What Makes Nordstrand Audio’s Pickups So Special?

The story of Nordstrand Audio begins in the late '80s after a young Carey Nordstrand attended a Kenny G concert and watched Kenny’s bass player, Vail Johnson. This inspired him to start playing bass and sent him down the rabbit hole of finding the perfect bass tone.

After finishing high school in the early '90s, he trained under established luthiers and later worked at John Suhr's shop before building his own basses.

As an active member of the Talkbass forum in the early 2000s, bass players quickly recognized the high quality of his instruments and their impressive sound. His basses were what bass players had always wanted: tones that work well in a mix, combined with excellent ergonomics and incredible attention to detail.

However, finding that commercially available pickups weren't quite delivering the tone he envisioned, Carey soon began winding his own pickups. Word got out, and this led to the birth of Nordstrand Audio.

A Complete Bass Ecosystem

From the start, Nordstrand wasn't about mass production or following trends. It was about meticulous craftsmanship, pushing boundaries, and, most importantly, listening to bassists.

Being a bass player himself, Carey spent countless hours experimenting with different materials, winding techniques, and magnet configurations, all in pursuit of the perfect balance of punch, clarity, and musicality.

Nordstrand pickups quickly gained a reputation for being exceptionally articulate and nuanced. They weren't just about raw power; they brought out the natural voice and character of the bass, allowing bassists to express themselves with a newfound level of detail and musicality.

Nordstrand's vision soon expanded beyond pickups. They introduced high-quality onboard preamps like the 2B and 3B and followed up with the Starlifter, a pedal preamp/DI that gives bassists complete control over their sound.

Then, going back to his bass-building roots, the Acinonyx, a quirky and surprisingly versatile bass inspired by the 1960s Goya Panther, once again showed that Nordstrand wasn't afraid to venture out to find great bass tones.

Add the NordyMute and the Tone Drop, and it’s easy to see that Nordstrand has something that will help just about every bass player reach their tonal goals.

Nordstrand Product Spotlight

Now that we know more about Nordstrand’s history and Carey's quest for tonal greatness, we’ll give you a highlight reel of the Nordstrand line we carry at Fat Bass Tone.

Bass Pickups

The Nordstrand bass pickup line has grown over the years to make sure that they have something for everyone. Whether you're looking for a vintage-style J Bass single coil, adding some modern aggression to your P Bass, or perhaps giving your soapbar-equipped bass a unique voice, there’s a pickup that will help you get your holy grail tone.

Their angled pole pickups like the Big Single, NP4a, Big Splits, and Big Man pickups feature a unique pole arrangement that not only looks good but also gives these pickups a unique sonic quality by expanding the area where the pickups sense the string. Although each of these pickups has their own personality, they all share an ability to transmit plenty of detail and have a wide dynamic range.

Nordstrand blade pickups have a distinctive blade magnet that comes out of the pickup case. This not only makes them look great but is also a big part of what gives them the Nordstrand vibe.

Blade pickups come in P, J, MM, and Soapbar shapes, so you’ll surely find one to fit your bass. Also, in some shapes, you’ll find different voicings that range from “clean & clear” to “warm & woolly.” The Big J Blades give your J Bass extra output, punch, and an incredibly mix-friendly tone. The Big Blademan, designed in collaboration with Justin Chancellor of Tool, is a super versatile MM pickup that covers a lot of tonal ground by keeping the punch that you expect from traditional MM pickup designs but adding extra clarity and midrange heft. Then you have the Zen Blades, which are clear and balanced, completely hum-free soapbar pickups designed to let the natural voice of your bass come through.

And core to the pickup line are the vintage-voiced pickups. You can find these in P and J forms with inspiration from several different eras of bass history. Also noteworthy is that Nordstrand also developed some hum-canceling vintage J bass pickups. So, if you love the tone of vintage J bass pickups but don't want any hum, these are for you.

