New pickups same sound... ¿what to do?

[Emmanuel R. Ostrovsky]

Hi, i just bought a pair of Seymour Duncan Vintage to replace in to my Squier II Precision 80´s and there was hardly a little change of sound, a little more balanced sound and better definition, thats all, ¿is that normal? It supposed to change the entery sound, tone and everything but only those two things.

What can be wrong?
Thanks!

 

[two fingers]

It is probably just that the bass didn't sound that bad to begin with.

 

[FunkHead]

Just for the heck of it, You could reverse the lead wires. It should make a difference.

 

[Emmanuel R. Ostrovsky]

Just for the heck of it, You could reverse the lead wires. It should make a difference.

I will try... in fact im doing it right now.

 

[FunkHead]

I forget why but people used to do it a lot.

 

[Emmanuel R. Ostrovsky]

I forget why but people used to do it a lot.

I wont do it and i remember why people do it, sometimes pickups go out phase.

 

[micahwc]

Did you change your pots or caps?

Personally I think the easiest way to change your tone is to try different kinds of strings.

 

[njones89]

Maybe because they are vintage pickups, they are similar in construction to the original pickups. Hopefully you can return them and try something different.

 

[line6man]

I forget why but people used to do it a lot.

Reversing the leads on both pickups produces no change in sound. Reversing the leads on one pickup is done to correct phase issues. When a bass sounds like crap, with a thin, nasal tone, phase inversion corrects the issue.

So in this case, the result is either going to be no change, or bad tone.

 

[njones89]

I have an issue with one of my basses and I will try reversing the leads to see if that fixes it!

 

[Emmanuel R. Ostrovsky]

Maybe because they are vintage pickups, they are similar in construction to the original pickups. Hopefully you can return them and try something different.

Amazon just refund me all the money and let me keep the pickups! i cant complain, maybe the sound didnt change alot, but i got more definition and no buzz

 

[NigelD]

Amazon just refund me all the money and let me keep the pickups! i cant complain, maybe the sound didnt change alot, but i got more definition and no buzz

Try a different cap value or change the whole harness to a variable tone circuit (KellingSound -eBay) or similar.

 

[bassstrangler]

Amazon just refund me all the money and let me keep the pickups! i cant complain, maybe the sound didnt change alot, but i got more definition and no buzz

Really? You bought new pickups, installed them, wasn't impressed with the tone, called Amazon and got free pickups? I'll give that one a try, I've had that happen with a few items like CDs or books that were damaged...but pickups?

Amazon will do just about anything to keep a customer. They gave me an extra month of Prime because Ontrac delivery screwed up.

Nice outcome to your story!

 

[Matthew_84]

Yeah, I agree with changing your pots and caps... I had a Squier with Lindy Fralins in there and it still didn't sound that great. I changed the pots and everything got so much clearer - it seems like the original caps and pots were choking the original tone. On a Squier, they rarely use quality pots and caps.

Also, congrats on your story with Amazon! They're a pretty awesome company. My wife got a free calender because of a similar issue, we figured the cost of the item wasn't worth the return shipping label, but pickups? That's awesome.

 

[shawshank72]

Hi, i just bought a pair of Seymour Duncan Vintage to replace in to my Squier II Precision 80´s and there was hardly a little change of sound, a little more balanced sound and better definition, thats all, ¿is that normal? It supposed to change the entery sound, tone and everything but only those two things.

What can be wrong?
Thanks!

Strings are the biggest change in how a bass sounds.
This is very common on pickup replacements.

 

[JimmyM]

A little more balanced and a little more definition? I'll take it!

 

[wmhill]

Maybe that's as good as your bass is gonna get

 

[AndyPanda]

I forget why but people used to do it a lot.

I remember there being some discussions about a difference in sound whether you tie the two halves of the pickup using the "starts" vs the "finishes" ... here's a crude drawing of a P-Bass pickup to show what I mean. NOTE: the pickup will be in phase either way --- this simply affects whether ground and hot comes from the outer windings furthest from the magnets or from the inner windings closest to the magnets

 

[FunkHead]

I remember there being some discussions about a difference in sound whether you tie the two halves of the pickup using the "starts" vs the "finishes" ... here's a crude drawing of a P-Bass pickup to show what I mean. NOTE: the pickup will be in phase either way --- this simply affects whether ground and hot comes from the outer windings furthest from the magnets or from the inner windings closest to the magnets
View attachment 779969 View attachment 779970

Thanks. This is exactly what I was talking about.

 

[vmabus]

Time to buy some pedals!

I know! You need a new amp!!