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Reverse Precision Pickups or Standard?
- Thread starter bassrique
- Start date
<--Dual reverse is the schiznit. There is a video on youtube with two different BC Rich Eagles (I think), one bass has dual reverse P pickups and the other has dual normal P pickups. I can tell the difference and prefer the sound of the reversed pickups.
The reverse P in the bridge position is infinitely better than a J pickup in the bridge position. I have a Power Jazz Bass Special (reverse P with J bridge pickup), had a precision bass special (regular P with J bridge pickup) and neither are nowhere near as good sounding as the dual reverse P mongrel in my avatar.
The reverse P in the bridge position is infinitely better than a J pickup in the bridge position. I have a Power Jazz Bass Special (reverse P with J bridge pickup), had a precision bass special (regular P with J bridge pickup) and neither are nowhere near as good sounding as the dual reverse P mongrel in my avatar.
Hmmm, the solution seems obvious...one of each.
There ya go!! Why couldn’t I though of that. oh yeah, I’m married...LOL...
Check the bass about 26 seconds into this video (MIJ Fender PJ 535 Boxer). Not "reversed" -- and angled differently than in your rendering -- but an angled P. Yours reminded me of it:
Whoa.I’ll do you one better. My ESP PPJ-160
Is that a modified Brubaker Brute? I have a 4-string (with an MM/J setup) that I like. Yours is pretty wild!
Thanks! Yeah, mine started life as a MM/J too, but I didn’t like the stock electronics at all so I gutted it and put in a pair of Bill Lawrence P-46s.
Thanks for reading and responding!
Maybe "boom" wasn't the right word in my post -- "bloom" in yours might be better. "Boom" (generally undesirable, I'd think) would depend on the specific instrument, amp, room, and other factors not limited to P-basses and their variants. Whether bloom, boom, or somewhere in between, though, I think we agree that flipping the coils 'round tightens up the low end and fills out the top (if you like what it does) or thins out the low end and loses definition up top (if you don't!).
If I play a pattern on the 8th and 10th frets, say, on the D-string and then move it across to the A (trying to keep my touch and placement consistent) I hear a definite change in timbre on a standard P-bass. Same thing with a reverse-P, only in the other direction (and, maybe, just a bit less, since it's going counter the tendency of the thinner string to sound, well, thinner).
If I'm playing, oh, a C-minor scale, in position, starting on the 8th fret of the E-string and moving across the strings, I'll hear the timbral change much less in that context -- and moving from the high registers to the low registers, both along and across the neck, seems, overall, a much more gradual transition, as you said.
When I solo the neck pickup of my modded PJB Special (3-way switch, comme un Les Paul) it sounds to me, a little more consistent from low to high and "pocketed" than a standard P -- the lows are a little tighter, the highs a little more full. There is still that audible transition between the coils if I look for it and bring it out, but, taken as a whole and in musical context, the sound is pretty even (a drummer actually told me that that bass sounded "round" and "very even" just last week!)
A standard P, everything else being equal, seems to occupy a wider sonic space -- maybe not all at once, unless you're playing chords, but, as others have noted, the low notes are more full and the high notes brighter and more pointed... how this plays out with a given player in a given situation -- and whether it or a reversed P is "better" -- depends on several variables and is somewhat subjective.
All that said -- and even though playing a "straight" P is a relatively recent development for me -- I love how a good P-bass sounds (and how it encourages me to play). In high school, I thought them dull, uninteresting, and needlessly limited. Now, I realize that they can be bristling or thumpy, vibrant and versatile. A good P doesn't do everything, but it does a lot of stuff gloriously.
I'd love to play the Atkinson reverse-P a few posts up and try it in a mix but, if I had a choice between keeping my single-pickup P-bass or having an identical instrument with the coils flipped, I think I'd keep it the way it is. My trusty PJB Special is still my favorite bass overall, but I'm finding playing a "straight" P different enough, enjoyable enough, and instructive enough that I want to keep one around. It lends itself more readily to some things than my favorite bass does.
For a four-string bass with a single pickup, I'd take a split-P in its traditional orientation. Add a bridge pickup, and I'd like it flipped. If it was my only instrument, maybe I'd change my mind, but I don't think so (though there might be specific instruments out there that would do it!).
Cool. Mine has a set of Bart pickups that sound pretty good (though I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of the Bart pre with those pickups -- I run the bass passive 99+ percent of the time).
