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Bass setup like Stu Hamm Urge II

B

Blade3dge

May 19, 2009
113
1
#1
Ok guys, at the moment I have an incredible obsession with Seymour Duncan quarter pound pickups. It basically started out with me looking in to getting a Mark Hoppus bass (hate or love the guy the tone is nice) while also looking at buying myself a brand new Fender American 2010 Jazz Deluxe. So yeah, a "real" bass and something for a nice gimmicky sound.

I checked out the Mark Hoppus and as much as I want it it just seems a bit pricey for something just to play around with which doesn't even have flexibility... This is where it gets fun. After more or less coming to the conclusion that any P bass with quarter pounds pickups could do the trick I decided to see what I could do as a project bass and after listening to a few sound clips I realized I love the sound of Jazz quarter pound pickups. So after slapping myself in the face for even a seconds consideration of replacing my N3 pickups I've decided on buying a Mexican Jazz bass and replacing the original pickups with quarter pounders and installing P-bass quarter pound pickups in the Mark Hoppus reverse style for the best of both worlds.

In theory to me anyway what I should have is a bass that's practically the same as Mark Hoppus (reversed pickups, jazz body) as well as an intense as hell Mexican jazz. So I ask you forum... Is this possible (i.e "too hard" "due to the jazz pickup position you cant position the P pickup correctly") and will I get the sounds I want (i.e "all the electronics will introduce epic tone suck and I'm better off doing it separately) also any instruction would be awesome.

I work full time and almost all my money is devoted to music so I could buy a different bass for every occasion or even just mod a Stu Hamm, but I'm really interested in seeing if this is feasible. If there's any tone suck my G.A.S for quarter pound pickups will nto be satisfied and I'll be forced to buy seperate P and J basses so any advice would be wiked ;)

Cheers.

PS While I'm at it any other mod ideas?
 
#2
I'm not really a Hoppus fan, but I do kinda like his idea for a single-pickup jazz bass. Fact is, I'm currently building a bass and I'm using his signature MIM body to do it.

Unlike you, I don't really like the quarter pounders and I've already swapped them out in favor of some Bartolini's. so.... If you need some cheap used pickups from a hoppus bass make me an offer.

But yeah, I encourage you to build what you want until you find what you are looking for.
 
#3
Nev375 said:
I'm not really a Hoppus fan, but I do kinda like his idea for a single-pickup jazz bass. Fact is, I'm currently building a bass and I'm using his signature MIM body to do it.

Unlike you, I don't really like the quarter pounders and I've already swapped them out in favor of some Bartolini's. so.... If you need some cheap used pickups from a hoppus bass make me an offer.

But yeah, I encourage you to build what you want until you find what you are looking for.
Click to expand...

Yeah, as much as I have money though I hate wasting it, hence the project, so building till I get what I want is not as reasonable as doing an incredible amount of research before taking the plunge =D With that said I'll probably be holding off buying those pickups until I'm more solid in my decision.
 
#5
im going to assume you don't want a preamp...

So since you have Hoppus and Hamm in the pic, why not throw in the king of Bass mods, Sheehan?

You could do like Sheehan, and wire them to separate jacks, with seperate controls. No tone suck, and if you want a P just plug into jack A and if you want a jazz plug into jack B. if you want to blend, plug them into seperate amps and you'll have them both..in stereo!
 
#6
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#7
It's a very weird comparison between those 2 instruments. Hamm's bass is built on a more is more philosophy (more frets, more pickups) and Hoppus goes with the less is more approach.

If you like the reversed P tone and want flexibility of a jazz just go with a P-J configuration. Another J pickup will not give you that many more tonal variations.

Sometimes I wonder if Stu picked that pickup configuration cause it kinda looks like an "S"? ........nahhhhh you think?

But do try to keep things as simple as possible. If you are ever under the gun on stage and something isn't sounding right how many knobs,switches,batteries,cables etc... do you want to think about checking?
 
#8
selowitch said:
The Stu Hamm Urge (esp. the 32" medium-scale one) is awesome, but to me three pickups seems like overkill/too many options. I like to keep my electronics simple so I don't spend all my time turnin' knobs and flippin' switches.
Click to expand...

