can do is to research the output, tonal range, and accentuated frequencies of bass pickups before you use them for guitar.īass pickups are designed for different purposes.īroadly speaking, your best shot is to find types that don’t rely on pole pieces. Moreover, it’s hard to generalize guitar and bass pickups as they come in a variety of layouts and strengths. So, is it a good idea to use bass pickups on a guitar and vice versa? Plus, it’s fair to state that all guitar and bass pickups are voiced the same, except for some humbuckers uniquely voiced for guitars. They both have the same mechanism – a magnet and a coil. To my knowledge, Fender, Danelectro, Rickenbacker, and at least a few others have used the same pickup for bass and guitar models with a few tweaks to make it work, that is.Ī bass and guitar pickup are identical in design but with differences in size. Many musical instrument manufacturers have used guitar and bass pickups interchangeably. Guitar Amp: 3 Differences + A Few Exceptions Curious if bass pickups work on guitar?.Disclosure: We may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases.

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