I have Lawrence pickups in the fretless (recently made a fretless P/J, a la Tony Franklin) in my avatar and in the modded Power Jazz Bass Special I've mentioned in this thread (which is my main player). It would be interesting to hear them in your setup!
I don’t have any good recordings, but if you have Lawrence pickups in your PJBS, you probably have a pretty good idea what the neck pickup sounds like in mine.
The bridge position P is about what you would expect - more muscular than a J, maybe not so much as a MM. To me, it’s a far more useable sound than a bridge position J.
It has been a bit of a struggle to get the volume even across the five strings, since both halves of the P-46 pickup sense the A string. Set flat, the A string is considerably louder then the others. I now have the two halves of each pickup set in a sort of V shape, with the poles much further away from the A than from the B and G. It’s not perfect but good enough for me.
The "V..." Okay -- took me a second, but I follow you. That's one way to address the balance, for sure.
Another might be to scoot one coil of each pickup further out from the center line -- it would look off-center (and require, at minimum, a new pickguard -- or a tolerance for gaps in the old one) so that one coil is sensing three strings, the other two. The way the poles are arrayed on the P-46 (overlapping fields approximating a blade) would seem to make it more tolerant of such manipulation than your typical, split-coil Precision pickup. Don't mind me, though, if what you're doing is working for you.
As for the P at the bridge, I can imagine it -- seems like it could be cool -- but the relative difference in distance from the sensing area to the saddles would be pretty big, that close to the bridge. Now that I think of it, though, I once tried a Performance J/P bass -- a five string with the J at the neck and the P at the bridge. Don't recall it in detail, but it was a big-sounding instrument. Only one I've seen like it. (It was at Luthier's Access Group in Chicago, if anyone is curious.) I should have spent some more time with it!
From the Photos of Your Favorite Bassists thread:
I like reverse P sound on my Mercalli's neck pickup... more balanced sound across the strings.
However, I don't dig the slapping sound at all, even though I enjoyed slapping on a traditional P...so the Mercalli does all the jazz and country gigs; I take one of my other basses for the funk gigs...no problem.
However, I don't dig the slapping sound at all, even though I enjoyed slapping on a traditional P...so the Mercalli does all the jazz and country gigs; I take one of my other basses for the funk gigs...no problem.
I'm Italian i apologize for my bad english.
I think that more diffused P on basses try to think bassist that traditional P is better for sound. I think that the Reverse P is much better, i've had and now i still have a normal P and the reverse was more balanced.
I think that more diffused P on basses try to think bassist that traditional P is better for sound. I think that the Reverse P is much better, i've had and now i still have a normal P and the reverse was more balanced.
No apologies needed, I'm not a native speaker either and I remember when it was hard to communicate
The important bit is to try
I don't understand what you mean by 'diffused'.
I've experimented with reverse P types, and I do prefer them to standard configuration. Like you, I find the reverse a bit more balanced. The sound difference is not THAT big when you keep it in the same position (just swapping coil positions) but it is noticeable. I still like having a standard P because that's the only one that gets the 'classic' P sound. But I love the reverse P too.
Personally, I keep a Squier Precision for that classic P, but out of my other three 'Precision' style basses, two are reverse and I love the balance:
1) Schecter Model T: Standard configuration but P pickup a bit closer to the bridge than usual, EMG active. Close enough but not 'classic' P tone.
2) Marusczczyk Jake: single P, reverse, but closer to the bridge than usual (I asked for it that way). More balanced and a bit 'sharper' than standard. Not too far off a classic tone, yet clearly different.
3) Sandberg VM4: P and MM. The P is reversed and doesn't sound much like a classic P, but it's one of the better balanced P style pickups I've ever experienced.
I'm surprised to see that reversed is leading the poll considering how much love P basses are generally getting around here, and with all the P bass purists.
I voted standard for the simple reason, P basses are my favorite Fender basses, and there's nothing I'd change about them. Love the feel, the look and the sound. Nothing against any other configuration of course, but I mostly love playing over the pup for that immediate attack and pronounced tone so reversed pup would feel different when playing D and G strings, or playing octaves. Not for me, thanks.
I voted standard for the simple reason, P basses are my favorite Fender basses, and there's nothing I'd change about them. Love the feel, the look and the sound. Nothing against any other configuration of course, but I mostly love playing over the pup for that immediate attack and pronounced tone so reversed pup would feel different when playing D and G strings, or playing octaves. Not for me, thanks.