The NP4 is a vintage-voiced P pickup, the NJ4 is the J bass pickup, and the NJ4SV is the hum-canceling version of this early '60s-inspired J bass pickup. It's worth mentioning that the NJ4SV’s tone comes so close to the original single-coil design that many players can’t tell the difference.

The PolyVox pickups, available in 4, 5, and 6 string versions, are Carey’s latest development. These are inspired by the multi-coil design of Wal bass pickups but given the complete Nordstrand ground-up engineering treatment. These pickups don’t need a special preamp to be used like the Wal design; they can be used passively or paired with your preamp of choice and have a unique voice. They’re detailed, dynamic, and have a unique ability to reflect the tone of your specific instrument and playing technique. This is one of the most unique pickup designs we carry at Fat Bass Tone.

Onboard Preamps and Passive Tone Controls

After getting his pickup line off the ground, Nordstrand noticed that most of the onboard preamps available were either too compressed, had awkward frequency centers, or just altered the tone of the bass in a negative way.

This is what led him to design his range of onboard bass preamps. As a bass builder and pickup designer, he wanted the tone of his instruments to be enhanced with a preamp.

And that’s exactly what the 2B, 2B+, and 3B preamps do. They help you bring out the voice of your bass in whatever musical context you find yourself in by boosting or cutting carefully selected EQ frequencies.

These preamps are great if you already love the tone of your bass but just want some additional control to either cut through a mix easier, clean up any muddiness on-stage, or simply make your tone sound huge. The best part is that the boost-and-cut range is usable, so no matter how much you boost or cut, you’ll always get a good sounding tone.

But what happens if you don’t have or want an onboard preamp but still want some extra control?

Enter the Nordstrand Tone Drop.

Think of it as a super tone pot for your bass. It’s a completely passive tone control that gives you the option of two different capacitors that change the way your tone sounds when you roll off your tone pot.

In a nutshell, the Tone Drop gives you different versions of rolled-off tones that are more useful than what a traditional tone pot gives you.

The Starlifter Preamp

The Starlifter is Nordstrand’s Swiss Army knife of tone-shaper pedals and DIs.

Do you want a deep, dubby tone? How about a sizzly, scooped slap? Vintage low-mid growl? You got it. Or how about just cleaning up the mid-range a little?

With the Starlifter, you can get all these tones with the flip of a switch and a turn of a knob.

And that’s a common theme with all of Nordstrand’s lineup: these are all useful tools for bass players, so everything is easy to access and finely tuned. So no matter where you turn the knobs, you’ll get a sound that grooves.

NordyMute

Have you ever wanted a bass mute that wouldn’t completely muffle your tone AND was easy to take on and off?

That’s the NordyMute.

It’s designed to be easy to put on and take off and to give you the right amount of dampening to make your bass thump. Also, it looks way better than a piece of foam stuck under your strings.

The Acinonyx Bass

The Goya Panther was the definition of '60s space-age design. It looked cool and had some great sounds, but unfortunately, was almost unplayable, and the quality control was hit or miss at best.

Also, given the fact that the original Goya Panther is over 50 years old, you can only imagine how hard they are to come by.

The Acinonyx is the re-imagining of this unique short-scale gem from the '60s through the lens of Carey Nordstrand.

This means that they kept the quirky cool looks and the original’s short scale, expanded the tonal palette, and gave it the modern playability that a working bass player needs so that they can gig with it reliably.

Designed by a Bass Player for Bass Players

One of the key aspects of Nordstrand Audio is that all of their lineup is designed by bass players for bass players.

Everything has been tried in real-world scenarios, which is why so many players rely on Nordstrand Audio to get the job done.

Nordstrand products have a way of just working and letting you focus on making music, not the gear you’re using.

If you’re having trouble deciding which Nordstrand bass pickup is right for you, give us a call or send us an email. We’ve helped hundreds of bass players find the right tonal upgrades for their bass, and we can surely help you.