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Lipstick on a Pig or a P-bass ?

kodiakblair

kodiakblair

Jun 14, 2007
11,990
21,085
Falkirk,Scotland
#1
Was awful taken with the Italia basses from years back, particularly the Modulo model.

Italia Modulo.jpg

Just looked so cool :cool:

Like an eejit I bided my time, they sold out, were discontinued and prices up up to stupid level :(

Could never shake the itch.

Years passed with a little voice whispering "You could do something similar" in my ear . Couple of months back I replied "OK, to similar" :D Those Italia basses had complicated construction, bodies had a top and bottom. Top got

Had a spare P-bass body (Paulowina, dead easy to work with) and neck, even had a generic PG that fitted them; all I lacked was pickups and PG material. Think PG material came from Amazon. Pickups caused some slight head scratching, had 3 Dano pickups in the drawer; origin unknown. Went with Artec so they do a Strat set with the middle pickup RWRP; not strictly necessary but I'm led to believe handy if wiring in series. Played safe, bought 2 of each 👍

Won't bore you with cutting out the PG details or any of the other work I never took photos of 🤣

IMG_20251205_152337378_HDR.jpg

Pretty pleased with the results.
 
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#10
I like yours better than the Modulo. That pickguard shape it has gives ZZ Top to me or something. Your more traditional shape works better.

I agree with the comment above, your pickup placement is more accurate to a P design. I sort of prefer the sound of a pickup slid back a bit, but it's personal.

Great work.
 
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#12
Phreaky Phriday said:
What does it sound like?
Click to expand...
A P-bass.

mambo4 said:
Was there a logic to the slanted placement?
or were you just copying the source?
Click to expand...
Shameless copying 😀

TrevorOfDoom said:
To be fair…
You placed the pickups in the standard Pbass spot, while the original had them a bit closer to the bridge.
Click to expand...
I did.

I'm equally guilty of unabashed cheating as I am of shameless copying, add in a healthy dose of cowardice too :) When cutting plastic you only get one attempt, mess up the pickup spacings and it £20 for another sheet of plastic. Messing up routing pickups in a body brings bigger problems 😀

If I do another, say lipsticks in a 51 slab body, I'll make a template. PG on this was cut using this paper template stuck to the surface.

4 Lipsticks.JPG
 
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#13
Froski said:
Lipstick is right!!! I think it's cool, how does it sound?
Click to expand...
Here's a simulation comparison between the frequency response of a P bass on the A string (every string is different) and one that is identical electrically, but where the pickup is sampling not at one point, but instead is listening to two inches of string, as the pickups here are doing:

P vs lipstick.png

The pink curve is the standard P bass, the green curve is the lipstick. There are a lot less mids and highs when you "listen" to a long section of the string. It always irks me when pickup makers say "it listens to more of the string, so it captures more harmonics" - nothing could be further from the truth - listening to more of the string cancels harmonics.

If the OP likes the sound of his bass, great, but I'd venture most folks wouldn't say it sounds "just like a P". With flats, of course, it won't be as obvious, as flats kill a lot of harmonics, but with rounds, the difference should be pretty obvious.
 
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#14
I totally get that.
I'd say next time just put the pickups as far back as you can while still being able to cover up the routing holes with a new pickguard, should you mess up.

kodiakblair said:
I'm equally guilty of unabashed cheating as I am of shameless copying, add in a healthy dose of cowardice too :) When cutting plastic you only get one attempt, mess up the pickup spacings and it £20 for another sheet of plastic. Messing up routing pickups in a body brings bigger problems 😀

If I do another, say lipsticks in a 51 slab body, I'll make a template. PG on this was cut using this paper template stuck to the surface.
Click to expand...
 
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#16
I love nerdy stuff like this.
micguy said:
Here's a simulation comparison between the frequency response of a P bass on the A string (every string is different) and one that is identical electrically, but where the pickup is sampling not at one point, but instead is listening to two inches of string, as the pickups here are doing:

View attachment 7383325
The pink curve is the standard P bass, the green curve is the lipstick. There are a lot less mids and highs when you "listen" to a long section of the string. It always irks me when pickup makers say "it listens to more of the string, so it captures more harmonics" - nothing could be further from the truth - listening to more of the string cancels harmonics.

If the OP likes the sound of his bass, great, but I'd venture most folks wouldn't say it sounds "just like a P". With flats, of course, it won't be as obvious, as flats kill a lot of harmonics, but with rounds, the difference should be pretty obvious.
Click to expand...
 
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