Bridge PU placement (p/p config)
 

Hi there, and happy new year from France to my fellow Tbers!

I have a squier VM PBass (amber) which I dearly love.
I put a delano PVMC PU a few months ago and am delighted with the stingray meets p-bass punch I get.

However, I would like to take it up a notch or too and have booked an appointment with a local luthier to have him route the body and add a bridge PU.

The thing is, just like I can't stand HSS strats (visually) there is something about the P/J concept which turns me off (yeah, I am that vain) and I am leaning towards a P/P config instead (insert PP and double P jokes here, sorry I'm French).

I have searched TB and the internet, and read a lot about Fenders Elite II basses, and J PU placement options in PJ basses.



It seems that most manufacturers put the J in a 70's position as there might be phasing issues between the J PU and the DG portion of the P PU.

I think Sadowsky chooses to address this issue the other way round and puts the J PU closer to the P PU than a 60's J PU placement.

I have seen vids on Youtube were Warwick buzzard basses sound awesome with a mirrorred P PU config.
But the two DG portions of the P PUs look quite close to each other, and would entail the bridge PU DG portion "encroaching" on a P-bass PG somewhat.



Reversing the bridge P PU so that the DG portion be not too close to the bridge makes sense to me, but I am afraid of phasing issues between the two DG portions.

So I guess my questions are:

1- if I go the P/P (non reversed, non mirrorred) route, what distance from the pickguard would you place the P PU? Just like a fender Elite? or closer to the PG (for the PU to sound a bit fatter, but maybe at the risk of "phasing" issues)?

2- if I go the mirrored P PU route (bridge P PU "reversed") should I have the two DG portions real close to one another ( just like the buzzard and strykers from warwick, about 1 cm to 1.5cm appart), or may I place it so that the DG portion is about 1 cm to 1.5 cm from the PG (i.e like the fender elite, but reversed) without fear of bad phasing issues?

Thank you for your time!

You wont get any phase issues if you reverse the P at the bridge.

I had a P with two P pickups (the bridge being non reversed) and I think they sound pretty cool. It's a more usable tone than a P/J IMO.

The Dual P is my favorite...This gave the Peavey TL-6 MONSTER tone.

Much better than a P/J

Thanks David!

What I like about a jazz bass when both PUs are dimed is the smoothness that you get with the slight phase cancellation and loss of mids (as I see/hear it, though I might not be using the correct words).

Would it be possible to approximate this effect with a P/P set-up, and, if so, how would you guys locate the bridge PU: reversed? non-reversed? As close to the pickgard as possible? closer to the bridge?

Wow.

That's beauty!

How so, would you say?

meh, the P/P thing always looked cooler than it sounded to me.

Reversed/reversed? Mirrored? "regular" (non reversed / non reversed)?
What did you find lacking?

From the vids I have watched, notably as regards Fender Elites II, the bridge PU can sound a bit too brittle and strident, which I would attribute to the DG portion being too close to the bridge for comfort, hence the appeal for a reversed bridge PU at least.

If I reverse the bridge PU and puts its DG portion right against the pickguard I guess this PU might be useful on its own (Stingray-ish?) (emphasis on "ish" ;)).

In doing so I just do not want to end up with the middle setting (both PUs full on) being useless due to phase cancellation issues.