New pickup install day

fretmeister

Installed an EMG MM5CS into my Stingray.

I love the bass itself as the weight is good and the neck is wonderful, but the tone was typical clanky 'ray. Great for what it does but not very versatile and pretty much rubbish for my main gig at the moment which is playing in a local educational trust orchestra.

It now sounds much better to my ears - there is still tons of output but the tone has far more fatness. It sounds more like a bass.

I may still install a neck pickup but I'll give this a proper try for a couple of weeks before I do.

guitarfishbay

Are you running it at 9v and is that what you've done in the past if you've also had other standard EMG bass sets?  I see there is not an option yet for MM X series bass pickups.

Looks cool without the knobs (you can see more pickguard) though not sure if you're intending to keep it that way.

fretmeister

Only tried 9V.

I might try 18V at some point but it's sounding great at the moment.

Only Vol and Tone at the mo, and it does now have knobs!

guitarfishbay

Cool.

I've tried both on guitar and the short version is

9v - less dynamic, less high highs and low lows, more fat overall, can clip if you have it really high

18v - more dynamic, more low lows and high highs, less 'consistent fatness', takes a significant amount more to make it clip

If you feel its got enough low end already I wouldn't think 18v would be worth it other than if you wanted more dynamic range, but that is just going off how it affects the guitars.

Bizarrely I've slowly gone opposite ways.  For the longest time I had an active bass with plenty of output and low end, and low output passive guitar pickups.  Right now I've got active guitars and  a passive low output bass.  Seems to be working though I would love to try out some EMG J pickups at another time, it seems to be standard issue for heavy bassists that play a Jazz variant.

fretmeister

I rehearsed this morning with it. Was very pleased. Much more fatness. Still more than enough top end, but it sat in the mix better.