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Double P phasing

sirsam22

sirsam22

Mar 3, 2009
250
82
Opelika, Alabama
#1
I am very slowly putting together a mirror double p bass made from a 90's Peavey fury. I'm getting close to the point of getting the body routed and wanted to know before I do it, is there a minimum distance I need between the pickups to keep from having any issues. Or, with split coil pickups, is this something I even have to worry about. Part of my concern is that I'll be using a Babicz bridge that extends further than the old bridge giving me a tad less room to work with, so I want to be sure there is enough space to even do this.
 
#2
Whenever you use a two pickup system, the pickups will see different parts of the wave form created by the string vibration. And what part of the wave form will depend on what note you are playing and the amount of harmonics. In some cases there will be constructive interference and in others destructive. There is no way around that. So in the end, go with what sounds best to you.
 
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#3
sirsam22 said:
I am very slowly putting together a mirror double p bass made from a 90's Peavey fury. I'm getting close to the point of getting the body routed and wanted to know before I do it, is there a minimum distance I need between the pickups to keep from having any issues. Or, with split coil pickups, is this something I even have to worry about. Part of my concern is that I'll be using a Babicz bridge that extends further than the old bridge giving me a tad less room to work with, so I want to be sure there is enough space to even do this.
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The only thing I'll say is that if you can I would move the bridge pickup forward of the Jazz bridge position as pickup position matters more the closer you get to the bridge and the split nature of a I could cause some issues; I had mine routed for the pickup to be centered on the Jazz bridge position and it's extremely close to bridge on the EA side I haven't finished fixing the mistakes yet so I don't know how it's going to sound but I would of preferred it to be moved forward.
 
#5
So what are the pros/cons of how the bass or treble sides are positioned. I thought by mirroring the bridge pickup it would give me closer to what a jazz does there without single cool hum and better tonal balance with the treble side being further not being overly bright or thin. Am I wrong?

And, are there any issues with the pickups being close enough that they're almost touching?
 
#7
sirsam22 said:
So what are the pros/cons of how the bass or treble sides are positioned. I thought by mirroring the bridge pickup it would give me closer to what a jazz does there without single cool hum and better tonal balance with the treble side being further not being overly bright or thin. Am I wrong?

And, are there any issues with the pickups being close enough that they're almost touching?
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The closer to the bridge you get the more pickup position matters so which ever side you put closer to the bridge will be brighter. The only con of having them close together is less tonal variation between the two pickups but, with some clipping of wires you can use a super switch (4 or 5 way) or rotary switch to have 3 "different" pickups, reverse P neck, "standard" P in the middle, and reverse P in the bridge, along with the standard both bridge and neck in parallel with a 4 way and bridge and neck in series with a 5 way.
 
#8
sirsam22 said:
I am very slowly putting together a mirror double p bass made from a 90's Peavey fury. I'm getting close to the point of getting the body routed and wanted to know before I do it, is there a minimum distance I need between the pickups to keep from having any issues. Or, with split coil pickups, is this something I even have to worry about. Part of my concern is that I'll be using a Babicz bridge that extends further than the old bridge giving me a tad less room to work with, so I want to be sure there is enough space to even do this.
Click to expand...
You could make a wood structure thingy, hover the pickups above the strings and see - well, listen to - how they sound at various positions before routing. An obvious problem is, it'd interfere with your plucking and possibly make it impossible to have an exact idea (you may well be used to plucking/picking exactly where you plan to put one of the pickups). Still, just a thought.
 
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#9
Since there is not that much string excursion, and therefore hardly any fundamental in a bridge pickup, to solve phasing I put a .01 capacitor in line between the pickup's hot lead and its connection to its volume pot. It may lower the overall volume of the pickup a little bit, but helps get a good "sweet" tone when the pickups are blended.

I would also reverse the segments so there is more definition on the E string and less twang on the G string, especially on the bridge pickup.
 
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#13
Reverse Ps, roughly 60s Jazz positioning and spacing (measured at center of respective pickup types). Did it to a Squier VM P5 (stock neck, rewound to 14K VM P5 bridge), worked out fantastically well. Balanced, can go from vintage to modern with a turn of the bridge pickup volume. And humbucking at all settings!
 
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#16
Love it! That India Ink paint job looks great.

I'm going to mirror the pickups on this one so I only have to route one cavity, and I'm going to dye the bare wood. I really like the grain patterns, so I'll probably also eliminate most of the pickguard except what covers the existing routes.
 

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