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The I may reason I ever angle pickups (and it has nothing to do with my fret board radius) is to even out volume across the strings. I play with it til I get even output. I do the same thing on singles. Its just not quite as perfect being that its one bar.
OK, here's the deal...I have played basses with awesome P, J, humbucking, and non-humbucking pickups of all kinds. I've also played basses with awful versions of everything. There is no single P sound, there is no single J sound, no single humbucking or non-humbucking sound. What matters is not the pickup but the sound, and you can't generalize everything into categories. Everything is strictly on a case by case basis.Hey,
Just to weigh in here
I meant the P style pickup (two units in one position) vs a single-unit (tradional) humbucker. I did not know the split-P was connected to work as a humbucker, but it does not change the original question itself.
The confusion as to not being a humbucker according to some, is probably that people know a humbucker as a single unit with two coils, and the two-unit P are just single-coils to them regardless of what they end up doing. It does the same thing in the end and was done to bypass a patent.
I was just curious why a lot of players prefer the P setup vs a single-unit humbucker in the same position.
The question stems from the fact that I am looking for a bass to buy in a limited budget (±$500) and in that bracket it is either a classic P or J fender type or a bass with two humbuckers like the Ibanez/Yamaha. I don't like the hum/noise when not playing, and most basses with P at the neck and H at the bridge are in the $1000+ range. To complicate things even more I would prefer to get fretless, limiting the choice even more unless I defret myself. Ibanez SR370EF is on the shortlist, so I was just trying to see how the P pickup would be different at the neck vs the humbuckers on say the Ibanez/Yamaha/others.
Loving all the info going back and forth! Thanks for all the feedback.
PS: I know the details are not important at the start as it will take me a few years to get the hang of playing bass anyway, I just don't like wasting money if I know there will be things that bug me later on. I'm a min-maxer
Thanks for that, I wanted to say this but was just not in the mood for an argument.
A P bass will give you an angry, meaty, growly tone when used with a pic. And, a well rounded, huge sounding, fundamental tone when used with your fingers. Its slap sound is not a preferred sound to most because of the increased mid range (which you can scoop out by the way), but it far excells at just about everything else. Meaty, woody, bassy, and full. Noiseless as well. If you've got a choice between an H-H, and a Split-H, I'd take the split-H. Then it would have a plethora of tone. It'd almost nail a stingray, and it would also double as a standard P bass. Which works for pretty much everything.Hey,
Just to weigh in here
I meant the P style pickup (two units in one position) vs a single-unit (tradional) humbucker. I did not know the split-P was connected to work as a humbucker, but it does not change the original question itself.
The confusion as to not being a humbucker according to some, is probably that people know a humbucker as a single unit with two coils, and the two-unit P are just single-coils to them regardless of what they end up doing. It does the same thing in the end and was done to bypass a patent.
I was just curious why a lot of players prefer the P setup vs a single-unit humbucker in the same position.
The question stems from the fact that I am looking for a bass to buy in a limited budget (±$500) and in that bracket it is either a classic P or J fender type or a bass with two humbuckers like the Ibanez/Yamaha. I don't like the hum/noise when not playing, and most basses with P at the neck and H at the bridge are in the $1000+ range. To complicate things even more I would prefer to get fretless, limiting the choice even more unless I defret myself. Ibanez SR370EF is on the shortlist, so I was just trying to see how the P pickup would be different at the neck vs the humbuckers on say the Ibanez/Yamaha/others.
Loving all the info going back and forth! Thanks for all the feedback.
PS: I know the details are not important at the start as it will take me a few years to get the hang of playing bass anyway, I just don't like wasting money if I know there will be things that bug me later on. I'm a min-maxer
Whats funny is that I didn't ever notice anybody ever had their split angled. Until, I bought my talman. It showed up (to me) completely jacked in different directions. I couldn't, for the life of me, understand why anybody would do that? I'd never seen that before. So, I was immediately pissed off at the set up. I whipped my screw driver out, leveled my pickups, dropped them halfway into the body, and started playing. I then noticed that my E string was incredibly loud and boomy, and my G string was even louder, but slightly distorted and kind of piercing. I then started messing with the screws til I got the strings even. It was almost in the position that it came in...almost. I then understood.
