Classic Passive 60's & 70's Punchy Warm P Bass Pup, Who's the Best?

Bassmore · #1 03-19-2008, 02:05 PM

Ol' School TBer's (or those TBer's who dig classic Rock/Folk/R&B),

Please don't laugh although it may be hard not to.

I really want a real P Bass but I'm rubbing nickels together to get a dime these days and happen to have a pretty decent 80's Yamaha RBX-200 P-Bass copy (very nice and true J style neck

) that I think

I can get some serious P tones out of. A couple years back I threw in a Seymor Duncan Basslines Quarter Pounder (SDBLQP) P Split coil but didn't think to do anything with the pot's so they are still stock. Someone suggested to get the pot's upgraded first to "bring out" everything the Quarter Pounder can do first.
That's my first action. Just with the SDBLQP alone the bass has started getting very close to a decent P tone with certain settings. Can anyone suggest the Best (Passive) Pup (i.e. Lindy, Nordy, SD Antiquity II) that I should use to get a really great 60's / 70's P Bass tone with? Hopefully, someone who's done this before and absolutely feel in love with the great sound they got out of it.

Many Thanks,

Bassmore

Mushroo · #2 03-19-2008, 02:09 PM

Bassmore, if you are handy with a soldering iron, try connecting the pickup straight to the jack. If this noticeably improves the sound, you are a candidate for new pots. If there is no difference, your existing pots are fine.

I can't recommend a pickup from personal experience, but Fender and Fralin get mentioned a lot for vintage sounds. Good luck.

Parabolic Box · #3 03-19-2008, 02:14 PM

Try rewiring the electronics (tear out the pots and cap, put in new ones, and wire it to old sk00l Fender diagrams). It's cheaper than buying new pickups.

joeyl · #4 03-19-2008, 02:16 PM

I used to be a big fan of the Quarter Pounders but they do not have enough midrange. I would get one of these MIA P pickups, like a 62 reissue or something

4Mal · #5 03-19-2008, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mushroo

Bassmore, if you are handy with a soldering iron, try connecting the pickup straight to the jack. If this noticeably improves the sound, you are a candidate for new pots. If there is no difference, your existing pots are fine.

I can't recommend a pickup from personal experience, but Fender and Fralin get mentioned a lot for vintage sounds. Good luck.

That's not a great plan... you're going to pickup quite a lot of gain and treble bypassing the controls - regardless of the quality of the Pot's & cap's themselves. Fine if you dig your controls off the bass (like in a floor pre or something).

Unless your pots are scratchy or going intermittant, I wouldn't bother. Changing cap values change how the hi's rolback as you roll the tone control off.

Not a fan of the quarter pounder. Like most pickups wound to be hotter - it's kinda lackluster to my ear - not a lot of hi's, not a lot of low's ... not a pickup I can love...

Personally I found the Fralin to sound kinda thin - I did not get to spend a lot of time with it though.

My fav P Bass pickup of all is the Aero Type 1. It's got the vintage thing in spades. It's not transparent. You can hear it when you install it. It isn't refined sounding. Not polite. It just sounds like an old p-bass.

Second fav for me is the Bill Lawrence. The Lawrence is dead quiet and maybe a little modern sounding. It's real clear - it isn't a Dark Star but it leans ni that direction tonally. It's just very smooth pickup from a frequency response perspective. As pickups go - it is not at all compressed. Definately not a Bartolini.