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Best P pickup options

#41
cyclealt said:
Arcane 65. Fair warning though is that the wait time for it can be awful. And the guy does not communicate that well with you. I read good reviews about the pickup but didn't bother to look up reviews about the company itself. It is a one man show but man I got it a little over 2 months later and apparently I was one of the "lucky" ones cause some people waited LONGER. Regardless it's a fantastic pick up and it shows that it was made with care and by a singular person.
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I must’ve been REALLY lucky then. I ordered mine on Jan 31. Got a shipping notice a week later and the pickups arrived on Feb 9th I think.

Great pickup though. I replaced a Custom Shop ‘62 I had put into my Vintera II Road Worn when the original pickup went out and I damaged it trying to repair it. The CS62 was good but bright (scooped?)…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I had heard about the Arcane and wanted to try it.

The Arcane seems to sit somewhere between the stock Vintera II (dark) and the CS62 (bright) with the right amount of low end clarity, midrange fatness, and growl. I’m pretty happy with it!

I did have to slightly modify the cover of the Vintera II pickup to fit the Arcane, which I didn’t have to do with the CS62. The VII pickup cover was aged so I wanted to keep that look rather than drop in pristine pickup covers. I had to slightly enlarge one of the pole piece holes so it would slip on, as the spacing seems ever so slightly different. Wasn’t a huge deal or a major change though.
 
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#42
Bortron said:
I've got a Sire MM P5R on order, and while I've heard good things about the stock pickups (especially as it seems they had a bit of a tweak a couple of years ago to add some low end), I'm already thinking of potential replacements. Just in case.

I have a Nordstrand NP5V pickup in another bass, and really like how it sounds - a really well rounded tone. So an NP4V would be a good option. But other than that, I've got no experience with non-stock options.

What P pickups do people recommend that give a vintage 50s/60s tone? Nothing modern or metal-oriented, and definitely passive.
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BassicJazzy said:
Honestly, the stock p'ups sound very good. Give them a chance before you go throwing money around. If you do replace, look at the LowEndLobster video on Youtube where he upgrades a previous generation P5R. He ends up having to order a new pick guard, cause the new p'ups don't fit the OG.

Here's my perfectly good P5R with the stock p'ups and LTFs strung through body, which is the best way to string this bass, for solid tone.
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What is the neck profile like on these? Are they chunky or thin back to front?
 

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