• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Source for true "vintage" pickups

W

wwittman

Apr 21, 2004
240
4
Westchester, NY
#1
anyone have a good dealer who specialises in sticking 'vintage' pickups?

I'm on the lookout for a 1966 P Bass pickup, like from a slab P.


also, I'm open to opinions as to what modern pickup you guys think is closest to that...
not "best" to YOUR taste, just closest to that early CBS era pickup
 
#9
wwittman said:
no, for a short time in the mid 60's, Fender made a P bass with a flat, non-contoured body like the earlier 1951 style, but with the new split P pickup and a maple neck.

that's the "slab" Precision.
Click to expand...

I started playing bass in the 60's and owned a '65 Precision for over a decade. Most my friends played Precisions and I don't remember what you are talking about. There was what we called "Telecaster" basses which were the old '50's Precisions non-contour body and the single coil pickup with the string outer winding.
 
#15
wwittman said:
no, for a short time in the mid 60's, Fender made a P bass with a flat, non-contoured body like the earlier 1951 style, but with the new split P pickup and a maple neck.

that's the "slab" Precision.
Click to expand...
I thought those "slab" models were for export to the UK and as a result are rather uncommon.
 
#16
Yes I know that the original Slab basses are vbery rare...but there's every reaosn to think that they had standard earlPOST-CBS pickups like every other 66 P bass.

It's doubtful that Fender made special pickups for 20 or so basses, only.


and yes i AM looking for the real thing.
And I have a pretty good idea what it would look like (after looking at a real one)... so if anyone has a lead, please pass it along.
 
#18
tplyons said:
I thought those "slab" models were for export to the UK and as a result are rather uncommon.
Click to expand...

According to Entwistle in his "Bass Culture" book, Fender made a very small run (I think 20) of the slab precisions described in this thread and sent them all to England. He claims to have destroyed at least 3 of that lot. The P-bass used on Live at Leeds (the Frankenstein Bass) was made from the neck and electronics of one of the slabs, with the other parts coming from 4 other P and J basses he had around. Says he cobbled it together himself in a hotel room while on tour.
According to Entwistle, there was something different about the pickups and/or tone circuit in the slab precisions which gave them a distinct sound with a hint of distortion when the volume was turned up.
 
#19
W2..

I've been on the same JE/Leeds/Tommy quest for a while..since 1972. I have a set of pu's in my alder body/maple neck P bass made by Bill Bartolini before he started "Bartolini"..they are called "Hi A" . According to Bill, they were made as a higher output version of "classic" P bass pu's..based on pre cbs pu's. That of course may or may NOT be what JE was using, as '66 was transitional, and the pu's might have been..who knows? (sorry) I have found that with fresh roto swing 66 ers, and my Hiwatt dr 200..it gets close to Leeds..but only at a certain volume..the push from the 'watt interacts with the bass, making it sound very different at different volumes. I also prefer the sound of el 34's though, and have been looking for a suitable 100 or sound city..or orange lately. The bass is light for an alder body, at least in comparison to the 100+ I've tried over the last 35 years.

I haven't tried the SD "antiquity" , though lots of wags (not here btw) think they are the schnitz for this sound.

An interesting thing about those slab body P's JE played..3 controls..so maybe an early preamp? I used to play with several of the Vox range..treble boosters, etc.and sometimes the right combination of that and the front end of a hiwatt would be very JE like. As was playing through the front end of a vox SS amp, driving a small el 84 tubed power amp. Lots of strange Bill Wyman tones from that as well.

I have been following your posts re the slab body..and noticed that Fender has made a slab body p, albeit with a jazz pu added..to it's line of "artist" basses, the Frank Bello model. Not being from NYC, I have no idea who this might be, but the bass, a Japanese (I think) p ..looks like it could be a mule for a project. It's certainly cheap enough.

Somewhere in the UK there's a JE slab with a preamp..or 2.

en avant
jp
 
#20
well fortunately I DO have access to the real thing, Slab P, for comparison.
and I play regularly with a Hiwatt 100...and truth is my Status Series 2 comes close ot the Leeds sound... the Hiwatt has a lot to do with it.

but I'm now playing around with a Dirnt bass that Fender was nice enough to provide for me, and as it's already essentially a Slab with a P pickup (although with a rosewood fingerboard) I'm wondering about trying to steer it more Entwistle.

it's, as original, much too tame for me.

the original Slab P is defintely NOT active, by the way.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back