Two single coil Precision pickups?

[DavePlaysBass]

Two single coil Ps will be hum adding. Unless you get someone to wind a pair that buck hum together like a pair of Jazz pickups.

 

[akmusicfreak]

OK. I'm a dip#@$%, missed important post in middle of thread by OP of all people. Missed important fact:
tele style p.

No wonder I was confused about responses.

Sorry, Sorry.

Going to delete my last posts to keep thread relavent.

 

[jmercer91]

Two single coil Ps will be hum adding. Unless you get someone to wind a pair that buck hum together like a pair of Jazz pickups.

if you were to do a jazz/scpb hybrid which jazz pickup would cancel the hum of an scpb?

 

[xaxxat]

Check out the position of the single coil pup on this bass. Look at post #100.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=589342&highlight=radle

 

[JoeFern]

ja a single coil Pbass pickup in the bridge, or closer to it, is my goal. i had thought of the jazz but its just not the sound i'm looking for. So i've heard you basically need a custom made PU if you want a single coil in the bridge

 

[Dark Horse]

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

This is a thread on the same subject from a few weeks ago. Might be some useful info there....

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=615839&highlight=

 

[Jefenator]

This is a thread on the same subject from a few weeks ago. Might be some useful info there....

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=615839&highlight=

Dang, I was looking for that!! In the wrong forum, of course, and they won't let you do a search for: '51.

Just to elaborate on my "experience", I was tinkering on my '51 reissue the other night and I noticed the E string just wasn't responding like the others at all. Then I noticed it was out of place in the bridge saddle, offset by about 1/16". I popped it back in place, so the string was directly over the pickup pole again, and it responded much better.

You can see in the above photo how narrow the poles are. (I would expect a more modern 1/4" pole model to be more forgiving.)

I've seen a few photos now with SCPB pickups in other positions. I'd be very interested to hear how those are working out. But based on my readings & experiences thus far, I personally would still not want to proceed with a build or mod that put the above pictured pickup near the bridge.

A custom, wider, matched, reverse-wound pickup would be the ideal for me. But if I were to let go of certain hang-ups over aesthetics & full vintage spec, there would be plenty of more readily available solutions.

 

[Stealth]

The trouble with single-pole-piece-per-string designs, as someone already said, would be the uneven string response in case it's misaligned, the exact reason why your remedy worked, Jefenator.

Now, as someone already mentioned, at the risk of looking non-antique, non-vintage or non-whatnot, one could go with a bladed pickup in the bridge position. Since the blade diffuses the magnetic field to cover its entire area and doesn't focus it right above the pole-pieces, you'd have an even sound across the entire string motion. However, the magnetic spread is exactly the problem - the characteristic snap of the pickup won't be obvious, and it certainly won't sound vintage.

The other option, like Jefenator noted said, is the custom, wider, matched, RWRP pickup. Or at least an RP pickup, you can simply reverse the winding by swapping the hot and ground leads. That would be closer to vintage specs.

...but then again, we are talking about an SCPB in a bridge position, there's nothing vintage about it. Whichever way you go, JoeFern, hope you'll post your decision here. A dual-SCPB setup really looks like it'd sound interesting (pun not intended). How were you going to wire it?

 

[Rodent]

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.

don't let the size/shape of my bridge cover fool you ... most any pickup configuration can be custom wound to fit that cover size. obviously a true MM style dual coil pickup won't fit

based on what has already departed my shop combined with orders currently on the books, there's quite a variety of windings hidden under that common cover size.

all the best,

R