page_title: Bass guitar
section_title: Magnetic pickups
hierarchical_section_title: Bass guitar / Pickups and amplification / Magnetic pickups
caption_attribution_description: English: Fender Precision Bass split coil pickup.
context_page_description: The bass guitar, electric bass, or simply bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music.
  The four-string bass is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar. It is played primarily with the fingers or thumb, or by striking with a pick. The electric bass guitar has pickups and must be connected to an amplifier and speaker.
context_section_description: "Precision" pickups (as introduced with the Fender Precision Bass) or "P-style" are two single-coil pickups, each offset a small amount along the length of the body so that each half is underneath two strings. The pair is considered a single pickup, as they are wired together in a humbucking configuration, greatly reducing noise from nearby electronic equipment and mains power. (Less common is the "single-coil P" pickup, as used on the original 1951 Precision bass. This is also known as the 'Vintage P' due to it being found on old vintage basses made before the invention of the split coil pickup. The "single-coil P" pickup is also used in the reissue and the Sting signature model.) P-style pickups are generally placed in the "neck" or "middle" position, but they are occasionally placed in the bridge position, or between two Jazz-style pickups.
  "Jazz" pickups (as introduced with the Fender Jazz Bass) or "J-style", are wide eight-pole pickups that lie underneath all four strings. J pickups are typically single-coil designs, though there are a large number of humbucking designs. Traditionally, two of them are used, one near the bridge and another closer to the neck. As with the halves of P-pickups, the J-type pickups are wired in a humbucking manner so that, when used together, mains noise is greatly eliminated. J-type pickups tend to have a lower output and a thinner sound than P-type pickups. Many bassists combine a 'J' pickup at the bridge and a 'P' pickup at the neck and blend the two sounds.
  Dual coil "humbucker" pickups each have two signal-producing coils. Humbuckers also produce a higher output level than single-coil pickups, though many dual-coil pickups are marketed as retrofits for single-coil designs like the J pickup and advertise a similar output and tonal character to the stock single-coils.
caption: P-style, split-coil pickups
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