Did 70's Precision basses have a different pickup?

[SturmUndDrang]

Had a 78' that sounded amazing and from what I remember it definitely had more of a fat low end overwound kind of character about it. I remember trying a 60's reissue sometime back in the late nineties or early 2000s and thinking it sounded thin in comparison. I miss that P bass. Great maple neck too, I don't think Fender was doing one piece maple necks then anymore. I only traded it when I was in college because I needed an upright case and the finish was Antigua.

Turns out it is a one piece neck. I just bought the bass back last weekend. Sadly the original guard ended up getting tossed along with the old pots. The new pickup is a vintage P replacement by Rio Grande. It sounds nice to me and the bass is giving me goosebumps.

More details to follow

 

[wolfkeller]

So no one answered as to what would be the modern pick up for that 70s sound? Any of the current fenders?

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

So what we're saying here is that YES - there is a difference in the 70's P-Bass pickups?

Yes. They were bad and were almost immediately replaced by many, many owners (myself included). Not lots of choices back then, but Dimarzio, SD and Bill Lawrence were around. My '77 J bass? I yanked those p'ups, put ugly cream DiMarzio's in it and it sounded MUCH better - and must less noise. I think that I actually threw those old ones away (Something that would cause fits with the "everything that is old is GREAT crowd). No regrets.

 

[wolfkeller]

Sounds like you've been around then huh? What would you then suggest as something suitable for that type of sound? Model P? New fenders?

 

[stanknuckle]

I've got 1974 grey bobbins in mine and they are great. Lots of punch and lots of clarity. To my ears they're the iconic P bass pickup. I've got flats on my P bass and it's jamerson all the way. No noise issues whatsoever.

 

[jmpiwonka]

The stock wind lollar p pickup seems pretty inline with a 70s pickup to me.

 

[Spirit of Ox]

My 73 P bass is very bright with a lot of high mids and not a lot of bottom. I replaced the pickup with a Steve Harris SPB4 Seymour Duncan pickup. This added more bottom and lower mids and only cut the high end back a little. It was a great upgrade. After all Steve Harris just had Seymour Duncan rewind his pickup for this sound so it all makes sense.

 

[Pbassmanca]

The stock wind lollar p pickup seems pretty inline with a 70s pickup to me.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Lollar emailed me and they wind their stock vintage precision pickup with Poly wire actually not enamel or formvar.

 

[Pbassmanca]

I've always wondered what the difference was from a 60's P-Bass pickup and a 70's P-Bass pickup.
Forever have I tried to get that 70's P-Bass pickup sound, and I wanted to know your opinions of whether they used different specs for the Fender P-Bass pickup in the 70's, or if it was the same thing as they were producing in the 60's and I'm crazy.
To me the 70's P-Basses have always had a "nastier" type of midrange kind of sound. Most of my favorite rock P-Bass sounds have been guys using 70's P-Basses stock. Think of the P-bass sounds of guys like Roger Waters/Pink Floyd, JJ Burnel/The Stranglers, Paul Simonon/The Clash, Denny Laine/Wings (when Paul played piano) - that P-Bass sound.

Anybody know what was different about the P-Bass pickup produced during the 1970's?

My ultimate 70's pbass sound is a toss up between George Porter Jr. and Paul Jackson. Both played on early 70's pbasses and that is a sound I have been after for my ash/maple precision bass. Aside from mojotone Pickups who have an actual so-called 70's reproduction pickup I don't know of anyone else that actually manufactures one. As it would be possible to get a small pickup builder to custom build you one to spec, this brings up a great question that I'm not sure has been definitively answered: How was Fender building Precision bass pickups from 1970-1975? Aside from grey bobbins and alnico5 magnets, which kind of wire were they using, and what was the average DC resistance that they were winding the Precision bass pickups to? Inductance is a relevant factor as well. Also were they completely machine wound or was there still hand winding. I would be very interested if anyone out there has some concrete info on this subject, as there seems to be conflicting reports about this, (as well as, and maybe even more so regarding late 50's - 60's pbass pickup specs). Cheers folks.

 

[Pantofolaio79]

Differences between custom shop pickups for precision 65/70 and 62? Thank you very much