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Single Coil Precision into Jazz neck housing

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drd07

Jan 19, 2003
303
1
#1
I'm mainly a P player, but I'm getting together a jazz project. I was thinking someone build me a 51 style single coil precision pickup that would fit into a jazz neck pickup case. I contacted one pickup builder and he said it could be done. Basically it would be a custom job ending up with one pole piece under each string. My question is:

Has anybody here experimented with this before?

How would it sound? Would it sound like a precision?

The precision I have is the split coil and I wanted a new sound either from a jazz or a SCPB. I figured I could kind of have both with that special neck pickup. Is this too good to be true?
 
#4
Guys, he is talking about one of these:

tb-v.jpg


Packaged into the housing of one of these:

jb-v.jpg


Not series/parallel options, and not split coil humbuckers.

FWIW, Curtis Novak does the opposite of what you want, a Jazz pickup into a single coil P housing.

tb-jb.jpg
 
#5
Are you looking for a pickup with one pole piece per string or two per string? I might be totally wrong, but if you have a pickup with the 8 pole pieces of a Jazz pickup, it might sound different.

I think that your project is completely possible. If you went to the right person, you might get it to sound exactly the way you want it to.

One of the biggest factors in a pickup's tone is its placement. I'm not sure, but I think Jazz basses can have the neck pickup in a different place than where the pickup is on a '51 P. Moving a pickup a little bit in either direction can bring out a very different tone--hear for yourself on your split-coil P pickup. A key part of your bass's sound will be where you mount the neck pickup. I guess what I'm saying is that you could get it to sound very much like a P bass, but where you mount it can give you different options and maybe you might find an optimal position for this pickup that's slightly different from where a J bass's neck pickup would normally be.
 
#6
It should be pretty easy. All someone needs is four scpb magnets, two JB pickup bobbins with the magnet holes drilled in the scpb locations, and wind on about 7K +/- of 42 wire (of the right type). The only possible weirdness would be how far the magnets stick out of the top bobbin and how it looks with the covers (they'll be staggered, unlike JB magnets), but it shouldn't be an issue.
 
#7
Contact Nordstrand, (try bestbassgear.com) From my experience their custom shop is up to the challenge and will be able to provide you what you want (although Fralin, Novak, Lollar, Aero and a host of others are easily up to it too). I like your idea since I love the sound of the SCPB, but my thumb hates not having a good anchor there. Putting one in a jazz cover would solve that for me.

also +1 to the point about pickup placement. Single coils like jazz and scpb are sensitive to placement.
 
#8
I contacted vintagevibeguitars and they quoted me at 145 for the pickup! I would like to do that, but it's pricey. However, the pickup would look nice being in a jazz pickup cover. I guess another alternate is to route the body to accommodate the actual SCPB pickup. I don't know how that would look though...
GlennW - you make it sound too easy...want to wind a pickup for me:)
 
#10
basslinejam said:
I know how you feel, but a custom constructed/wound pickup will cost you no matter where you go. The route will be cheaper that a custom pickup... thanks for giving me the idea anyway!
Click to expand...

I was going to say that $145 sounded fine to me, but then I checked into the company, and it looks like their J and SCP pickups are only $84 each, so $145 turns out to be relatively expensive in that case.
 
#11
I know at least Delano and Aero have J-shape models that put 1 pole under each string.

I'm not sure anyone could completely nail the SCPB vibe in a J housing if the different physical dimensions and the resulting coil shapes affect the sound significantly. But going to single pole (from dual) should at least get you close!
 
#13
I have an Aero pickup in my Musicmaster. (Pretty similar to SCPB: single coil, one 3/16" pole / string.)

IME the split-coil P is very "well-behaved" by comparison. The single-coil single-pole can get you in to more trouble (with piercing treble, massive lows & very sharp transient attack) but there are rewards that come with the "danger".

I can say the same of my '51 reissue (with Seymour Duncan Antiquity II SCPB pickup) though I'm finding that to be harder to tame & more unforgiving than the Musicmaster/Aero.

IMO the Aero is very high quality but the bass itself is also probably playing a big role in making the overall package more friendly (has a more resonant, mellow vibe, unplugged). Larry's philosophy at Aero seems to be to convey the natural sound of the instrument as much as possible - kind of contrary to the school of thought that it's all about the pickup.

