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coustom PJ pickups

B

banjosteve

Aug 24, 2009
7
0
#1
I am I big fan of PJ basses and I have one that fits me perfect but I'm sure I could use the better sound and I hear that Seymour Duncan is great and emg sucks so I was wondering if you could use P pickups and a bridge jazz pickup to make PJ pickups give me your opinion I want to know if emg passive is alright or whats the deal what should I do?
 
#2
It all depends on the tone you are after.

Saying that EMG sucks is a broad generalization, not at all well founded. Queensryche's bass player uses EMG's, as well as Victor Wooten (two completely different styles of music and bass tone) yet none of them sucks tonewise at what they do (let alone their bass playing)

EMG pickups have a tonal character that imposes itself on the bass fitted, more than other pickups. It's pretty subjective (I don't really like EMGs but to say that they suck it's an exaggeration)
 
#3
banjosteve said:
I am I big fan of PJ basses and I have one that fits me perfect but I'm sure I could use the better sound and I hear that Seymour Duncan is great and emg sucks so I was wondering if you could use P pickups and a bridge jazz pickup to make PJ pickups give me your opinion I want to know if emg passive is alright or whats the deal what should I do?
Click to expand...
I like a very deep tone for rock, a slightly more moderate tone for blues and a Brighter tone for slap and I prefer the sound of passive pickups over active
 
#6
banjosteve said:
so if I wanted to use the pickups how I use them they'd either have to be a set or an underwound P and an overwound J would it work then?
Click to expand...

Do you intend to play the pickups soloed, for traditional P and J tones, or do you want to blend them?

If your goal is to blend the pickups, choose a P pickup you like and try to pick the hottest J pickup you can to go with it.

If however, you intend to solo the pickups, pick whatever pickups you want.
 
#7
line6man said:
Do you intend to play the pickups soloed, for traditional P and J tones, or do you want to blend them?

If your goal is to blend the pickups, choose a P pickup you like and try to pick the hottest J pickup you can to go with it.

If however, you intend to solo the pickups, pick whatever pickups you want.
Click to expand...

by hottest you mean highest output? or what?
 
#10
#11
banjosteve said:
okay so for more tone options I would need special hardware correct but for that I'd need special PJ hardware or could I just buy something like this http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/basslines/cutting-edge-1/stc2_stc32_3ban/
Click to expand...

If you'd like to add an active preamp, then any designed to work with passive pickups should work if you don't buy EMG (or any other active pups that I don't know about). That set says it will work with almost any 2 pickup bass, so I guess it would work with your PJ, can't see anything wrong with it anyway.
 
#12
Carl @ Lakland just put together a custom set for my Smith.... It never sounded better. Some kind of coil voodoo with the J, only set in existance..... mercy this thing sounds great.
 
#13
#14
line6man said:
Special hardware? As in what?

If you want to add a preamp, you can do that.
Some of EMG's preamps are meant to only work with their active pickups. Just make sure you choose a preamp that is made to take passive pickup signals.
Click to expand...
I'm just saying I probably won't but if I put more tone knobs on it then would I need something special and I am interested in seymour duncan pickups
 

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