Adding a pickup, any one have a Dual P?
 

I am looking at adding a bridge pickup to my Pbass and instead of going with the obvious PJ, i an thinking of adding a second P pickup in the bridge position. Anyone ever do this and how does it compare to/differ from the traditional J in the bridge position?

Check out a Blacktop Jazz. I had one for a while and it was awesome. I regret selling it, but at the time I had no choice.

The dual-P is funky as all heck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABLwmYI09Lw

Also, Fender offers it in the Blacktop Jazz: http://www.fender.com/series/blackto...top-jazz-bass/

That bass looks AWESOME.

I have a Fender Blacktop Jazz which is a Jazz body and neck with 2 P pups.

Heres a soundclip of one (not me but same bass, everything on full). Bo***cksy springs to mind!

https://www.box.com/s/0giiip2y1612vfjh9dix

I have a Hohner B2A, which has dual EMG P-pickups in humbucker casings. Brilliant sound.

I wonder why Fender never reissued their Elite II line or offer the dual P in any of their American models? Essentially what i am looking for is an all passive Elite II

I modded my first bass (Yamaha RBX200) many years ago by adding a second P pickup at the bridge.

The Tetris-block shape poses problems at the bridge. If mounted in the traditional orientation, the E and A strings have a much thinner tone than the D and G. (EDIT: Got that backwards... the D and G are thin, because they're right up by the bridge saddles...) If I were to do it again, I would reverse the orientation. Even then, it's suboptimal IMHO. Something like a Model J or a Big Split would be better, I think.

Man, it's great seeing/hearing a BC Rich played in a non-metal band.

It's a tragic story actually. That particular bass was dropped by a tech while on tour and the neck snapped. BC Rich doesn't make that model anymore either.

It will always sound different than a J because for one it's a different style pickup - not linear. Where you place it and how (standard or reverse P configuration) will also matter, so making a direct comparison is difficult. Overall I'd say a meatier sound when used together. Note that, if this was something "extraordinary" tonewise you'd see a whole lot more basses with it. P/J still holds it's own.

I had 2 Elite II's. Even though they were part Fender's re-emergence of high quality control instruments I don't feel they were a stellar example of dual-P design. They had passive pickups and an active preamp that was problematic tonewise. You could coax some decent tone out of it but I found it voiced extremely bright. Ultimately that (and, for me, the huge neck) made them expendable.

I have 2 vintage BC Rich's (and I'm not in a metal band) that provide much more effective use of the dual P's. A '77 Eagle with early placement near the neck, and an '80 Mock with a reverse P arrangement. I like them alot - but, lots of tone options in their electronics. I never run them fully passive.

I prefer the reverse P setup, even in standard position i.e. Spector, Warwick

The ideal would be a JP bass ... :smug:

The P PU normally is stronger than the J PU. So it better for the bridge position with so smaller amplitude of the strings ...

It is also better because a SC is "more direct" compared to a HB.
The nearer the PU gets to the neck, the greater is the danger to sound muddy and indifferent. So, the direct SC is better to compensate the indifferent neck sound ...
On the other side, the SC may sound too harsh at the bridge while a HB makes the tone "rounder" ...

But it always is a package of wood, PUs, hardware and strings.

I would love to hear a bridge P soloed before actually pulling out the router.

That's actually the only BC Rich shape i like, but i do like it a lot. And i'm a sucker for cream pickups.

Wow, that was one of the best 'rock' tones I've ever heard from a sound clip. Probably WAS the best. I saved that to my desktop as a reference track for when I lay down recordings.

The Elite II was one of the best Basses I've ever owned (I had the Blue)

:cool:

Almost all of the old Leland Sklar recordings are with his dual-P bass. Check out any James Taylor recording before the 80's. Amazing tone (and playing of course).

I still have this one:



And love the sound, the feel and the looks. :)

A second P pickup by the bridge would sound great. Just find a way to tailor the output of both of them to your liking. If you can add an identical P in the bridge position the impedances would match up. So then to balance the output you could try: a blend knob, selector switch, adjust pole piece height, adjust pickup height etc.