"Bad" distortion from my P-bass

[bassplayertom77]

I have an American Fender P-bass. It's passive with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickups. When I dig in, I get distortion. It's more like an artifact. I've checked my amp with different basses, used a brand new cord, even stood on one leg. Could it have something to do with pickup height? I'm stumped. Please help.

[JFace]

What amp are you using? Your signal might be too hot, overdriving the preamp.

[bassplayertom77]

SWR 2x10 combo. I've tried turning the pre-amp down to bare minimum, still no luck. Also pressing the active pad -10db was no help.

[kjs]

I have no experience with those particular pickups, but from what I hear, they are pretty hot. You might be right about it being the height...I would definitely try lowering them.

[bassninja7]

i get some nice (at times) tuby-breakup when i dig in on the upper strings. my treb side is up a little bit more (as it should be) but it may be too far up....

[badboy1984]

if you play really hard or dig really hard then try lower your gain/input.

[jongor]

Have you figured out what this is?

I'm having a similar issue...I get a top-end sizzly distortion from my bass, I know it's not the amp or the cords.

Could it be the capacitor? Something wrong with the pu's?

[NorCal Dog]

Originally Posted by bassplayertom77

I have an American Fender P-bass. It's passive with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickups. When I dig in, I get distortion. It's more like an artifact. I've checked my amp with different basses, used a brand new cord, even stood on one leg. Could it have something to do with pickup height? I'm stumped. Please help.

BINGO brah,, it has EVERYTHING to do with pickup height

i a/b'd a couple of p pickups & i actually couldn't get the quarterpounder far enough away from the strings to get them to stop distorting when i dug in

my suggestion,,, dump 'em they're WAAAYYY too hot

( when i first read the thread title, i knew you had quatrerpounders before i even read your post )

[jongor]

I have Fender CS 60's single coils, does the same thing.