Always been a fan of active basses so reducing my options to jazz or precision pickups with a tone control seems like nothing to me :D with Jazz basses I tend to find a sweet spot for the pickup pan and change my position for tone anyway so it really is one set or pickups or the other =D
 
#9
THand said:
im going to assume you don't want a preamp...

So since you have Hoppus and Hamm in the pic, why not throw in the king of Bass mods, Sheehan?

You could do like Sheehan, and wire them to separate jacks, with seperate controls. No tone suck, and if you want a P just plug into jack A and if you want a jazz plug into jack B. if you want to blend, plug them into seperate amps and you'll have them both..in stereo!
Click to expand...

That's a pretty legendary suggestion actually, thanks.

Do you think that working with the one output but having a pickup selector (I'm thinking push/pull on the volume or something simple like that) would have much suck?
 
#10
Nev375 said:
It's a very weird comparison between those 2 instruments. Hamm's bass is built on a more is more philosophy (more frets, more pickups) and Hoppus goes with the less is more approach.

If you like the reversed P tone and want flexibility of a jazz just go with a P-J configuration. Another J pickup will not give you that many more tonal variations.

Sometimes I wonder if Stu picked that pickup configuration cause it kinda looks like an "S"? ........nahhhhh you think?

But do try to keep things as simple as possible. If you are ever under the gun on stage and something isn't sounding right how many knobs,switches,batteries,cables etc... do you want to think about checking?
Click to expand...

I know the comparison sounds strange but I'm not really one to care much for the philosophy of the design as much as the sound of it all. What I'm taking from the Hoppus is the sound, what I'm taking from the Hamm is the fusion of a jazz and a precision. In my mind the concept seems simple, maybe because I'm so used to active basses even the most complex passive bass seems simple to me haha. Tone, volume, pickup selector, pickup pan (for the jazz pickups). To me it also has a sense of pride in that the bass would be "original".

As far as P-J basses go, to be honest I've never really liked them. I love the sound of the front jazz pickup and use the bridge to tighten things up. This has less to do with a wide variation of tones and more to do with two simple passive tones and a pickup selector, one bass doing the job of two.

I suppose the best way to explain it would be that I could choose to go out and buy a passive P-bass and a passive J-bass, but what I would like to do is have both of those in one bass, simple, effective, really cool looking ;) Is it possible? I don't know, this would by far be the most major project I've ever undertaken and I'll be needing a lot of help to do it right but it could be awesome =D

In other news looking at where I would place the precision pickups on a jazz bass they fall more or less where I would have the neck pickup :S
 
#11
Mark's old P standard pickups falls right down either side of the centerline of a J pickup. On his new models they just picked up (pun intended) the treble coil and moved onto the other side of the bass side coil.

so what I would do with the J-neck pickup is shave the screw-ear tab off the(bass-neck) side of the cover. And mount it right up against the P. That would move it only a mere 1/4 inch closer to the bridge.
 
#12
Nev375 said:
Mark's old P standard pickups falls right down either side of the centerline of a J pickup. On his new models they just picked up (pun intended) the treble coil and moved onto the other side of the bass side coil.

so what I would do with the J-neck pickup is shave the screw-ear tab off the(bass-neck) side of the cover. And mount it right up against the P. That would move it only a mere 1/4 inch closer to the bridge.
Click to expand...

EDIT: Misread what you said haha. Yeah that could work.
 
#13
Nev375 said:
Mark's old P standard pickups falls right down either side of the centerline of a J pickup. On his new models they just picked up (pun intended) the treble coil and moved onto the other side of the bass side coil.

so what I would do with the J-neck pickup is shave the screw-ear tab off the(bass-neck) side of the cover. And mount it right up against the P. That would move it only a mere 1/4 inch closer to the bridge.
Click to expand...

Also I wonder how that would look? Also would there be issues of magnetic interference, I doubt it but I should ask. How much difference would 1/4 inch make?

Less difference that my picking hand position I'm guessing? That meaning any tonal difference could be accounted for by something like moving my picking hand an inch to compensate for the 1/4 inch?

And loosening the pickup by removing a screw? wouldn't that be a bad idea?

EDIT: Maybe looks could be fixed up with a pickup cover if it's butt ugly.
 

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