You might want to shoot him an e-mail, see what he has to say about how his "Type 4A" J pickups compare to SCPB.

This is an interesting topic. I've got a very (acoustically) nice J-bass that I'm looking to do some pickup tinkering with. Was going to keep it pretty traditional, but now you've got me thinking... :hmm:
 
#14
drd07 said:
GlennW - you make it sound too easy...
Click to expand...

While $145 sounds high you have to consider that time is money and making one of these would be like making a one-off pickup. There would easily be a couple extra hours involved in making the bobbin/magnet assembly and drilling the JB cover for four holes. The part that makes it easy is that you're putting a smaller pickup in a larger space. As far as custom/weird stuff goes this would be pretty straightforward, but time consuming.

If you want to go this route I'd suggest that you try different Strat pickups in the neck position to get an idea of how much wire you'd want on the coil. They won't sound exactly the same because of the magnets, but should give you an idea of what you'd like. The '50s swcpb pickups were often in the 6.7K - 7.25K range and might not have enough bottom end for you, unless you're after a faithful vintage sound.
 
#15
Jefenator said:
I'm not sure anyone could completely nail the SCPB vibe in a J housing if the different physical dimensions and the resulting coil shapes affect the sound significantly.
Click to expand...

It could be done because there's room. The main things to watch would be the correct magnet heights/stagger, top bobbin thickness, and coil height (distance between bobbins). The only possible snag I can see is that the bottom bobbin might be below/outside of the JB cover, but I don't think it would. I think there's plenty of room for the wire because you won't have the scpb string-around-the-coil taking up space.
 
#16
GlennW said:
While $145 sounds high you have to consider that time is money and making one of these would be like making a one-off pickup. There would easily be a couple extra hours involved in making the bobbin/magnet assembly and drilling the JB cover for four holes. The part that makes it easy is that you're putting a smaller pickup in a larger space. As far as custom/weird stuff goes this would be pretty straightforward, but time consuming.
Click to expand...

See, the key word here is "time consuming"...

As is the case with many other things, doing custom work like this is mainly in the labor.
The materials involved to do this custom pickup probably don't cost much more than their regular pickups, but you are paying all the extra money for their time and effort to produce you this special design.
 
#17
The $145 price is high, but like you guys said, it is a custom more time consuming job and not something that they typically make. I got a reply from Aero. Turns out they are the same cost that I got quoted from vintage vibe. Here is what they said:

"Thank you for contacting Aero. Indeed, the Aero JB4 Type 4A pickups ave very similar to the Aero SCPB 4 Type 4A. Note that all Aero pickups have a broad frequency response (good bass, flat mid, clear high), and a high level output (you will not need a pre-amp to boost gain). The frequency response of most Aero pickups is broader than that of the instrument. You can use any pre-amp with Aero pickups, but note that the frequency response of the pickups is better than any pre-amp you can install. Aero pickups will accurately convert the mechanical vibrations of your instrument into electrical signals. This means, if the frequencies are in the instrument they will also show up in the electrical signal.

Aero JB4 Type 4A Pickups are $130.00 each without cover. Black plastic dog-ear covers are $15.00 each. Pole pieces can be exposed or unexposed. We need to know the string spacing of your bass to build a pickup. String spacing = center of string to center of adjacent string over the centerline of the pickup, and not at the physical bridge. Delivery is currently 2 weeks.
 
#20
drd07 said:
"Thank you for contacting Aero. Indeed, the Aero JB4 Type 4A pickups ave very similar to the Aero SCPB 4 Type 4A. Note that all Aero pickups have a broad frequency response (good bass, flat mid, clear high), and a high level output (you will not need a pre-amp to boost gain). The frequency response of most Aero pickups is broader than that of the instrument. You can use any pre-amp with Aero pickups, but note that the frequency response of the pickups is better than any pre-amp you can install. Aero pickups will accurately convert the mechanical vibrations of your instrument into electrical signals. This means, if the frequencies are in the instrument they will also show up in the electrical signal.
Click to expand...

:eyebrow::confused:
Sounds like an extreme case of marketing BS to me.
They speak way too highly of their pickups for me to believe they will be any good.

(I know that Aero makes a very good pickup though.)
 

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