What's the deal with P basses in particular making it into every corner of music while being so clearly limited? I understand the need for a thumpy, vintage tone sometimes, but a PJ will do it just as well while allowing for far more sounds outside of that niche in my opinion. Especially just going through a DI, which I tend to do in the vast majority of cases (I feel much more aware of my playing and volume when I get out what I put in), the pickup in post '57 P basses, especially by itself, feels restrictive, insensitive, and generally counterintuitive.
To be clear, my issue is not with the pickup on its own, as touched on before. In fact, reverse P pickups, especially when used in PJ configurations, are among my favorite pickups I've used. The problem lies in the standard P pickup and the fact that, on a normal P bass, that's all you get. The bass side being closer to the neck means a thumpy, muddy, tone- and the opposite for the treble side, having plenty of snap thanks to being closer to the bridge. Sounds great until you realize that that's ALL IT DOES.
Getting snap out of the bottom end is near impossible, even with the tone cranked, and the high end is crispy and bright all of the time (though somehow is not sensitive at all to light touch or strumming). It seems as if the whole point of the split-coil is to force extremes out of the bass all of the time, which may not be noticeable through preamps and pedals and such but is glaringly obvious through DI. And to seal it all off, you've got to play a log of a neck with strangely wide string spacing, making it even harder to be articulate than it already was.
Again, a reverse P sounds great. A reverse P sounds balanced. A PJ sounds balanced, reversed or not. I am sincerely wondering, why would you choose to spend considerable money on such a flawed and limited bass when reverse P and PJ basses are available for the same price with far more room for tone adaptation and the ability to produce the vintage sound that so many people say they look for in a P bass? I will gladly give the P a second chance if you can explain to me any actual benefit to owning one, and of course I'll be sure to look for what you bring up when I give it that chance, but I just really can't see the point.
To be clear, my issue is not with the pickup on its own, as touched on before. In fact, reverse P pickups, especially when used in PJ configurations, are among my favorite pickups I've used. The problem lies in the standard P pickup and the fact that, on a normal P bass, that's all you get. The bass side being closer to the neck means a thumpy, muddy, tone- and the opposite for the treble side, having plenty of snap thanks to being closer to the bridge. Sounds great until you realize that that's ALL IT DOES.
Getting snap out of the bottom end is near impossible, even with the tone cranked, and the high end is crispy and bright all of the time (though somehow is not sensitive at all to light touch or strumming). It seems as if the whole point of the split-coil is to force extremes out of the bass all of the time, which may not be noticeable through preamps and pedals and such but is glaringly obvious through DI. And to seal it all off, you've got to play a log of a neck with strangely wide string spacing, making it even harder to be articulate than it already was.
Again, a reverse P sounds great. A reverse P sounds balanced. A PJ sounds balanced, reversed or not. I am sincerely wondering, why would you choose to spend considerable money on such a flawed and limited bass when reverse P and PJ basses are available for the same price with far more room for tone adaptation and the ability to produce the vintage sound that so many people say they look for in a P bass? I will gladly give the P a second chance if you can explain to me any actual benefit to owning one, and of course I'll be sure to look for what you bring up when I give it that chance, but I just really can't see the point.
