It’s not a figment of my imagination, it’s the tone I get when I play it unplugged. Very clean, very natural. Of course electronics will change that, I just want to get the least coloured and broadest dynamic range pickup to highlight the subtleties of the bass as much as possible.
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P bass pickup for clean sound
- Thread starter Yonni
- Start date
Ah, My Bass Only Louder℠. It’s a big deal over on the DB side. What you need is a microphone.
I don't think it's possible. Yes, the sound will change based on where you pick/pluck, but a big part of the pickup sound is the placement of the pickups. You'll get a P sound from P pickups more or less no matter which pickups are used. Similarly, a bridge J has a characteristic sound. And neither of these are the acoustic sound you want.
Previously mentioned pickups are certainly good. But I don't think they'll get close to what you say you want. They are literally too good. My suggestion: Aguilar DCB.
TBH, I think they sound a little uninspiring. But that seems to be the sound you're asking for. Sorry.
Previously mentioned pickups are certainly good. But I don't think they'll get close to what you say you want. They are literally too good. My suggestion: Aguilar DCB.
TBH, I think they sound a little uninspiring. But that seems to be the sound you're asking for. Sorry.
My .02 cents worth. IME, just about any P Bass pickup with around 10.5k ohms should give you the sound that you are looking for.
I've been a member of TB for well over 10 years and these 3 pickups seem to be the most popular among TBers.
(not in this order)
Fender Original P Bass Pickup.
S. Duncan SPB-1
EMG Geezers
A personal experience with P pickups. One time, I bought a used set of MIJ AlNiCo 5 P pickups ($25). To date, they are the best sounding P pickups I've ever heard.
Reason? The ohm rating is 9k ohm. Lower ohm pickups tend to have better clarity and definition.
YMMV
- Apr 18, 2008
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Ah - maybe what you want is a piezo pickup to mix with your current magnetic pickup. Not too hard. Requires additional circuitry and a battery.
Many good suggestions. I might as well add to the list:
I have the Aguilar 60 on my Fodera P. Very clear-sounding, especially with TI or Sadowsky Blue Label flats.
I changed the P pu in my Sandberg for a Novak PB Fat. Clear and fat! I really like it.
I have the Aguilar 60 on my Fodera P. Very clear-sounding, especially with TI or Sadowsky Blue Label flats.
I changed the P pu in my Sandberg for a Novak PB Fat. Clear and fat! I really like it.
Agree. For clarity and a natural even response it’s hard to beat a Wilde P-46.
Thanks, but I have a rule that I only buy music stuff from music stores or musicians. I don’t want to see them all disappear and have to go to Amazon for everything in 10 years time. Im happy to pay extra for advice, expertise and choice.
Deal with Fralin, underwound and request wound for clean sound.
Another vote for the Lawrence/Wilde P-46.
P-46
The P-46 is a multi-pole piece design which accommodates a 4, 5, or 6 string bass. It is standard with four conductor wires for multi-sound wiring options and comes with mounting screws. Inductance: 3.8H Width 1.10" Length 2.24" Depth 0.82"
www.wildepickups.com
Dont over think this. Iver owned a ton of P basses and they basically all sound the same irrespective of the PU. Out in the crowd they really do sound all the same. Bigger differences are found thru ur technique. I sound much better years later than I did as a youngster...experience and technique rule.
I've got a set of JBE PJ's in a cheap Peavey BXP and they definitely have a very unique sound. I wouldn't call it "broad frequency" but actually a very "focused" sound. They are very mid focused, but not in a typical P bass way. It's a little more dialed in to the high mids. If I were in a djent band, that bass would be the only one I'd play.
Interesting! Do you think it's possible the BXP's build composition might have a more inherent high-mid-forward resonance to it or have you tried those pickups in another bass too and got similar results? I suppose strings are also a variable that could influence certain frequencies being emphasized. I personally haven't tried the split P and J models from Barden, so of course it's 100% possible that those particular pickups don't quite meet the broad-frequency mark. My confirmation of their goal of broad-frequency response is just based on my owning the Rickenbacker replacement set and the 51 p bass singlecoil replacement model, both of which I have tried in a few different basses, different positions, with a ton of different string sets and both active preamps and passive wiring. Every one of those contexts sounded notably different, so they really did seem to be letting any and all natural nuances of the instrument itself and the strings come through. Much like I've also heard when Alembic pickups and electronics are put into different basses, so in those cases at least I felt that Barden delivered on the broad frequency response goal.
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Maybe. The Peavey in question is a 35" scale with atypical PJ pickup placement and also has a Darkglass preamp in it, so to be fair there are a lot of mitigating factors. I installed the preamp and pickups at the same time and that's when I noticed the mid focused thing it was doing. I wouldn't imagine the preamp having that much of a baked in vibe, so I'm assuming it's the JBEs
Also, they're good pickups, but they were crazy expensive if I remember correctly. I wouldn't be rushing to drop them in another bass any time soon.
This stuff is so interesting to me! It does indeed involve so many variables and I agree that the Bardens are a little pricey, especially if you're getting a set of 2. That said, to me it was worth it since I think they get closer to some Alembic characteristics than any other options I've found, without being low-impedance or needing an active preamp or step-up transformer - though to be clear (no pun intended), in my experience nothing sounds very close to Alembic pickups, which are inarguably very expensive. Also worth mentioning, I have no hands-on experience with Q-tuner pickups.
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First, the Player is the most important element of any bass.
That said, each player, of course, has their prefs. I haven’t messed with P pickups a whole lot. I did put a CS 57 staggered pole pickup into a previous bass; and I thought that was a pretty great choice. My current P, which is getting a good bit of gig time is just a stock Am Pro V1. I think it sounds great.
OTOH, I was pretty impressed by Andy Irvine’s tone in his Genzler Kinetix review:
For my prefs, Mr. Irvine has the P sound pretty nailed here. I believe that pickup is the Nordstrand NP4A. That one sounds pretty great to me.
That said, each player, of course, has their prefs. I haven’t messed with P pickups a whole lot. I did put a CS 57 staggered pole pickup into a previous bass; and I thought that was a pretty great choice. My current P, which is getting a good bit of gig time is just a stock Am Pro V1. I think it sounds great.
OTOH, I was pretty impressed by Andy Irvine’s tone in his Genzler Kinetix review:
For my prefs, Mr. Irvine has the P sound pretty nailed here. I believe that pickup is the Nordstrand NP4A. That one sounds pretty great to me.
