ernie ball in a p bass?

[ABH_bassist]

i was considering putting just a SD 1/4 pounder jazz in the bridge of my p bass project. but now i am considering putting an ernie ball humbucker in there instead. but still keeping the p bass pup.

has anyone done this before?

[darthplagis]

i have a MM copy that i put a P in, it was my 1st 'proper bass'.

the copy MM Pup was weak but the P fattens up everything nice, im currently saving for an OLP tony levin and im popping a P in that too.

[zac2944]

Originally Posted by ABH_bassist

i was considering putting just a SD 1/4 pounder jazz in the bridge of my p bass project. but now i am considering putting an ernie ball humbucker in there instead. but still keeping the p bass pup.

has anyone done this before?

MPG does some basses with both a MM and P pickup.
I think both pickups are in the correct location too.

Check them out at mpguitars.com.

[sunbeast]

I'm pretty sure that the traditional MM and P pickup positions overlap each other a bit.....I would probably put the MM in the correct position and put a reversed P in (the top coil closer to the bridge/ bottom closer to neck). That way the coil that picks up the E and A strings could be in the correct location, and the D and G strings would sound a little fatter than normal (which is a good thing in my opinion).

Karl

[deaf pea]

Originally Posted by sunbeast

I'm pretty sure that the traditional MM and P pickup positions overlap each other a bit.....

Not so! I recently did a lot of investigation before adding a 2nd MM pup (in the "mid" = Pbass position) to some of my basses. There's a more than 2 cm space between the 2 pups (almost 1 inch).

BTW, I know that a MM pup isn't a Pbass pup . . . but the 2 parts of the Pbass combined is about equal to the MM pup in "thickness".

[sunbeast]

Originally Posted by deaf pea

Not so! I recently did a lot of investigation before adding a 2nd MM pup (in the "mid" = Pbass position) to some of my basses. There's a more than 2 cm space between the 2 pups (almost 1 inch).

BTW, I know that a MM pup isn't a Pbass pup . . . but the 2 parts of the Pbass combined is about equal to the MM pup in "thickness".

From my measurements, the center of the E coil of a Pbass pickup is 11" from the 12th fret- the distance from that coil center to the edge of the pickup is around 1 and 3/4"- that puts the far edge at around 12 and 3/4" from the 12th fret. The edge of the MM pickup I measured was around 12 and 1/2" from the 12th fret- which means an overlap of around 1/2"....

I could be wrong though!

Karl

[deaf pea]

Karl, you got me thinking . . . and I HAD to check it out with the basses . . .
Yeah, you're mostly right. On my basses with 2 pups, the MM pup in the "mid" position ISN'T exactly in the Pbass position, it's about 1/4 inch closer to the neck than it should be! Also, the MM pup (in the MM position) edge closest to the neck SHOULD be at 12.5625 . . . it's actually at more like 12.6250. I think that that accounts for the space between the pups on my basses! It seems to me that having the Pbass pup exactly right AND the MM pup exactly right IS possible, but, like someone said, there would be ONE hole that would have both pups. I feel that having the pups so close to each other is bad (because of the interaction of the magnetic fields) and that separating them a little bit doesn't esentially change their characteristic sounds. YMMV!