It's mostly to answer this question that I'm giving it a try.Meron Rigas wrote: Excuse the noob questions - I'm curious!
So when choosing pup placement, what are you looking for?
Is it mostly pup placement (regardless of pup type) - E.g. closer to bridge = more finger attack (I'm thinking rickenbacker/rock), more in the middle = P-bass mids and more to the neck = jazz-y warmth?
Or is it more dependent on pup type, E.g. depending on the type of pup, you'll adjust to balance out the inherent tone of the pup with the placement. E.g. Humbucker more to the bridge to add a bit of treble to the warmth of the bucker?
Apparently the position and construction both have a lot to do with tone- some people say that a MM pup in the P-bass position sounds more like a precision than a Stingray. I'm going to move it around and see. One of the things is that an active circuit can compensate for the loss of warmth you get when moving closer to the bridge- apparently the Stingray circuit was tweaked with the position of the pickup in mind, to compensate for the shortcomings of the tone.