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Ultra boutique P bass pickups
- Thread starter Laurent
- Start date
I love it. Andi describes it as a "59/60 spec" pickup, and that's what it seems like to me. Slightly underwound (I think around 10.7 kΩ); clear; strong fundamental; harmonically rich; a bit aggressive with a maple board and rounds, which is what I like. Proper pickup height is very important with this one, but my guess is that anyone reading this thread is already meticulous about that.
I have an alder/maple Moollon P, and wanted to see if I could recreate the magic of that instrument with an alder/maple parts bass that's a bit more ergonomic (better balance, slightly flatter fingerboard radius). Probably lots of luck involved, but the experiment was a success. Sounds fantastic alone, even better with a band.
I have a 57 AVRI P-Bass.
I had a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 installed as I wanted to stay true to the 57 vibe and (more importantly) I love the way it sounds. However, I really wanted to try a mid-60s style type of pickup. Therefore, I purchased and just installed the Arcane 65 Experience P-Bass pickup. Here are my initial impressions:
I had a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 installed as I wanted to stay true to the 57 vibe and (more importantly) I love the way it sounds. However, I really wanted to try a mid-60s style type of pickup. Therefore, I purchased and just installed the Arcane 65 Experience P-Bass pickup. Here are my initial impressions:
- The SPB-1 and 65 Experience are very different
- Both are amazing pickups, but I’d call the SPB-1 as “vintagely” raw/aggressive (in a good way) and the 65 Experience as smooth and balanced (amazingly balanced from string to string)
- If you want the late 50’s P-Bass sound, then the SPB-1 nails it
- If you want that perfect mid-60s P-Bass sound, then you will be hard pressed to beat the Arcane 65 Experience
I have a 57 AVRI P-Bass.
I had a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 installed as I wanted to stay true to the 57 vibe and (more importantly) I love the way it sounds. However, I really wanted to try a mid-60s style type of pickup. Therefore, I purchased and just installed the Arcane 65 Experience P-Bass pickup. Here are my initial impressions:
In conclusion, as big of a SPB-1 fanboy as I am, I don’t see the 65 Experience coming out anytime soon
- The SPB-1 and 65 Experience are very different
- Both are amazing pickups, but I’d call the SPB-1 as “vintagely” raw/aggressive (in a good way) and the 65 Experience as smooth and balanced (amazingly balanced from string to string)
- If you want the late 50’s P-Bass sound, then the SPB-1 nails it
- If you want that perfect mid-60s P-Bass sound, then you will be hard pressed to beat the Arcane 65 Experience
I am glad to read you like the Arcane Experience 65. One of the big difference I found between these two pickups is the harmonic content, which not necessarily an indication of quality.
Harmonic content is also related to tonal objectives and style. So it's not always a case where more is better. That being said, the SPB-1 always sounded like it had less harmonic content while the Arcane is more complex sounding to my ears. This might have to do with the fact that the Arcane is scatter hand wound and the Seymour is machine wound.
An eight yr old thread about PU's and tone... and not one mention of technique and practise. I've tried different PU's and Ive ended up with a no name Chinese thing., cost me $30...sounds tight and punchy in my hands. Aftermarket expensive PU's?...Snake oil people....snake oil.
Perhaps there's another, more appropriate thread for your post then?
I see you've been a member here for almost 2 years;
There's a whole forum dedicated to technique, and a search on "inexpensive pickups" should yield good results, but you seem to have found what you're looking for in a pickup already...
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It's like finding a great sounding low budget bass. But as the movie CONAN said: That's another story...
Sir, this is an Arby's.
I think you mean practice (with a C).
I certainly don't disagree with you on the notion of technique and practice.
I also get your point on inexpensive pickups sounding great. They have a tone of their own; they're generally ceramic and have a punch that is great for many forms of loud music.
They cut through a mix really nicely.
Music and tone is a realm in which we all have a different recipes for how we get there.
Victor Wooten and Dusty Hill (RIP) are vastly different bass players musically, technically and tone-wise but they both make compelling music.
Even their gear is very different.
Again, many people on this thread believe aftermarket pickups can have an impact on their tone and music. That's what we're exploring.
If you found an inexpensive solution that works for you, great. My main 112 cabinet happens to be a very inexpensive cab that delivers the tone I want, so I'm not against inexpensive my any means.
