Alternative P Pickup orientation

[dubhnight]

I've been messing around with a Squier P recently, doing a few experiments. Added a bridge pickup, changed the wiring to that of a stack knob jazz bass, tried a few different tone caps, so far so good. I had an idea though, and it's something I've never seen done but i think it might be interesting, if only for the novelty value.

I have a spare Squier P Pickup lying around, and I was wondering what would happen if I mounted it so that the two sections were rotated around 90 degrees and put beside eachother, with the pole pieces between the 1st and 2nd string and the 3rd and 4th string. I was thinking of doing it right up at the neck position.

I have no idea how this would sound, presumably it would be pretty fat because obviously you'd have the standard humbucking P sound, in the neck position, but also because the string would induce more voltage one one half of its cycle than the other. I think I'm right in saying that this will emphasize more of the even harmonics, which is generally a recipe for tastiness.

Just an idea, I may do it out of curiosity soon. It'd be cool to know if anyone else has done the same. Thanks.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Isn't that what they did to the Mark Hoppus signature for a couple years?

 

[line6man]

Are you talking about something like this?
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It will work fine, as long as the strings are within the sensing area.

 

[dubhnight]

Yeah, just like this. I know it should work, but how does it sound?

 

[line6man]

Yeah, just like this. I know it should work, but how does it sound?
View attachment 415839

It's going to sound like a pickup with a VERY wide aperture.

 

[RAMUSIC]

That bass with the 4 lipstick tube pickups is amazing.

 

[dubhnight]

Just got this job done, sounds great! I ended up doing it so that it was fully hidden under the pickguard, and as I like my pickups very far from the strings this worked worked well. Wired it without a tone knob, it just doesn't need one.

Really pleased with the sound though, it sounds very very thumpy, with loads of fundamental, as you'd expect. No growl whatsoever, just rubbery thumpy mud. Sounds fantastic at volume through a tube amp too, very thick indeed. I wasn't quite expecting the power that came from mixing it with the other pickups too.

I've attached a photo of what this looks like with the pickguard off, with it on it's invisible:

Forgive the dirty routing and the dirty, dirty pickups, I had 'limited' access to tools, and these have definitely been around for a while.

I've made a few sound samples too, if anyone is interested. In 'New', the first part is the neck P pickup isolated, the second is with the middle P pickup (SD SPB-1) mixed in at about 50% with the tone down, and the last is all 3 pickups at full bore (I previously installed a soapbar in the bridge). In 'Old', the first part is just the middle at full volume and tone, and the second has the soapbar at full volume and tone mixed in.

Hope someone finds this interesting, I'm really enjoying the new sound and it was definitely worth the time and effort, as well as the pickup.