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Ultra boutique P bass pickups

I have Curtis Novak pickups on my Bob Glaub. I spoke to him about my favorite bass sounds and let him recommend a set of his pickups.
He sold me a set that does not appear on his site.
I’m very happy with the end result.. it’s so hard to describe sound on the internet.
He’s a great guy to deal with but very busy and sometimes slow to reply..
He also rewound a 73 Jazz Bass pickup for me. Excellent work.
 
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Funny I was just going to post how much I like these pickups.

They kill through my Ampeg SVT. Sounds great through the micro VR and my GK 800RB.

I still have a set of Delano P bass pickups I need to try, but I’m hooked on the Aguilars right now.

I really like that they can go from super deep yet articulate to bright and snappy without being too harsh.


Well, I finally got to try out the Delano PC4AL.

I installed it in a bass that had a Dimarzio Area P.

First impressions are that the pickup is definitely even sounding and articulate with plenty of low end power.

I was hoping to have a little more grind and bite in the top end, but it’s actually rather smooth up top like the Aguilar.

It has a vintage vibe (it’s a p bass pickup after all) but I’d say this is more for a player looking for a hi fi modern take on a p-bass.

Clean, fast, fat (but not boomy)
with smooth high end.

It is definitely one of the most beautifully crafted pickup I’ve seen. The others being my Delano Soapbars lol.

EDIT:

So I dialed in the string height a bit closer to the strings.

Very happy with this pickup.

Bringing the pickups up definitely helped bring out more of that edge I was hoping to get, while still having a lot of nice low end push but almost none of the boomyness or wooliness.
 
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Here is a sound file I made of the Arcane 65 pickup. I've only found one other sound file on Soundcloud that was played on a P w rounds. This is done on a '63 AVRI P w 3 yr old flats. I recorded through a Radial J48 into a Scarlett 8i6 w a minimal amount of compression to even some transients and playing style switches. The first part is tone rolled back 1/2 way, second is w tone up, third is w a pick and tone 3/5 of the way up. I only found out about this pickup bc of this thread. I hope this can better educate anyone before considering this pickup blind!

*This is probably the most even vintage-style P pickup I've played. To my ears, there are no big bumps or cuts anywhere and nothing too hyped in the midrange. It's a shame these aren't as well known as Lollars, Fralins, or even Aguilars.
 
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[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Here is a sound file I made of the Arcane 65 pickup. I've only found one other sound file on Soundcloud that was played on a P w rounds. This is done on a '63 AVRI P w 3 yr old flats. I recorded through a Radial J48 into a Scarlett 8i6 w a minimal amount of compression to even some transients and playing style switches. The first part is tone rolled back 1/2 way, second is w tone up, third is w a pick and tone 3/5 of the way up. I only found out about this pickup bc of this thread. I hope this can better educate anyone before considering this pickup blind!

*This is probably the most even vintage-style P pickup I've played. To my ears, there are no big bumps or cuts anywhere and nothing too hyped in the midrange. It's a shame these aren't as well known as Lollars, Fralins, or even Aguilars.

Damn, that is vintage goodness! Nice playing too! Thanks for recording and posting. After a long search last year, I ended up with the David Allen P1088 and absolutely love it. Perhaps I need to buy another P bass so I can also have an Arcane 65. :)
 
Damn, that is vintage goodness! Nice playing too! Thanks for recording and posting. After a long search last year, I ended up with the David Allen P1088 and absolutely love it.

Thanks! I figured I owed it to this thread to get a recording of this pickup out there, bc like I said, this thread helped me to find this particular pickup. The David Allen is on my shortlist for future P mods as well as the '62 Klein clone. Now if I could find a clip of that Klein! I've searched and searched, but have only found descriptions of its goodness.
 
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I had a D. Allen and sold it. Way to much midrange for me.
The Arcane sounds really nice. I would love to compare it to my Lollar.
Any idea what cap is in the bass?

