Conference napalm::guitar

Two suggestions:

1. Perhaps a pickup meant for a pedal steel would be appropriate.  The ShoBud
   I play has 10 string necks...without measuring I'd guess the p/u's are
   four inches wide.

2. Wind your own.  It seems like you must have some skill with hand tools
   and such if you're planning to build an instrument.  It's not that hard
   to wind a p/u, although it is difficult to get one that sounds like you
   want it to.

Regards,
John Kelly

     Ken Smith makes 'em too but I don't know how much they cost.
    I've seen a few with good old P-BASS style pickups (emg or
    select or dimarzio) and played one-it balanced the strings real
    well and sounded very good!
    -good luck,
    Bill

	I know that this will sound strange, but, why not take 2
	6 string pickups (like the Carvins, that have 22 pole pieces,
	of the ones with the blades instead of the pole pieces) and
	construct your own equivalent of a split bass pickup. My Bass
	guitar has a 'Bill Lawrence' blade pickup under the metal cover
	(I got a box full of 'bad guitar pickups' real cheap from a shop
	that did a lot of custom work. The pickups usually just had a 
	single broken wire that was re-pairable by removing the tape
	locating the broken wire, unwinding 1 turn and re-soldering the
	wire - Average cost for each pickup was around $1.00 each -
	you might want to check around some music shops & see if you can 
	come up with some similar deals on 'bad guitar pickups').

	It sounds just fine on my Bass neck (this is on my double necked
	guitar - it has a Demarzo [6 string bridge position], Mity Mite
	[6 string neck position] and Bill Lawrance [Bass neck]). No one
	ever complained that the guitar doesn't sound good thru my Twin
	Reverb.

								Jens

       I've seen a picture of Jamaaladeen Tacuma with a Six-string, it
    had used 3-PBass pickups, with the B&E pickup closest to the neck
    and the last closest to the neck. 
       An alternitive might be to actually call the MFG's of the companies
    and find out if they're available. Heartfield, which is distributed
    by Fender; has a pickup that is similar to the J-Bass pickup (with out
    the side screw mounts-I think they're end mounted) for both 5- and 6-
    string basses.
    
     Good luck!
    
      J.

      I've got a brochure and price list from Smith at home.  I'm almost
    positive that they list their pickups in there.  I'll take a look
    see tonite, and let you know.
    
                                                Smokin' Bass,
    
                                                         Dan . . .

    You're giving me ideas guys, but a question arises. I'm not real
    conversant about the frequency response of bass pickups vs. guitar
    pickups. There have been suggestions to use perhaps pedal steel pu's
    or a combination of guitar pu's. Do guitar pickups have good low
    frequency response? Don't forget, this thing is gonna go pretty low 
    with that B string. I'm not worried about frequency response for the 
    high C.
    
    Also, I had considered using P bass pu's, as a previous reply suggests.
    Do I understand that correctly?  You would use one full split, and half
    of the other? One section, for each two strings?
    
    Thanks for the input, guys.
    
    Barry

     dont worry about freq. response from guitar pickups...you'd 
    just have to find the ones that would sound right to you.
    I think any guitar pickup should reproduce a low "b" without
    a problem......location in relation to the bridge and scale length
    becomes real important though,the difference of 1/2 an inch can
    make it go from great to garbage due to harmonic content...
    -Bill

    Here's something that might be interesting to try:
    
    Use two four string pickups. Stagger mount them so that each one sits
    under three strings. If the magnets are reversed ( you can tell when
    they're reversed because they'll stick together face to face ), you can
    wire them so you've got a "single" coil humbucker.
    
    							John.

       About th P-Bass set up, I think you can get away with having two "in"
    and one "out". It depends on your magnets, If you wire your coil out of
    phase you might have to reverse that magnet. It could be complicated. 
    
    
     
       On a separate issue: re;0 > I've been looking for a formula or a set
    of numbers for the fret distances of a Full-Scale bass. I haven't been
    able to find anything, would you happen to know where I could get this
    information?
    
    
    John

       I forgot to mention; If you intend to use "Guitar Pickup(s), be 
    aware that you will most likely notice a lack low end from them. You
    will notice that they will sound "Tinny" or "Thin". This is purely
    my opinion but I would prefer to stay away from Guitar pickups and 
    stick with pickups that were designed for bass. This all depends on
    what kind of sound you *really* want.
    
    
    John

    Rick Savage from Def Leppard used to use Dimarzio X2N power plus
    pickups in his old Hamer Explorer bass!

    'Scuse me, but what 'n hell do you want a 6 string bass for anyway?
    For Chrissake trying to get real good (not just root & 5th) at 
    4 strings is a big enough challenge to me. And you wanna build it
    yourself too? Jeez, you hot shots make dudes like me feel like chumps.
    Good luck just the same.
    
    Dave

    
    On a six string....why go down to low b? If I was designing a six
    string, I think I would make it a "octave lower guitar" adding a higher
    b and e.  This would be a plus when buying documentation to learn how
    to play it...you could just buy guitar scale books.
    
    Ron.

    
    
    	Wasn't the Fender 'Bass VI' an octave lower guitar? 
    
    	I just saw an ad for a Peavey TL-6 6 string bass. The neck
    looks like it's a mile wide. I don't see how anyone could 
    play a bass with so wide a neck. I guess I keep looking for
    thinner and thinner necks. :-)
    
    	FWIW, the TL-6 has P_bass style pickups. Each half of 
    a pickup covers 3 strings. 
    
    -Tom
    

Re .14: Right, I recall a Fender VI that was pitched one octave down from
        guitar.  There's a video out on one of the country rock video 
	channels in which one of the players uses one...talk about a 
	'growly' tone!

Re .13: Isn't a bass pitched two octaves below a guitar?  

Regards,
John Kelly

    
    
    
    
    re .15
    
    I've been looking for a five string, and wouldn't you know that there
    is a Guild Pilot 5 string in the Want-Ads....Oh where is my
    check book!!!  
    
    Basses are only one octave lower ( I couldn't imagine 2 octaves down! 
    that would probably be great though! )   
    
    Re. .14  
    
    I love those thin necks myself. 
    
    Ron.

	.-1 what he said - one octave. Two octaves down and you start
	to interfere with such musical instruments as canon and
	depth-charge.

	Low B gives you access to some nice work in the key of Eb.
	If I were out shopping basses, I'd go for the 5er with the B string.
	The high C string would just get in my face. Low B also can keep
	you in the running against synth bass.

	Give me a wide, flat neck anyday. Kinda like that (4001 owner).

    RE .9:
    
    Equal Temperament is based on a logarythmic scale. The formula for each
    fret follows:
    
    Distance_from_bridge = ( 2 ^ ( - fret_number / 12 ) ) * scale_length
    
    Almost all guitars, bases, keyboards, etc, are based on this scale.
    
    
    							John.

    In case any of you guys are still interested, I found the pu's
    that I will be using. I have some of you to thank for suggesting
    something that I had already thought of, but wasn't sure if it 
    would work.
    
    I'm going with EMG Select P bass pickups. They are available at 
    Steve's, in Ottawa, for $50 a pair. So I'll get three sets and
    make up two, three piece pickups.
    
    As to some of the past questions/comments:
    
    I want 6 strings for the extra low and high range. I'm NOT much
    of a guitar player, so I don't want an octave lower guitar. I
    want the C G D A E B tuning. Somebody commented about how wide
    is the neck. Well, I'm copying my Fender Elite P string spacing, 
    so the neck will be 98 mm or 3.85" wide at the 20th fret.
    
    Thanks for the help.
    
    Barry