'51 P-Style P'up Question

[SurferJoe46]

I put one of the Seymour-Duncan SCPB-1 style p'ups in my cloned '51P.....



......and was wondering where a good place to start with the string-to-magnet core distance is.

Anyone use one of these p'ups and might have a hint?

Don't count the frets on that pix - I pasted two pixs together and somehow left a few out. lol

[rllefebv]

Your frets look wrong

For myself, I find that the pickup height is critical with the SCPB pickups... I don't have any experience with teh Duncans, but on my '51 RI with the stock pickup (which I love!), I hold the string down on the last fret and set the height to 1/8" from the bottom of the string to the magnet... I know that's where all the manuals say to start, but it is the perfect setting for my bass... My pickup has the raised A and D polepieces, so getting the E and G sides of the pickup set takes care of the whole thing...

When I originally got the bass, the pickup was set quite a bit lower, almost 1/4" from the bottom of the string... I played it that way for a few years with no complaints as it sounded killer and the output was high... It had some issues with bad pots and went into it's case for a while. When I finally got around to redoing the electronics, I decided to change the whole feel of the bass by switching to rounds and doing a fuul top-to-bottom setup... When I set the pickup height, the bass totally opened up, (moreso than you'd think with a few screw turns!)... I haven't looked back!

-robert

[SurferJoe46]

I will be following your footsteps ASAP!

Thanks - that's exactly what I wanted and needed to hear.

The '51 Tuxedo sounds good - but I just know it's got more to offer. I have what I believe are D'A strings alà Fender - which we all KNOW are not Fender 7250s at all - and they don't sound as good as I think they should.

This being my first set of SCPB-1s, I wanted/needed to know where to start. I have about ½" between the poles and the strings right now and I KNEW that's gotta be wrong - but I didn't know by how much.

Again - thanks.

[rllefebv]

Originally Posted by SurferJoe46

...I wanted/needed to know where to start. I have about ½" between the poles and the strings right now...

YMMV... Some guys like that lower output sound that burying the pickups gives... Setting it to 1/8" is probably going to increase your output A LOT which may not be to your liking... I have all my P basses set pretty close to the same distance (this being my only SCPB) and the '51 is the hottest of them... For me. I like to get as much of the raw sound from my bass, and setting the p'ups there gives it to me in spades...

Very nice looking bass BTW...

-robert

[SurferJoe46]

Originally Posted by rllefebv

YMMV... Some guys like that lower output sound that burying the pickups gives... Setting it to 1/8" is probably going to increase your output A LOT which may not be to your liking... I have all my P basses set pretty close to the same distance (this being my only SCPB) and the '51 is the hottest of them... For me. I like to get as much of the raw sound from my bass, and setting the p'ups there gives it to me in spades...

Very nice looking bass BTW...

-robert

First - thanks for the compliment - that means a lot to me. I really enjoyed building that bass, all but the neck from scratch, and the color is nowhere near the true color (damn those digital cameras!).

I just turned around and looked at it in the soft evening light and got jazzed all over again - Hey! 'JAZZED' might be a good name for a bass! Whatchathunk?

Nah --- JAZZED will never have any appeal.

Not buttering my own toast here, but I never knew how this was gonna turn out - and I'm frankly, surprised and amazed too.

Second - I hear tell that the SCPB p'ups run from the Dash-1, to Dash-2 to Dash-3, and I have what's supposed to be the most mellow and darkest of them, the Dash-1.

Is that true?