Hmmm, I don't seem to find it midrange focused. One of the reasons I chose the D Allen P1088 was that it was very well balanced with a good vintage bottom end (with flats) with a bit more in the treble area so it didn't get lost in the mix vs some other "vintage voiced" P pickups I tried, like the popular Seymour Duncan SPB-1. I would imagine string choice would make a difference here too. I thought the P1088 paired great with Sadowsky Black Label flats. Of note for comparison, I have TI Jazz Flats on every other bass but I find them a bit loose on this particular P, and I also wanted a more traditional vintage bottom tone.

Another example of why we have so many pickup choices. :)
 
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[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Here is a sound file I made of the Arcane 65 pickup. I've only found one other sound file on Soundcloud that was played on a P w rounds. This is done on a '63 AVRI P w 3 yr old flats. I recorded through a Radial J48 into a Scarlett 8i6 w a minimal amount of compression to even some transients and playing style switches. The first part is tone rolled back 1/2 way, second is w tone up, third is w a pick and tone 3/5 of the way up. I only found out about this pickup bc of this thread. I hope this can better educate anyone before considering this pickup blind!

*This is probably the most even vintage-style P pickup I've played. To my ears, there are no big bumps or cuts anywhere and nothing too hyped in the midrange. It's a shame these aren't as well known as Lollars, Fralins, or even Aguilars.
 
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  • Like
Reactions: Pbassmanca
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Here is a sound file I made of the Arcane 65 pickup. I've only found one other sound file on Soundcloud that was played on a P w rounds. This is done on a '63 AVRI P w 3 yr old flats. I recorded through a Radial J48 into a Scarlett 8i6 w a minimal amount of compression to even some transients and playing style switches. The first part is tone rolled back 1/2 way, second is w tone up, third is w a pick and tone 3/5 of the way up. I only found out about this pickup bc of this thread. I hope this can better educate anyone before considering this pickup blind!

*This is probably the most even vintage-style P pickup I've played. To my ears, there are no big bumps or cuts anywhere and nothing too hyped in the midrange. It's a shame these aren't as well known as Lollars, Fralins, or even Aguilars.

Nice tone.
What Flatwound bass string use on the record ?
The tone pretty similar to my previous set of Labella 760FL with wide open tone knobs.
 
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Nice tone.
What Flatwound bass string use on the record ?
The tone pretty similar to my previous set of Labella 760FL with wide open tone knobs.
Believe it or not they're TIs. I've heard some TI vs La Bella comparison clips on here before and I have to say, the broken in 760FLs weren't THAT different from the TIs tonally. However, I had 760FLs on a couple P basses in the past and when I play them they don't feel or sound anything like TIs.
 
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Believe it or not they're TIs. I've heard some TI vs La Bella comparison clips on here before and I have to say, the broken in 760FLs weren't THAT different from the TIs tonally. However, I had 760FLs on a couple P basses in the past and when I play them they don't feel or sound anything like TIs.
Thanks for the clip and the info. At the risk of veering off-topic, could you elaborate on the differences you perceive between the FLs and the TIs?
 
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Thanks for the clip and the info. At the risk of veering off-topic, could you elaborate on the differences you perceive between the FLs and the TIs?
Sure. I'll try to sum it up w/o derailing the original topic here. Feel-wise, they're different. La Bella 760FLs have a glassy surface and have more tension and less flexibility. You can kinda feel the string thumping when you pluck it. A lot of guys describe TIs as spaghetti feeling. I think this description is a little over the top, but they are the bounciest feeling flats I've played (they feel a slightly more flexible than a standard gauge of DR Sunbeams under my hands.) They play more like rounds than flats. I like the texture of the TIs better too. They have more of a smooth matte finish when broken in.

Now as far as sound goes: as you can hear in that sound clip, the TIs clearly sound like flats. They have more sustain than the La Bellas, but less attack/thud. The TIs have sort of a receded attack, which I presume is due to the unique silk inlay found in their strings (that inlay also reduces highs/harmonics). You get a good little midbass bump w the TIs, but there's not a lot of deep low end or extended highs. The La Bellas have both the deep bass and clicky highs. I can tell the difference between these strings in or out of the mix bc both have been my go-tos at certain points, and I've recorded and compared them. Like a lot of TI fans say, the TIs just sit in the mix. There are no extraneous freqs w the TIs, just the ones that matter in a mix.

