Bass Pickup Positions, and Combinations - Bass With 5 Pickups

Here’s a demo of a bass I modded with 5 pickups, to test how different pickup positions and combinations (series / parallel) affect tone. In each of the sound demos, I play the same 21 example pickup combinations, in the same order. Timestamps: Fingerstyle, roundwound:  1:43 Slap, roundwound:  3:20 Pick, roundwound:  5:09 Fingerstyle, flatwound:  7:46 Discussion / conclusions:  9:38 String isolation test:  11:57 Sympathetic resonance:  12:29 Special thanks to my daughter’s LOL Dolls, who photobombed half the shots.  :)   More info: Pickups are all Dimarzio Area Js side-by-side humbuckers, with separate wiring to the “E-A“ and “D-G“ coils.  The 3 pickups on the bridge side are the bridge-spaced version, and the remaining 2 are the neck-spaced version, to best follow the string spacing. In all demos, volume and tone are completely open (100%).  If more than one pickup is on, they’re equally mixed. Controls and electronics are the same as a Jazz (or Precision) bass, all passive. The extra switch between the knobs is a tone capacitor selector switch, but for all of the demos it’s set to the same value as a stock Jazz (or Precision) bass. Bass is direct into a Focusrite Scarlett interface.  Only “effect“ is some light compression. Strings on roundwound demos:  DR FAT-BEAM (FB-40) Strings on flatwound demos:  Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats (TI JF344) If you’re interested in the demo basslines, they’re based on: Intro:  Original (my band’s track). Fingerstyle, roundwound:  One Nation Under A Groove (Funkadelic), live 1981-04-17 Landover, MD show.  Bassist:  Rodney “Skeet“ Curtis. Slap, roundwound:  Motor-Booty Affair (Parliament).   Bassist:  Rodney “Skeet“ Curtis. Pick, roundwound:  Original (my band’s track). Fingerstyle, flatwound:  Help Is On The Way (The Whatnauts).   Bassist:  Rodney “Skeet“ Curtis. You guessed it, I’m a huge Skeet fan.  Thank you Skeet for some of the best basslines ever recorded! Musicman Stingray photo credit and licensing information:  Catfish Jim and the soapdish / CC BY-SA () Warwick Streamer photo credit and licensing information:  Warwick hq / CC BY-SA () Background music: Original (mine).