• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Free Pickups

#266
Okay, I got my (short P, J4, J5) pickups yesterday evening, and because of a quick basement show and night out with a ladyfriend, I put off pickups until today.

What do I have to say?

HOLY COW, JOHN! My P Bass sounds effing HUGE.

That doesn't even illustrate the effect I'm looking for. His P Bass pickup is clean, plays through the tone of my bass, and shows some serious big booty where I couldn't ever find any. SPB-1 with flats and tone rolled, meh. This sucker running wide open with Roto 66 Drop Zones? It's like Mount Saint Helens is erupting from my 610 when I play. It's got similar low end to the DiMarzio DP127 but without all of the muddiness that came with the pickup. I know these are my initial impressions, but jeez, I was not expecting anything like this. It is what I've been trying to find from this bass. John, you saved my favorite playing bass from a death under the bed due to underwhelming tones. :D

I put the J pickups in my B4 but due to a G string snap a week ago I've got a set of underwhelming strings on it and the setup is all wrong for the .45-105s on it. (It had Drop Zones too.) Surprisingly, despite more clarity, it cops the best old school J tone I've hit yet with the bridge and tone lightly rolled off. It's all fret clack until I get a correct truss rod tool from Carvin or a local shop. The route is too small to fit my socket sets. :( More to come on them!
 
#267
I brought in some less biased ears. Baby brother joined me for some taste testing. He likes the P a lot more than the J because "it sounds like he put a pair of Invalid Link Removed in that pickup!" He's the one who looooves some low end. (Strangely, his specialty is guitar!) Either way, he dug it.

Something I realized listening through the amp that I wouldn't with the DP127-my strings are slightly dead. The pickup was clear enough I could tell I was missing a little bell shimmer on top of the sound. I turned down the amp, listened to the bass unplugged, and whaddayaknow, it was! (I know, it could be that the pickup was unable to reproduce that high end that the strings weren't producing at the same time, but the J's pick it up super clearly, so I'll give the benefit of a doubt. ;))

Moving on, the big thing with the (B4) J is clarity. It is there! I hear every little buzz, clack, and mistake I make. The high end has come to life, and with it, a little extra potential for aggressiveness in the bass. I like that. Tone rolled off, it really takes you back 40 years. Sean said that it really cops an old SCPB vibe when I played the line to Night Club by the Specials on the neck PU. The bridge can HONK and I loooooooooove it for that. I like to have some versatility in my J's, and these pickups just filled out exactly what I wanted from the basses. I haven't hit the J's for slap yet, but I think with some light gauge strings for comfort, these would be Flea-funk machines.

Thanks John!

/End honeymoon period impressions.


PS- Samples will come ASAP. I need to set up the P for playing B standard to match the other samples (maybe with new Drop Zones) and restring the J with Drop Zones. Problem is that $30 strings aren't in the budget yet with a $50 parking ticket yesterday and my band owing me $50 each for our management payment from last week. :/
 
#272
Okay, my strings are quite dead, actually. (3-4 months of playing on them, 10-20 hours / week). As promised, I'll get an as is sample up today. Once my band mates pay me back, I'll put a new set of 66 DZ's on there for appropriate A / B sampling.
 
#273
Invalid Link Removed

To reiterate: Highway 1 P, dead Roto 66 Drop Zones tuned BEAD, John's short P pickup, stock wiring into an M-Audio Fast Track straight into Audacity. No effects except some volume leveling between segments.

Playing order was fingers, pick, thumb, thumb tone rolled off to begin with. Afterward it was fingers then pick where appropriate. I mixed it up once, I'm sure you can figure out where.
 
#274
J's are up next week-ish.

John, sorry for the wait time on the J's. I've got to get the truss tool from Carvin (with a $10 S/H charge! Ouch!) before I can get the J's up and worth listening to. Massive fret buzz isn't the best way to showcase your work. ;)
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back