Are you looking for the best 5 string bass pickups? Then, you have come to the right place.
Regardless of whether you’re looking to retrofit your 5-string bass with a quality pickup set or readying a new instrument from scratch, you’ll find a variety of bass pickups. As a result, you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing the best pickup for your bass guitar to create your signature tone.
Therefore, to save yourself the trouble of sifting through near-endless pickups, you should focus your search on models designed exclusively for 5-string basses.
To be specific narrow down browsing to a maximum of 4-5 reputed brands, including Seymour Duncan, EMG, DiMarzio, and Bartolini, to name a few. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at our list of the top four pickups for 5 string bass guitar.
The 4 Best Pickups for 5-String Bass Guitar
Seymour Duncan SSB5S Phase II Passive Soapbar (Editor’s Choice)
There’s no gainsaying that active pickups are not every bassist’s or guitarist’s cup of tea. However, putting things in perspective, there are many bassists and guitarists out there who have a natural penchant for passive pickups. So keeping that aspect in mind, Seymour Duncan’s Basslines’ engineers (SD’s exclusive all-bass division) have created the Phase II Passive Soapbar pickups.
The SD SSB5S Phase II Passive Soapbar serves as heavy-duty performance-driven replacement pickups providing a passive option to battery-driven pickups. These pickups guarantee a natural and simple tone tempered with extra paunchiness and warmth typical of versatile passive pickups. You can effortlessly take full advantage of tone and volume pots while using these Phase II passives.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to control your playability entirely, you can pair these passive pickups with Basslines STC-2p or STC-3p Tone Circuit. The STC-3p or STC-2p promoted separately furnishes two to three bands of active EQ in unison together with a patented slap contour switch. Thus, the Phase II Passive pickups work as drop-in replacements for which you do not need to carry out any modification in your guitar or bass.
This Phase II Passive Soapbar variant has a distinctive restrained output and a somewhat nuanced tonality compared to its active siblings. Seasoned bassists will indeed feel the subtle paunchiness that slightly borders on the organic. An ideal replacement pickup pair for a standard 5-string bass, this Seymour Duncan SSB5S set comprises the SSB-5n neck pickup and SSB-5B bridge pickup.
You can rest assured that you’ll have it remarkably easy to make the most of drop tuning with the SSB5S. You bet you’ll have plenty of low-end transparency and bountiful articulation even when you’re at your ebb with lows. In addition, these pickups will sit pretty in any standard EMG size-40 pickup slit in case you’re swapping out actives with passives.
Pros
- Powerful passive soap bar pickups serve as a drop-in replacement for basses
- Ceramic magnet keeps tone warm and natural with a marked punch
- It doesn’t call for instrument modification for replacement
Cons
- Your amp could deliver noticeable feedback
EMG DE David Ellefson Signature Bass Pickup Set
David Ellison, the legendary heavy metal bassist of Megadeth fame, has been associated with EMG pickups for a long time. Ellison has consistently used a lethal combination of EMG CS (ceramic & steel) pickup in the neck and a humbucker in the bridge of his 4- and 5-string basses for recording and live shows.
His loyalty towards making the most of this signature pickup combination from EMG has hugely contributed towards this pickup pair’s massive popularity amongst bassists.
The EMG DE David Ellefson Signature Bass Pickup Set contains the same pair of pickups that the iconic bassist had harnessed for decades. This EMG Signature Bass Set is available in 4-inch (5-string) Soapbar housing or 3.5-inch (4-string) Soapbar housing. With this pickup pair installed in your 4-string or 5-string guitar, you can look forward to booming bass roll-offs, thumping midrange, clear and bright trebles.
At the same time, bassists can expect a focused, crisp attack with the same level of intensity that Ellison dialed in. Mounting these pickups in your instrument’s bridge and neck positions becomes easy thanks to the solderless installation mechanism of EMG. Though this David Ellefson signature bass pickup set is best suited for heavy metal, you can nevertheless play a variety of other musical genres.
Pros
- Active pickups for neck and bridge position in 4- and 5-string guitars
- Ceramic and steel magnets for delivering focused and bright highs, roaring low-end, and pounding midrange with a marked crispy attack
- Solderless installation mode renders pickup replacement or upgrading a breeze
- This bass pickup set includes pickup, connect, output, and battery cables, mounting screws, stereo output jack, battery bus, 2 x 25k Tone- and 2 x25K volume pots
Cons
- The input jack is a tad too low, and instructions are missing on the modus operandi of wiring with two distinct tone knobs
BQLZR 5-String Bass Pickup Set
The BQLZR Bass Pickup Set comes in perfectly handy for bringing out the best in your 5-string guitar. With this bass pickup set mounted in your 5-string bass, your instrument perfectly replicates the soundstage of the vintage Stingray bass. But, to put it in a more specific way, the highs will be crisp and dynamic, the midrange articulates and beefy, and the bass booming.
The surface of the bobbin housing the pole pieces are finely layered with a film to keep the pickup free of grazes and scratches. The ceramic magnets embedded inside the pickup go a long way in ensuring that the tones delivered by your instrument fill up every sq. inch of your stage or recording studio. This humbucker set reinforced with a ceramic bar magnet gives out a characteristically warm sound, intensely clear with a massive snarl.
