Choosing the right Pickups

I’d get the Antiquity 2, because it’s built to the specs of late 60’s early 70’s P basses. Has grey bobbins, plain enamel wire just like early 70’s basses. Plus they sound really great with flats and rounds. I installed mine in a bass I no longer have, and could easily dial in a Geezer Butler tone. It’s not like other vintage voiced pickups where it’s hard to get an aggressive tone, these things can do anything you want em to do.

 

If you want versatility or if you play more old school maybe don’t pick the SD Steve Harris. I have that on my PJ and sometimes I wish it wasn’t so dark sounding. Personally i’d go with an SD SPB-1. But if you don’t mind shelling out the extra $$$ then by all means go for the SD Antiquity II, NP4, or Lindy Fralin.

The way I see it the Fralins are the end-all be-all in P bass pickups. Ha!

 

Yes, the list goes on. Here on TalkBass, it seems that the 3 most popular P pickups are the Fender Original, Seymour Duncan SPB-1, and the EMG Geezer.

Hang me at sunrise but I've messed with a bunch of P pickups and they nearly all sound the same to me. Just very slight variations. I'm talking about the so-called vintage type P pickups.

I like the Duncan SPB-1 a lot!

JimmyM is one of TalkBass' most knowledgeable bass players. A pro player with tons of on stage experience. If I may say, he is a strong advocate for the EMG Geezer! It seems to be in the ball park of your wanting a late 60s early 70s kind of sound.

Good luck. Keep us informed.

 

Totally a fan of that Fralin. Lollar is equally great. Can't go wrong with Lindy or Lollar.

 

Before you go switching pickups, try this, which others have tried to good results: swap the two halves of the pickup, so the alnico V is under the E & A strings for more definition, and the alnico II is under the D & G strings for better tone.

 

Your present pickup will move in the direction you want by wiring it in parallel - in fact, it'll likely go too far for your tastes, but a loading cap can be used to back it up, and tune the amount of snarl you want - try something between 1000pF and 2000 pF (you can buy a lot of values for a couple bu ks from Mouser) wired across the pickup. The reduced impedance of the pickup wired in parallel will give you a higher upper mid peak, which also helps you get what you're looking for.

Randomly changing pickups to get the tone in your head is a complete crapshoot - (and it costs $100 or more per experiment). What I'm suggesting is an approach that will get you there in a few simple, cheap steps.