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'51 RI Help

#21
JohnnyCrash said:
"Bummer"?

Ah man, so you're not happy with the tone?

I've got a bigger Ampeg I run my '51 through for gigs. I'm one for vintage tone, a lot of mids, and I don't mind single coil noise at all (even when playing at loud volumes) - so I guess the '51 is right up my alley...

My girlfriend is a Jazz Bass cat, but she also digs the '51 P.

Maybe you could sell your '51 and get a different bass? Is it new (AKA returnable with a receipt)? The Fender "Classic" series '50s P-Bass was my next choice, I dig them maple fretboards...
Click to expand...

Yup, bummer :D

I like the tone, except way up in the mids, I beleive it was between 6K and 10K somewhere...Don't have the amp with the graphic EQ in front of me at the moment. Heck, I suppose most would call the high end of the spectrum, I may need to redefine myself ;).

As for my amp situation, well the amp is always changing, and the cab is an Ampeg 8x10. I love the tone of my modded P through this rig. The single coil hum doesn't bother me at all with the '51, just that frequency hump.

I traded for the bass here at TB, and it is a great instrument. I may sell it as the band has gone on hiatus, and it's annoying me to see it sitting there. Or I may gut the electronics and start over too :eek:

And I too love maple boards. The more baseball bat sized the better too, IMO of course :).
 
#28
Hi all,

Very interesting reading this thread, as I'm looking into replacing my Sting p/u with the scpb3. I want three things from it, and I wondered if anyone could comment (most particularly on point 3) :-

1) More punch than stock (pretty confident I'll get this)

2) Stronger highs (stock thuds pretty hard on E and A strings, but I perceive a weaker response on D and G ... again, pretty confident scpb3 delivers this with bells on)

3) Ability to absorb occasional use as thumbrest (Roadhouse Blues, anyone?) without ever-present danger of ripping the lid off! I currently have it neatly wrapped in amalgamating tape so that there's no pronounced "lip", which almost completely negates the danger of trapping a string under the lid. The rubbery tape soon gets a bit daggy though, especially as we head into Aussie summer! Anyone know if the scpb3 has a more robust construction? I'm hoping SD have dispensed with the black string wrapping and separate lid and perhaps have a solid one-piece black plastic cover, but no pics I've seen confirm or deny this. Would be particularly interested in a side-on photo if anyone happens to have one (perhaps a pic of your own bass happens to illustrate this nicely :)). Would love to live near the kind of music store that would stock this p/u so's I could look at and handle the thing, but I don't.

Thanks everyone!
 
#29
I asked SD directly about the stringth issue. They said:
1) they'd replace any one of their SC pickups that came apart.
2) They'd never had one returned.

You know, if you're really that worried about it, just install thumbrest topside like a 70's Precision bass. It's black, it won't stand out.
 
#30
Thanks Chef. Thumbrest already fitted and works great, but that p/u-top location is just so right for some basslines!

I've never "worried" about bass-playing, although I've "fretted" many times ;) I have a mail enquiry in with SD but the beauty of TalkBass is I get to ask the people who own the gear but aren't trying to sell me it, and in most cases we're only too happy to gab on and on about our instruments :)

So, can anyone who has one of these tell me if there's just a flat "lid" on the top (like the Sting or '51 stock) or whether, freed from any obligation for the p/u to look authentic, SD have given this a cover that extends over the sides to cover the windings (like, say, all the Strat p/u's I've seen)?
 
#32
What many '51 P fans fail to realize is that the pickup is really just a 4-pole version of the Tele guitar bridge pickup, sans back plate. The bass itself is built like a Tele as well (i.e. slab ash body, 1pc. neck, string-thru with a two-string-per-saddle bridge. Hence, it is going to sport many of the same characteristics, albeit shifted down an octave due to the tuning, string gauge and scale length. So, whadya get when you shift the classic Tele guitar sound down an octave? Lotsa high mids! As was pointed out, THIS is the sound. You get what you get because of the platform construction. Now, if you were to build one from the ground up and construct something like the Mike Dirnt Signature Bass, which is a vintage/modern hybrid with an alder body and rosewood fingerboard an split-P pickup, you have a totally different axe.

A different pickup will color the sound differently, but will not change the overall characteristics of the bass. Changing to an obscenely expensive Bumblebee cap (the $60 one mentioned) is money thrown away, and a Sprague 715P Orange Drop is not going to do anything differently or better in a bass or guitar than a cheap polyester cap will. However, if you change your cap to .01, roll back the tone on the bass, and compensate with extra lows and low-mids on your amp, you might come closer to what you want.

I have an Aero SCPB 4-4A in my Jay Turser '51 copy (modified for string-thru) and it sounds great, but the Duncan, which is similar, is also great. The .25" magnets make a difference.
 

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