P Neck pickup with MM Bridge Pickup?

[JFlo]

I ordered mine from Warmoth. I agree that the MM pickup solo doesnt cut it, but it's great blended about 20% with the P to emphasize pick attack

 

[musicman556]

I have one, a LowEnd LEJ5 Exotic PMMan with Ulyate pickups. The bass itself is great, but over time I find myself less excited about the pickup config. I pretty much just play it as a 5 string P most of the time.

If I want humbucker sounds, I grab my MTD Kingston Super 5. That thing is incredible. It MORE than a Stingray. I also have a Sterling Ray35 with a roasted maple neck that is really great, as far as Stingrays go. It's one of the earlier ones before the more recent quality woes. Anyway, since I have gotten the Super 5, I haven't played that Ray for more than 5 minutes. It's quite a different animal, with its 35" scale and asymmetrical neck, but dangit I love it! As I sit here typing this, I'm realizing that I should probably just sell the Ray35. I mean... I prefer the Super 5 in every way except for looks. Oof!

 

[Chewy_B_i_T_s]

Although they don't look like it because of the housing, the ESP Surveyor series was set up like this.
I had one for a while. I think they sound awesome and great deals are to be had on used ones.

ESP LTD Surveyor-5 - Black

 

[bogwart]

I had my SUB bass built a few years back in this configuration and she is my #1. I personally love this setup with the reverse split coil in the neck, humbucker in the bridge, and Glockenklang preamp under the control plate.

 

[Dincrest]

Schecter Stiletto Stealth line:

Shopping

 

[MUppet]

I specifically went out looking for a bass like this about a year ago and bought a Sandberg. I’m not a big fan of just the humbucker/Music Man one pickup sound but wanted something a bit ‘more’ than a typical PJ setup (which I have a bunch of and prefer).

I really like the mix of this combination of pickups

 

[getBAK]

I might have to track down a Sandberg to try, I like the have 5-strings on a 35" scale. Spendy bastards though.

 

[one51]

Just found this old thread while planning my upcoming 5 string bass. I'm building everything but the neck (which comes from Bogart). Body with a slight nod to Zon on the horn shape (my previous bass build 30y ago, sadly stolen, was modeled after the old Zon shape).

- MM in the sweet spot
- P (both halves) moved about 14mm from the sweet spot towards the neck
- Piezo bridge

I'm debating if I do regular P (both halves moved "north" 14mm from the sweet spot)
or reverse P (BEA moved 14mm south, DG moved a whopping 42mm north from the regular P sweet spot).

Currently thinking to go with regular P, as I can blend in some piezo or bridge MM if any more treble is needed.

Any thoughts from the MM + P experts here

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Riff Ranger]

Just found this old thread while planning my upcoming 5 string bass. I'm building everything but the neck (which comes from Bogart). Body with a slight nod to Zon on the horn shape (my previous bass build 30y ago, sadly stolen, was modeled after the old Zon shape).

- MM in the sweet spot
- P (both halves) moved about 14mm from the sweet spot towards the neck
- Piezo bridge

I'm debating if I do regular P (both halves moved "north" 14mm from the sweet spot)
or reverse P (BEA moved 14mm south, DG moved a whopping 42mm north from the regular P sweet spot).

Currently thinking to go with regular P, as I can blend in some piezo or bridge MM if any more treble is needed.

Any thoughts from the MM + P experts here

View attachment 7380283

Cheers,
Dave

I definitely do not consider myself an expert, rather someone who simply loves the idea of this, and I mostly reply just to say I love the look of your take on this that said, I suspect I would prefer the sound of a reverse-P here, with that move toward the neck. Standard orientation goes more with the visual flow, however. I don’t know how much actual data we have, but many with an interest in this setup suspect that the blended sounds won’t amount to much.

 

[Pep]

In the process of staining right now...to be fitted with this lefty neck.

View attachment 4849393

Warmoth body?

 

[Pep]

Just found this old thread while planning my upcoming 5 string bass. I'm building everything but the neck (which comes from Bogart). Body with a slight nod to Zon on the horn shape (my previous bass build 30y ago, sadly stolen, was modeled after the old Zon shape).

- MM in the sweet spot
- P (both halves) moved about 14mm from the sweet spot towards the neck
- Piezo bridge

I'm debating if I do regular P (both halves moved "north" 14mm from the sweet spot)
or reverse P (BEA moved 14mm south, DG moved a whopping 42mm north from the regular P sweet spot).

Currently thinking to go with regular P, as I can blend in some piezo or bridge MM if any more treble is needed.

Any thoughts from the MM + P experts here

View attachment 7380283

Cheers,
Dave

I’ve always preferred the P-Bass pickup reversed. Much more even tone wise.

