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U.S. Peavey Club

#28,621
kodiakblair said:
Mids are quite prominent on P-basses, mids are scooped with Duncan QPs.

They're a replacement P-bass split coil for folks who don't like how P-bass split coils sound :roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:

As for your Fury pickup, is it really that hot.

Sold my 3rd gen a few years back so I can't check with a multi but have a hazy memory of DCR around 9.5k. That's quite low for a split coil, 'vintage' if wrapped around alnico slugs.

Grab your multi and take a reading then look for ceramic pickup with the same or near enough resistance. Nearly every ceramic uses C-5 just like your Fury so you won't have concerns there.

Final note. Fury split coils were imported so no concerns there either :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

I guess hot is relative. In this case quite a bit more output than the GZRs, Bill Lawrences, Aguilars and MIM P pickups I have in other basses. I had to turn the gain down quite a bit on my interface.

You wonder if they are the same as the cheap Chinese ceramics you see all over Amazon, etc. They seem built similarly with the epoxy and foam glued to the bottom.

A lot of the ceramics I've tried are beefy but muddy, so I like the Peaveys since they are beefy sounding, but not muddy. Seem to have plenty of mids.
 
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#28,622
KJMO said:
I guess hot is relative.
Click to expand...
I suppose it is though me , I'd use 'hot' to describe a high output pickup a high wire count; high wire count affects the tone. With ceramics , they're generally high output since magnet does the heavy lifting.

KJMO said:
You wonder if they are the same as the cheap Chinese ceramics you see all over Amazon, etc. They seem built similarly with the epoxy and foam glued to the bottom.
Click to expand...
They'll be similar. You'll see cheap pickups getting slagged off with talk of expensive being superiour due space between the winds/wind pattern/the winder having a magic touch etc; all nonsense. 99.9% of bass guitars are mass produced from items mass produced elsewhere; it's the same assembly line work in every country.

I was guilty of the 'more $ = better' until a lovely single coil came along from China, sounds every bit as sweet as Duncan's SCPB-1 (my favourite Duncan pickup) yet cost me £8 instead of the Duncan's £100 tag :)

It's worth try a couple, just check the DCR is the same or near as the same.
 
#28,623
kodiakblair said:
I suppose it is though me , I'd use 'hot' to describe a high output pickup a high wire count; high wire count affects the tone. With ceramics , they're generally high output since magnet does the heavy lifting.

They'll be similar. You'll see cheap pickups getting slagged off with talk of expensive being superiour due space between the winds/wind pattern/the winder having a magic touch etc; all nonsense. 99.9% of bass guitars are mass produced from items mass produced elsewhere; it's the same assembly line work in every country.

I was guilty of the 'more $ = better' until a lovely single coil came along from China, sounds every bit as sweet as Duncan's SCPB-1 (my favourite Duncan pickup) yet cost me £8 instead of the Duncan's £100 tag :)

It's worth try a couple, just check the DCR is the same or near as the same.
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This. 100%.
Super Ferrites don't have a high resistance, so it can be assumed that there isn't a lot of wire on the coil, or the wire is thicker, needing less turns. They have a strong ceramic magnet, so they do have a fairly aggressive output for 'only' reading approximately 5.5K resistance. My Foundation's output is at least the same as a typical 7-8K Alnico J Bass single coil.

I too, don't drink the boutique pickup Kool-Aid. The law of diminishing returns is rather steep. In addition to select Chinese pickups that are <$15, I have used/use Artec and GFS pickups that were great sounding for $30 each. Same goes for the $100ish Duncans/Dimarzios, but there is often a cheaper version out there for less, like the GFS or Artecs. Once you start spending over $100, it's usually just to get something very specific without having to wade through the vast world of vague descriptions and such with the less expensive brands. Also, many talk about how great some of Peavey's pickups are on the Fury, and the Super P4 used on 80s Ibanez (which was an inexpensive Gotoh pickup). Neither was anything fancy or expensive, but purpose wound to sound like it should and keep the price of those 'budget' basses on track.

Also, I hold an opinion that split coil P bass pickups sort of average out, in the grand scheme of things. All magnets and wire guage being equal, a 1K difference in wind resistance can make an 8K single coil noticeably different sounding, 1K on a P pickup is pretty much unnoticed. It takes a pretty solid 2-3K variance to make a split coil P pickup have a noticeable tonal change.
 
