Does anyone only play their P PUP on their PJ?

[BAG]

I rarely use any of the j pup on my Jag and Godin at all. It's so rare i could live without the J pup easily.

When I see Double Precision basses, I want them:

I've been using the bridge pup a bit on this fretless below. Due to the design of it, it gives a very mid-toppy honky j-type sound to the D and G strings with much less on the E and A strings. At the moment i keep see-sawing between liking the bridge pup and not really liking it.

Part of me thinks a J bridge pup would be a more balanced sound. Oh well, the neck pup is great sounding and the bass as a whole is just awesome.

 

[Crystalman85]

When I had a schecter raiden deluxe and a yamaha trbx174, I have only use the precision pickup on the bass. that's mainly because I'm not use to pj configurations. I'm more of a soapbar and jazz pickups kind of guy. but I did like the precision pick up sound from the yamaha trbx174. it sounded beefy and punchy for an affordable passive bass. I might purchase it once again.

 

[spiritbass]

EDIT: oh, sorry, just realized i misunderstood your post. I like the series wiring in a dual-coil paired with a P the best. Seems to mate better, since the P is also wired in series. Mucho beof.

This is how my Dingwall is wired. The bridge pickup has separate coils for the E/A and D/G strings which are in series with each other.

 

[Spent]

I believe your J PUP is a Noiseless, so it's built like and acts like a Humbucker.

That is correct.

 

[chris_b]

Anyone else out there with PJ Basses who just shut their J PUP off?

I sometimes add the J when I'm playing with noisier rock bands but I mostly play my Lull PJ5 with the J off. There's nothing wrong with it I just prefer the P on its own for most of the music I play.

 

[Darc1]

I have just replaced the stock Fender P/J pickups on my Jaguar (Mexican) standard bass with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder P/J set. The stock pickups were 'OK' with 100% P or 100% J, but when you started to blend them the sound completely lost focus - scooping, phasing...call it what you like it didn't sound great

Replacing with Seymour Duncan's (no affiliation to the company)...wow what an improvement. Both P & J sound great individually, but now I can set the P at 100% to get that classic P-bass thump, then dial in around 40%-60% of the J to bring in some low-mid snarl so it cuts through in the mix. Even with both pickups at 100% the Jaguar now makes a great sound and I am not hearing any of the problems I had with the stock pickups.

As an aside - I picked up the bass second-hand and cheap (£380 - new Jags are going for £600). There were no marks on the bass and the neck plays well, however I now suspect that maybe the original pickups were installed incorrectly or had a fault prompting the previous owner returned it to the shop. Their loss With the new pickups price included, I have paid £500 for an awesome bass - £100 less than a brand new Jaguar Standard!

 

[Malak the Mad]

Stewart Spector told me one time the most critical thing about 2-pickup basses: the neck pickup does the heavy lifting, it's the one that defines the tone the most. The bridge pickup is for "finesse."

Couldn't have said it better myself, but that's because he's the pro and I'm just an ersatz tinkerer!

I tend to run my P/J Jazz projekt (Fender Reggie-sig Jazz positioning…very important! ) around neck=100% and bridge=50-100%, depending on how much "grit" I want in my sound. And when I want a fuller "roar", I switch over to series-mode. Although recently, I've been taking a shine to a bridge=100% and neck=75-ish% sound, proof to me there's a much larger sonic "landscape" to explore.

I have always wanted to play a bass with these pickups to hear how the double P would sound

Check out this awesome clip cut by a fellow TB'er on a pick-played, Fender Blacktop Jazz.

OTOH, DiMarzio makes a few humcancelling J pickups in various flavors. I tried a pair in a J copy and they were good, not as nice as P's, but better than stock thin noisy J's. I wish I had wires them with a parallel/series switch. So if you have a PJ, I recommend dropping a humcancelling J in and see how that grabs you.

I highly recommend a series/parallel mod! It's like having another bass hidden inside!

And speaking of hum-cancelling Jazz pickups…

Yes, because the J pup is noisy in comparison.
In retrospect, I should have just bought a plain old P-bass.

Three words for everyone's consideration…Fender…Super…55's! Not only are they hum-cancelling, split-coil Jazz pups, they are a bit "beefier" than standard single-coils. It was the perfect choice for my aforementioned P/J Jazz.

Like others have touched upon previously, finding the right match between your pickups is crucial. In my case, I started my projekt with the Super 55 paired with an SD "Quarter Pounder" Precision. Unfortunately, the SD completely dominated the sound, despite the strength of the Super 55. Later, I found a much more complementary pairing with an MIJ Standard pup.

The church was a particularly noisy place. Amps would play local radio stations. The TV station across the street didn't help any.

Oh dear! That must lead to some awkward sermons!

• And the Lord said unto Adam and Eve…ssshhhkkrrraaakkbbbbzzz…Do you suffer from Erectile Dysfunction?

 

[LinusKarlsson]

For 95% of the time, yes. Still I like having it there.

 

[Sid the Kid]

I use about 50% P, 50% PJ. I rarely use the J alone because I don't want to have to deal with an EQ change on stage. The solo J always needs a bit of bass boost IMHO.

In my experience pickup height plays a huge role in a PJ setup. I run the J as high as I can for the biggest tonal difference between the solo P and the PJ blend.

 

[AndreasR]

I tend to dime the P and add J to taste. I hardly ever really solo the P though, but that is still a usable sound. I personally like the definition the J adds.

Soloing a J however I can't stand. But there's something to be said for a maxed out J with some P blended in.

 

[west al]

I play with the Jazz pup slightly backed off from the Precision pup, on my PJ going through the Hartke KB15, It sounds great!

 

[madjazzbass]

I tend to dime the P and add J to taste. I hardly ever really solo the P though, but that is still a usable sound. I personally like the definition the J adds.

Soloing a J however I can't stand. But there's something to be said for a maxed out J with some P blended in.

^This^

 

[LowEndOperative]

I did when I had a Yamaha BB1025X.

 

[Mvilmany]

P pickup solo: secret sauce that "sits in the mix" just right.

P + J: more of a smoother scooped tone that's great when the mix is less dense and when the bass is more prominent and solo.