The lower midrange has tons of focus that give rise to a consistent sound markedly less strident and piercing even if you increase the volume. On the whole, the tone is organic, balanced, and smooth. These are custom-built humbucking pickups featuring larger coils, the reason they’re overwound.
The overwound humbucking coils help in reproducing a punchier sound, especially in the midrange and low-end.
Pros
- Black ceramic magnet humbucker for 5-string bass
- Overwound coils for delivering punchier bass and mids
- Coated surface for preventing scratches
Cons
- Limited output and quite noisy
Bartolini MK5CBC-T Dual Coil Bridge Pickup
If you want your 5-string bass to deliver vintage soap bar pickup tenor, then choose Bartonlini MK5CBC-T Dual Coil Bridge Pickup. Hook up your power amp, drop the MK5CBC-T Dual Coil Passive Pickups in your 5-string bass, and you’re all set to immerse yourself in spellbinding sound. Since the dual coil layout of this Bartolini Bridge Pickup is similar to that of a humbucker, it arrests the irritating hum while outputting a brawny tone.
A Cort Curbow-style soap bar bridge pickup, the MK5CBC-T measuring 4.24” in length and 1.33” in width, ensures sparkling clean treble, beefy low-mids, and chunky lows. These are Classic Bass Series pickups for bass guitars that have been designed and engineered with scrupulous care for delivering a more reverberant and expansive frequency range.
The highs tend to be more well-defined and airier, and the low-midrange and lows are also pretty pronounced. The pickup bobbins or soap bars are epoxies coated for doing away with unwarranted microphonics and undesirable feedback. It does not bear emphasis that Classic Bass soapbars always sound better, thereby implying that playability is also superior.
If you push the pickups to the limit, they come across as stupendously receptive and snarly. Conversely, if you retract, they tend to be sweet, warm, and crystal-clear. As a result, the MK5CBC-T Bridge Pickup is highly sought after by metal, gospel, jazz, and classic rock players for whom articulation is crucial.
Pros
- Drop-in replacement bridge soap bar pickup for Ibanez 5-string bass guitar, Cort, Groove Tools, Lakland, and several other bass guitar models with MK-1style pickups
- Epoxy casting for eliminating microphones and superfluous feedback
- Humbucking design for scintillating trebles, beefy lows, and airy midrange
- 4-conductor cable with shield and bare drain
Cons
- There’s a slight hum when you play at a high volume
FAQ: Bass Guitar Pickups
How Useful Are Pickups For A Bass Guitar?
How valuable are pickups for a bass guitar? Pickups form the core of your bass guitar to answer the question straight away without beating the bush, heavily influencing playability. To that end, pickups, strings, and amps contribute significantly towards how your bass will sound and precisely in that order.
That said, the pickup type (single-coil, humbucker, or split-coil) and its positioning (bridge, neck, or middle) across the instrument arguably make the maximum difference as to why two instruments sound different. Some of the most acclaimed and celebrated bass guitars, including but not limited to Fender P-Bass, Fender Mustang, and Ibanez SRH500-DEF, come equipped with passive and active single-coils, humbuckers, and split-coils.
So, the different bass guitar models out there come in perfectly handy for playing a wide variety of music genres. And if you have an instinctive inclination for playing a specific musical style, then research on the bass type that’d be perfect for your preferred playing style. Another practical way of finding out the type of bass suitable for your music is to explore the instruments used by bassists specializing in your favored genre.
Matching Pickups with Your Bass or Vice Versa
Once you know the type of bass, you should use, finding pickups that seamlessly match your instrument is a no-brainer. And talking about the ideal pickups for your bass, they (together with the strings) matter more than the tonewood and the rest of the gear or paraphernalia. Pickups personify or embody the sound of your guitar in a way that no other component of the instrument does.
So, swapping out your existing pickups with a pair of new ones is highly recommended when you feel like upgrading your bass. However, now when it comes to replacing your stock pickups, you’ll need to take three key factors or aspects into consideration. Firstly, you’ll want to choose pickups that drop in effortlessly in the pickup slots without your having to modify the bass.
You’ve split-single-coil P-bass pickup, dual-coil humbucker type, and J-Bass single-coil style to choose from, basically speaking. Besides these common bass pickup variants, you’ll come across mini-humbuckers and soap bar versions as well. The idea here is to be doubly sure about the right size of pickup that’ll settle comfortably in your bass.
Nex,t you’d have to decide whether you’d want to opt for single-coil or humbuckers. And deciding in this regard will be solely based on your preference for vintage sounds or modern-day sounds. That’s because there is no unanimity among bassists that humbuckers are more suitable for bass guitars than single-coils or vice-versa.
Bear in mind that there’s always a trade-off involved when you make up your mind to choose one type over the other. For instance, if you go for single-coils, be ready to put up with RF interference and microphonics. Alternatively, selecting humbuckers means you’re willing to forego authentic old-school sounds for the sake of dialing in an array of contemporary sounds.
So, The Best Pickup to Pair with a Bass Is…
Though the above pickups work well with different bass guitar types and models, EMG, Seymour Duncan, and Bartolini’s pieces are a cut above the rest. The active pickup pair by EMG stands out as you can use the set in both 4- and 5-string basses and can be mounted without soldering.
These are the best pickups for your bass available on the market at the moment.