Having said all this, these differences may or may not be night and day for some people. I definitely wouldn't say 760FLs and TIs are similar strings at all relative to other flats. I guess maybe my point was that some sets of flats, when broken in, can sound more similar than one might expect.
 
Sure. I'll try to sum it up w/o derailing the original topic here. Feel-wise, they're different. La Bella 760FLs have a glassy surface and have more tension and less flexibility. You can kinda feel the string thumping when you pluck it. A lot of guys describe TIs as spaghetti feeling. I think this description is a little over the top, but they are the bounciest feeling flats I've played (they feel a slightly more flexible than a standard gauge of DR Sunbeams under my hands.) They play more like rounds than flats. I like the texture of the TIs better too. They have more of a smooth matte finish when broken in.

Now as far as sound goes: as you can hear in that sound clip, the TIs clearly sound like flats. They have more sustain than the La Bellas, but less attack/thud. The TIs have sort of a receded attack, which I presume is due to the unique silk inlay found in their strings (that inlay also reduces highs/harmonics). You get a good little midbass bump w the TIs, but there's not a lot of deep low end or extended highs. The La Bellas have both the deep bass and clicky highs. I can tell the difference between these strings in or out of the mix bc both have been my go-tos at certain points, and I've recorded and compared them. Like a lot of TI fans say, the TIs just sit in the mix. There are no extraneous freqs w the TIs, just the ones that matter in a mix.

Having said all this, these differences may or may not be night and day for some people. I definitely wouldn't say 760FLs and TIs are similar strings at all relative to other flats. I guess maybe my point was that some sets of flats, when broken in, can sound more similar than one might expect.

Many thanks for your thoughtful reply. I am familiar with the TIs - I have them on two basses currently and have played them on a couple of others. I've not played the LaBellas at any length, though I'm sure I've encountered them on some other folks' basses.

The feel of the TIs, in my experience, has depended a lot on the bass they've been on. They did indeed feel noodly on at least one instrument, but feel taut and responsive on the fretted four and fretless five they're on now. Interestingly, on the fretted four, the harmonics are present enough to play Portrait of Tracy convincingly (assuming I could play it convincingly which... not yet). Not quite so much on the fretless (or it seemed so the last time I played it), though plenty of other factors could influence that (including pickups and pickup placement).

Their tendencies in a mix I find to be, generally, very much as you stated. I've associated them with a more harmonically rich sound than most flats (and they are more flexible than most) but it might indeed be that their highest harmonics are muted (certainly relative to most rounds, possibly relative to some more "plinky" flats).

I have not played the TIs on a P-bass, yet, but (to try to steer it back to pickups), I've found that they sound good (to me and, I guess, to the people who've complimented their tone in live situations) through a fairly full-range system with a minimum of EQ, so I suspect that they'd work well with the pickups described as being more "neutral" and "balanced", but they might very well do well with more "colored" pickups for the same reasons.
 
Thanks! I figured I owed it to this thread to get a recording of this pickup out there, bc like I said, this thread helped me to find this particular pickup. The David Allen is on my shortlist for future P mods as well as the '62 Klein clone. Now if I could find a clip of that Klein! I've searched and searched, but have only found descriptions of its goodness.
You know what I've got a Klein 62' P in my parts drawer downstairs that has been patiently waiting to go in one of my basses. I should really get it installed, honestly it's been sitting in my drawer for like a year and a half! As soon as I have it installed I'm going to post clips on this thread for everyone to check out.
 
You know what I've got a Klein 62' P in my parts drawer downstairs that has been patiently waiting to go in one of my basses. I should really get it installed, honestly it's been sitting in my drawer for like a year and a half! As soon as I have it installed I'm going to post clips on this thread for everyone to check out.
When? Because in 18 months I will have forgotten about this thread :D