 

[one51]

I definitely do not consider myself an expert, rather someone who simply loves the idea of this, and I mostly reply just to say I love the look of your take on this that said, I suspect I would prefer the sound of a reverse-P here, with that move toward the neck. Standard orientation goes more with the visual flow, however. I don’t know how much actual data we have, but many with an interest in this setup suspect that the blended sounds won’t amount to much.

I'll definitely have to consider making it Reverse-P, then it's just such a huge move of the DG strings' PU position (by >4cm!).

Yeah I see the point on the blend: I mostly wouldn't plan on blending with the MM, but if it's too bass-heavy due to move towards the neck, a slight piezo blend could be enlightening. I'm curious if anyone has tried a piezo bridge (in this case, Graphtech saddles) and how that blends with the mag pickups.

 

[Pep]

I'll definitely have to consider making it Reverse-P, then it's just such a huge move of the DG strings' PU position (by >4cm!).

Yeah I see the point on the blend: I mostly wouldn't plan on blending with the MM, but if it's too bass-heavy due to move towards the neck, a slight piezo blend could be enlightening. I'm curious if anyone has tried a piezo bridge (in this case, Graphtech saddles) and how that blends with the mag pickups.

I had a Carvin Bunny Brunel BB75 with single coil J at the neck, MM at the bridge,
and a Piezo in the bridge. Loved the Piezo option.

Who manufactures Piezos in a bass bridge?

 

[one51]

I had a Carvin Bunny Brunel BB75 with single coil J at the neck, MM at the bridge,
and a Piezo in the bridge. Loved the Piezo option.

Who manufactures Piezos in a bass brudge?

I've found several:
- Hipshot (loaded with Graphtech, bridge avail. on Graphtech website)
- ABM (uses Graphtech saddles)
- ETS (recommends Richter electronics so I don't think it's Graphtech piezos)
- I think there are others but I was mainly looking at Headless.
All of them are unfortunately pretty expensive. I think it's a matter of scale: piezo is such a niche product, everything is made to order with low-qty manufacturing methods that are more costly. A bit like race/carving snowboards.

For headless: the ETS MK-III two piece bridge looked coolest to me, but their leadtime was 8 months.
I ended up going with ABM 3901b single bridge/tuners and the corresponding Graphtech Piezo mixer/preamp.

Can report in somewhere between 1 and 3 months how it all sounds, depends on parts delivery + build time ;-)

 

[Pep]

I've found several:
- Hipshot (loaded with Graphtech, bridge avail. on Graphtech website)
- ABM (uses Graphtech saddles)
- ETS (recommends Richter electronics so I don't think it's Graphtech piezos)
- I think there are others but I was mainly looking at Headless.
All of them are unfortunately pretty expensive. I think it's a matter of scale: piezo is such a niche product, everything is made to order with low-qty manufacturing methods that are more costly. A bit like race/carving snowboards.

For headless: the ETS MK-III two piece bridge looked coolest to me, but their leadtime was 8 months.
I ended up going with ABM 3901b single bridge/tuners and the corresponding Graphtech Piezo mixer/preamp.

Can report in somewhere between 1 and 3 months how it all sounds, depends on parts delivery + build time ;-)

Have you seen this one? It’s made on Korea. I don’t know much about it but it looks a lot like the one I had on the Carvin. I don’t know if they have a 5-string version.

 

[one51]

Have you seen this one? It’s made on Korea. I don’t know much about it but it looks a lot like the one I had on the Carvin. I don’t know if they have a 5-string version.
View attachment 7380533

Interesting, no I haven't seen that one. But I was only searching for headless bridges with the tuners at the bridge so I probably missed some standard-bridge options along the way. Do you know the brand name?

My old self-built bass had a Carvin 6er through-neck. Was really sad to see they are gone, otherwise I would have ordered another neck from them for the MM-P-piezo.

 

[Pep]

I don’t know the brand but will try to find out. The Carvin most of us grew up with is gone. The current Carvin is a shell of its former self and of course the guitar portion is now Kiesel.
I used to buy components from them but that’s all but dried up.

 

[HardNHeavy]

Warmoth body?

body was from evilbay....it's a bit heavy when i finished it, almost 12lbs!

 

[Pep]

body was from evilbay....it's a bit heavy when i finished it, almost 12lbs!


View attachment 7380559

Beautiful. Where did you get the neck?

 

[sikamikanico]

if you’re aiming to get close to a traditional solo P sound, then standard orientation as close to MM as possible is the way to go. That said, 14 mm seems excessive, how did you arrive at that number?

For anything else, I’d just do a reverse P.