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#28,624
bigtone23 said:
This. 100%.
Super Ferrites don't have a high resistance, so it can be assumed that there isn't a lot of wire on the coil, or the wire is thicker, needing less turns. They have a strong ceramic magnet, so they do have a fairly aggressive output for 'only' reading approximately 5.5K resistance. My Foundation's output is at least the same as a typical 7-8K Alnico J Bass single coil.

I too, don't drink the boutique pickup Kool-Aid. The law of diminishing returns is rather steep. In addition to select Chinese pickups that are <$15, I have used/use Artec and GFS pickups that were great sounding for $30 each. Same goes for the $100ish Duncans/Dimarzios, but there is often a cheaper version out there for less, like the GFS or Artecs. Once you start spending over $100, it's usually just to get something very specific without having to wade through the vast world of vague descriptions and such with the less expensive brands. Also, many talk about how great some of Peavey's pickups are on the Fury, and the Super P4 used on 80s Ibanez (which was an inexpensive Gotoh pickup). Neither was anything fancy or expensive, but purpose wound to sound like it should and keep the price of those 'budget' basses on track.

Also, I hold an opinion that split coil P bass pickups sort of average out, in the grand scheme of things. All magnets and wire guage being equal, a 1K difference in wind resistance can make an 8K single coil noticeably different sounding, 1K on a P pickup is pretty much unnoticed. It takes a pretty solid 2-3K variance to make a split coil P pickup have a noticeable tonal change.
Click to expand...

100% agree mate. I'd go one further and say pickup placement on a bass has infinitely more influence on tone than brand of pickup.
 
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#28,625
Motorhate said:
100% agree mate. I'd go one further and say pickup placement on a bass has infinitely more influence on tone than brand of pickup.
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Agreed. See the many discussions we've had about the Peavey Patriot/Rickenbacker bridge/Musicman pickup placement and how a Patriot sounds when you turn it into a RicRiot...
 
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#28,629
Okay fellas....

Please give me the details about the pickups that are on later Foundations that are housed in the VFL shells.
I remember seeing pics of a few that were flat but most look like they are in the active VFL shell.
I assume they're single coil passive but obviously different construction/materials than the old Foundation Super Ferrites.
I assume they are shielded well and not noisy for a single coil because that's how Peavey did it.

Fill in the blanks for me.
Thanks.
 
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#28,630
58kites said:
Okay fellas please give me the details about the pickups in later Foundations that are in the VFL housings.
I remember seeing a few that were flat but most look like they have the arched profile like an active VFL.
I assume they are single coil passive but different than the original Super Ferrites.
I assume they are shielded well and not noisy.
That's all I can guess about them.
Please fill in the blanks for me.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

My experience with them matches your description. Please don’t hate me but I like them better than Super Ferrites. They are not particularly noisy but they are single coils and will pick up noise. They are hum canceling when both neck and bridge are at the same level.
 
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#28,636
kodiakblair said:
Not a great deal different in construction/materials just C-5 ceramic instead of C-8.

Tone is as others have said, closer to a mellow alnico single coil.
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C-8 being a stronger magnet than a C-5 so the C-5 makes a more mellow sounding pickup, that makes sense to me.

I finally got my search parameters right and found lots of information on the "passive VFL" pickups in the later Foundations.

Thanks for your feedback, that was helpful.
 
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#28,638
kodiakblair said:
@58kites

The empty VFL shells are still available on Ali-Ex and eBay should you wish to wind your own
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Won't be winding any pickups, haven't nearly the patience to learn that skillset.
I have a spare 1992 Foundation neck that's been sitting here, and this loaded 1999 body turned up over at Peavey recently for $119 USD.
So I bought it and then started asking questions about the pickups.
It will be here in a couple days.

s-l1600 (1).jpeg


s-l1600.jpeg
 
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#28,639
KJMO said:
They are ceramic magnet. I can tell they sound somewhat jazz-like, but much beefier. I play almost all my gigs with a foundation body with those pickups and patriot neck.
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I once was able to side by side them to SFs. I really like how they sounded. Was then looking for a Foundation 5 string with those pickups so I could have an inexpensive 5er to leave at the practice space & get a chance to really experience and know those pickups. The Dyna 5 came along first for the same $$ as a Foundy 5, so much for that plan! :)
 
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