After trying Fralin , Nordstrand , and Aguilar I installed the Seymour Duncan SPB1 . Rotos , my Orange rig , and my Fender Precision with the Duncan’s and my search was over .
there was no critique. On an another thread, the OP told me to switch over to this thread and sent me a link about kloppmann pick ups as I started reading I started noticing people were veering Off of the PB63. Then, after several replies, I realize this was a long running thread, and I thought it was a thread only for the pb63’s. My fault totally!!!
No worries at it! It has been a strange long trip with lots of twists and turns.
And if some people think pickups are a rabbit hole, it's nothing compared with pedals! A thread about digital modelers reminded me of that today.
I went down the pedal rabbit hole for a while and I have since adopted a minimalistic approach.
When explaining how he recorded David Bowie's Blackstar, Tim Lefebvre explained he used a 68 P bass and plugged straight into an 80's Yamaha small self-powered mixer and a Ampeg B15 cab!
It's always a case of whatever works for you.
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Keep an eye out on stratosphere as they sometimes sell the pickups to the American original line of basses. The 50s American original used that pickup.
I have one that came with a used avri 58 I bought. It's very good sounding. Open and full with plenty of treble but nothing pokey through the frequency spectrum. Much more even and clear than the 63. Not as high mid oriented as the originals or 62 custom shops fender makes. I'm not crazy about the raised poles under the A string but you can compensate by burying that side of the pickup in the bass. Of all the Fender pickups I just mentioned, I like the 58 the best.
That said, I was a/b-ing those with a few others and I felt them to be in the same ball park as the spb-1 or the stock wind Lollar.
I'm doing a build and feeling like I want to go that 58 route. I was a bit put off after reading about the bad customer experience with Klein and just might do the easy road with the GRZ as I can easily install them but I'm interested in that '58 all the more so as its no longer available.
You could look at a Seymour Duncan Antiquity P (they come with or without the raised A pole pieces) and that will get you in the same ballpark.
Antiquity™ P-Bass Pickup | Seymour Duncan
Antiquity™ P-Bass Pickup | Seymour Duncan
With a heavy heart I finally decided to mod my AO ‘60s P-bass by removing the pickup and the electronics and installing a Klein Epic 62 pickup with a Arty’s Custom Guitars solderless harness.
I listened to all samples I could find and I deem this pickup as being clearer and more musical than the Arcane Experience 65, which is a very good sounding ‘60s P-bass pickup and, moreover, is also cheaper than the Klein.
I also considered the Kloppmann PB 63 but, judging by the sample they provided on their site, this pickup sounds very similar to the Fender PV ‘63 pickup which I’m going to replace, as I want something less bass-loaded.
The Klein, on the other hand, seems to sound as if it was the pickup installed in James Jamerson’s funk machine.
I hope I won’t be disappointed when (when?) it will reach my place.
This will help, I believe, in switching between this bass and the one which is already fitted with an Epic ‘59 pickup, as the preamp settings should be similar in both cases.
I listened to all samples I could find and I deem this pickup as being clearer and more musical than the Arcane Experience 65, which is a very good sounding ‘60s P-bass pickup and, moreover, is also cheaper than the Klein.
I also considered the Kloppmann PB 63 but, judging by the sample they provided on their site, this pickup sounds very similar to the Fender PV ‘63 pickup which I’m going to replace, as I want something less bass-loaded.
The Klein, on the other hand, seems to sound as if it was the pickup installed in James Jamerson’s funk machine.
I hope I won’t be disappointed when (when?) it will reach my place.
This will help, I believe, in switching between this bass and the one which is already fitted with an Epic ‘59 pickup, as the preamp settings should be similar in both cases.
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I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on this the Epic 62 once you have it installed. I am just about to go through testing with various pickups on a new P build I'm doing. (Precision body with an AVRI '62 P neck) I bought the Obsidian solderless harness to make it easy to try various pickups. I have the PV '62, CS '62, David Allen P1088 so far and was planning on trying a Klein, and maybe a few others. I've wanted to do this for a while now and am looking forward to the testing fun!
I also have a stock 2006 AVRI '62 P and a 1983 Fullerton '62 reissue P to include in the comparison.
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