Your pickup choice begins with selecting the right shape. Bartolini has more available pickup shapes than anyone. For replacement pickups, it is important to carefully measure your existing pickups and choose the correct match from our catalog.  If you are building a new instrument, you will need to know your string span, fingerboard curvature and the space you have available to route your pickups cavities.


Once you have determined the shape, you should focus on the tone quality and voice you are seeking:

  • bass, mid or treble enhancement? or
  • smooth, even frequency response?
  • best bridge pickup growl? or
  • best slap tone?
  • ultimate low noise? or
  • don't mind a little noise if it gets me that "single coil" sound
When considering string span at the pickups, measure from the outside of the outside strings.  Bridge string spacing is usually measured from center to center of each string. Therefore, the string span at the bridge is the string spacing times the number of strings minus 1 plus half the string size of each of the outside strings.

If you need help, you can contact us by creating a support ticket. Click here and let us know what size your pickups are, tell us about the voice you are looking for, and let us know about the construction and materials of your instrument.  

Create a support ticket -> http://contact.bartolini.net/support/tickets/new