Two single coil Precision pickups?

[JoeFern]

So in building a modern take one the '51 pbass I came up with a concept that I've never seen before. Why not put another single coil pbass pickup further towards the bridge in addition to one in its traditional position near the neck? Ideally the bridge pickup would be opposite wound, opposite polarity. The idea was to wire it so either pickup could be used individually, in series, or in parallel.

There is probably some very good reason that I have not seen this before.

Is this dumb or a good idea?


--Joe

 

[Jefenator]

The main problem would be the string spacing, which gets wider as you get closer to the bridge. A stock '51 SCPB pickup would be about 1/8" too narrow in the bridge position. That doesn't sound like a lot but those single-pole pickups can be awfully fussy about string positioning IME.

 

[JoeFern]

never thought of that. Thank you very much, i was sure there was a reason

 

[sheepdog]

how difficult would it be to order a SCPB with wider string spacing?

 

[Jefenator]

I believe the OP was wondering about specifically this type of pickup:

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[PhR]

how difficult would it be to order a SCPB with wider string spacing?

My friend ordered one for his Telebass and put in the Jazz Bass bridge pickup position. Works great. PM me if you want some more details. It's in Finland 'though.

 

[Stealth]

how difficult would it be to order a SCPB with wider string spacing?

You can't know until you try. Try contacting Nordstrand, as they're known to do custom designs rather frequently.

 

[UBU]

If you want to do it , do it, warmoth makes these for people all the time. I don't know why people have to give bad info.

Check out the Warmoth site.
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Not needed. Should work fine with stock. Lot's of ohters have put standard P in Bridge. If you are worried about Pole Posotions just try and make or by something like the diamarzio split p's or soapbar P's

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[JoeFern]

Hmm I would love to test one out in the bridge but I don't want to order two of the telebass pickups and find out that it sucks as a bridge pickup since funds are limited. I've seen the split pbass pickups in bridge position before, but in this case I'm talking about the single coil telebass precision pickup.

 

[GianGian]

Why not put it stratocaster style?

 

[Jefenator]

Bumping because I'm a SCPB fan and like the general idea of doubling up.

I've seen a few prominent builders doing '51 style builds with bridge pickups. FWIW Nash uses a J pickup and Regenerate appears to have favored a big Nordstrand to compliment a SCPB at the neck.

 

[jmercer91]

Why not put it stratocaster style?

that would work if he were trying to work with a bridge to narrow, not too wide.

 

[GianGian]

that would work if he were trying to work with a bridge to narrow, not too wide.

Yeah, I realized that my ideia was ridiculous after I posted.

 

[Bootzilla]

If you put two single coil pickups one in the middle and on in the bridge you sorta have the concept of a jazz bass. Might as well get a jazz and ask fralin or lollar to wind a jazz pup to single precision specs.

 

[Jefenator]

If you put two single coil pickups one in the middle and on in the bridge you sorta have the concept of a jazz bass. Might as well get a jazz and ask fralin or lollar to wind a jazz pup to single precision specs.

True, but IME the SCPB pickup is kind of unique, especially the original design with a single 3/16" magnet pole directly under each string.

There was a thread recently about SCPB in a J housing:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=605002

AFAIK no one has in their catalog a true old-school electronic equivalent in a J housing. The Aero 4A comes as close as anything I've seen (1/4" magnets being the main departure). But on a custom basis, I'm sure anything is possible.

 

[LoveThatBass]

If you want to do it , do it, warmoth makes these for people all the time. I don't know why people have to give bad info.

Check out the Warmoth site.
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I believe he is talking about an SCPB (Single Coil P Bass Pickup) and not the later Humbucking version.

Just a thought, the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder SCPB-3 pickup has 1/4" poles on it which might work better for your purposes, not to mention they have a little hotter output. I think a two pickup SCPB Telebass would be a good investment myself. Think of the tonal possibilities you could get.

 

[jmercer91]

those scpb's are very sensitive to their position in relation to the strings, so being off by a bit would defeat the purpose.

 

[jmercer91]

jazz pickups are 8 pole pickups. scpb's are 4 poles, whole different story.


you could do a jazz/ scpb hybrid pu config

 

[Govier966]

rail pickups anyone?

 

[jmercer91]

rail pickups anyone?

he want's scpb's to fit in a bridge position