I recently purchased myself a Korean made (1998-2001) Dano 59 long scale bass being inspired by one of my heroes, Joey Spampinato. The bass has far exceeded my expectations and now I’m considering making it my main workhorse bass. I love the neck, the double bass like resonance, the weight, and the overall feel is just excellent to me.
That being said I personally find more to be desired with the lipstick pickup tone. I’m aware the jangly-ness is the trademark dano sound, and I do enjoy it, but sometimes I experience some tonal pitfalls like when soloing, playing a melodic part, or playing heavy rock. I play full-time and a typical gig for me is a 4-hour set with no time for switching instruments. I’ve experimented a good deal with different eq’s and compressors but still struggle to get the punch I’m looking for. I would feel inclined to leave it as-is and just switch back to my p-bass, but I have fallen in love with this thing and really want to make it work in more scenarios for me.
The idea I have had is to add a third non-lipstick single-coil between the existing bridge and neck pups. What I’ve had in mind is a mustang bass pickup like in the photo above, because the string spacing is very similar. I haven’t been able to find much info on pickup mods for dano basses so any input would be greatly appreciated.
I know very little about pickups/electronics, so I have no idea if this type of configuration would be pragmatic at all. I imagine there would be a variation in output level, but theoretically could there be a way to blend all 3? Would there be phase issues? Would adding a fender style pickup even make that much of a difference anyways, or is all in the wood? I’m looking to add more low-mid punch to cut through the mix.
That being said I personally find more to be desired with the lipstick pickup tone. I’m aware the jangly-ness is the trademark dano sound, and I do enjoy it, but sometimes I experience some tonal pitfalls like when soloing, playing a melodic part, or playing heavy rock. I play full-time and a typical gig for me is a 4-hour set with no time for switching instruments. I’ve experimented a good deal with different eq’s and compressors but still struggle to get the punch I’m looking for. I would feel inclined to leave it as-is and just switch back to my p-bass, but I have fallen in love with this thing and really want to make it work in more scenarios for me.
The idea I have had is to add a third non-lipstick single-coil between the existing bridge and neck pups. What I’ve had in mind is a mustang bass pickup like in the photo above, because the string spacing is very similar. I haven’t been able to find much info on pickup mods for dano basses so any input would be greatly appreciated.
I know very little about pickups/electronics, so I have no idea if this type of configuration would be pragmatic at all. I imagine there would be a variation in output level, but theoretically could there be a way to blend all 3? Would there be phase issues? Would adding a fender style pickup even make that much of a difference anyways, or is all in the wood? I’m looking to add more low-mid punch to cut through the mix.
