pickup for vintage p

[vindy500]

im making a precision diy project thing and wanting to make it sound vintagey. what sort of pups would be best for this?

[Rodent]

depending on which flavour of 'vintagy' you're referring to, I'd give these two careful consideration:

* Nordstrand NP-4

* Dark Star DS-2 (completely different shape, but easy to do)

It's the only two I ever choose between for that vintage vibe

all the best,

R

[EricF]

Lindy Fralin

[vindy500]

havent seen any of those brands over here, what about seymour duncans?

[ElBajista]

Never tried a Nordstrand. Darkstars are phenomenal pickups, but not too much like a vintage-P to me, they have much more capacity for "brightness" if that's what you're looking for.

Fralins, however, deliver THE quintessential vintage P bass tone. I highly suggest this pickup.

[Stabone1972]

Seymour Duncan Antiquitys

[ZoomBoy]

Originally Posted by EricF

Lindy Fralin

Or Fender Original 62s......

[zac2944]

Originally Posted by vindy500

havent seen any of those brands over here, what about seymour duncans?

I just did a P pickup swap. I replaced the stock pups in my '97 MIA P with a set of Duncan SPB-2 pups.

Honestly, I think they sound exactly the same.

If you want something different than the stock fender tone, don't use the SPB-2.

FWIW, I only did the swap as an experiment. I got the SPB-2's for free. I like the stock Fender tone.

[zac2944]

Originally Posted by EricF

Lindy Fralin

I have played two Lakland Skyline Bob Glub's that had the Lindy Fralin pups in them. I agree that they do sound like a vintage Fender tone. I can't speak for the Nords or Antiquitys because I've never tried them, but the Fralins would be my pick for a vintage tone.

[vindy500]

well what im swapping from is some no name chinese made pickup so anything with be a improvement, i love the look of the seymours

[Nick Ioannucci]

why are they in cream covers? thats easily remedied. i vote lindy fralin or a darkstar. when i finally get all the sh!t dealt with thats going on right now, im going to do a franken fretless P with either a fralin or a DS in it. but that could be a while

[Nedmundo]

Originally Posted by zac2944

I just did a P pickup swap. I replaced the stock pups in my '97 MIA P with a set of Duncan SPB-2 pups.

Honestly, I think they sound exactly the same.

If you want something different than the stock fender tone, don't use the SPB-2.

FWIW, I only did the swap as an experiment. I got the SPB-2's for free. I like the stock Fender tone.

I agree that the SPB-2's basic tone is similar to a stock MIA Fender pickup, but I thought it had much more output than my 2004's stock pickup, with fatter lower mids to pound through a mix, and less treble. With most P-pickups, including the Fralin I use now, I'll frequently turn down the treble, but I almost never did with the SPB-2.

For great vintage tone, you can't go wrong with Lindy Fralin. It's excellent.

[6pack Jon]

Fralins get my vote. Just put a set in my MIA P Bass. They sound great.

[IanAllison]

Fralins ARE really great. But they're also very bright. If you have an ash body with a maple fingerboard (or even just one of the two), I'd maybe shy away from the Fralin.

EMGs all the way. Selects if you can find em - they're pretty rare.

Kidding.

Nordstrands are awesome and also I've found that Dimarzios (believe it or not) sound GREAT. Also, if you can get your hands on a vintage early 70s Fender pickup DO IT! In my opinion, those are the bees' knees.

[Nedmundo]

Originally Posted by artiseasy

Fralins ARE really great. But they're also very bright. If you have an ash body with a maple fingerboard (or even just one of the two), I'd maybe shy away from the Fralin.

My 2004 has a maple board, and I think the Fralin is fantastic with it. It is a little bright with the tone on full, but that's true of all vintage-voiced P pickups. It can be ordered overwound, which would pull back the treble a bit. I considered that, but went with Fralin's standard winding and I've been very happy thus far.

[Rodent]

Originally Posted by ElBajista

Never tried a Nordstrand. Darkstars are phenomenal pickups, but not too much like a vintage-P to me, they have much more capacity for "brightness" if that's what you're looking for.

For the Dark Stars it's all about placement ... they are a little brighter in the traditional P placement (but I don't place mine there)

For the NP-4 ... I recently assembled a passive Frankenbass which consisted a Fender MIM P body, a MiteyMite maple/maple J neck, and an NP-4. Check out the link to hear how this recorded in a recent session:

http://www.soulintentionband.com/demo.htm

To hear the NP-4 loaded Frankenbass in action, check out these cuts:

We Are Family
Respect
Sweet Thing


The bass was loaned by my client to Osama Afifi, who layed the grooves heard in the above tracks.

Also of note is the use of Thomastik Jazz Flats.

These three tracks were played through a Raven Labs MDB-1 into a Radial JDV 30-volt rail DI and directly into Cakewalk Sonar. They were mixed COMPLETELY flat- no eq, no extra compression, no nothin'.......just the bass.

all the best,

R

[ElBajista]

Originally Posted by artiseasy

Fralins ARE really great. But they're also very bright. If you have an ash body with a maple fingerboard (or even just one of the two), I'd maybe shy away from the Fralin.

I had a Skyline BG P bass in that wood combo with the Fralin, and while it could definitely get that aggressive, Entwhistle-like tone, I had no problem with getting the classic punchy and bassy P bass tone with a turn of the tone knob and a change in right hand technique. It was a tonally bright bass, but by no means did it lack mids, low-mids, or bass!!

I actually prefered the brightness when rolling the tone off. I found that the brightness of the woods helped retain the clarity of each note even with the tone all the way off and a set of flats. Thumpy and bass, but not muddy whatsoever.

[lonote]

I have a Fender "Original 62" in my P-Bass clone and it's a great vintage sounding pickup.