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PJ pickup options - something other than a J?

M

mr.hughes

Sep 12, 2005
239
8
Ireland
#1
Hello folks -

I have a Fender Precision 70's Reissue that I'd like to add a J pickup to. I've heard lots of differing opinions about the J being overwhelmed by the P - so this got me thinking: has anybody tried/considered using something else, like a MM, a Soapbar, a Nordy or a Lakland Chi-Sonic? If so, how did it turn out? Aesthetics aside, does anyone think one would be better than the other?

Sonically I'd like to retain the P when needed but when they're blended I'd like it to be more than P + a little of something else - in other words I don't want the P to dominate the blended sound. Thanks in advance.

gareth
 
#5
I know the perfect solution for an overwhelmed J. Get the J overwound. Fralin offers an overwound J. I just had this done to my '85 ibby roadster. I put a Tyler Henderson Vintage P & 5% overwound J and she sounds balanced.
 
#6
Off the shelf, the Lawrence P-46 and J-45 work well together.

I really like a set I had wired up by Pete Biloft at Vintage Vibe ( Link Removed ) . Alnico 3 and standard wind in the P, Alnico 5 and a slight overwind in the J. That works really well.

I'm about to do it again with Pete's stuff. The same spec for the P, but a 51 style pickup for the bridge. The 51 will be split coil for hum cancelling and will be ceramic magnet based with a slight overwind. A little hotter than my usual pick. I'm dialing this particular bass in as a rock 'n roll machine.

One other way to think about this - consider the G&L SB-2. The bridge pickups is near to meaningless on it's own... but it works wonders if you consider it a tone control on the very powerful and deep MFD style split P pickup. On that very cool bass, you dial in a little edge or dial it out with the bridge pickup. So the balance thing is also a bit of a philosophical thing as well...
 
#7
My first bass was a P-bass. I had active emg p/j installed. It ended up being way to bright/brittle sounding so I found some nice flatwounds (Magnus, I think, or something like that - I'm 800 miles away from them right now so I can't check). Anyway, On other instruments those strings sounded sterile, but with the p/j I roll off the j just a bit and get a really cool tone.
 
#12
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#16
Rezdog - yep, I've seen the P-Retro but I figure I'd still be missing the bite that comes from where the J pickup is placed. Plus I'm into keeping this bass passive.

BassLife77 - How's that bass working out for you? Do you have it wired like a MusicMan?

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
 
#17
Greetings,

With the P-Retro you won't miss that bite because you can easily dial it in, you're covered. I hmmd & hawed over it too because I'm not an active fan but it really works well the P. And you never lose that root P sound you just get more of it active and when running passive it's just pure stock. Oh ya.. there's no unwanted hum this thing is quiet.

Rezdog
 

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