Upgrading my bass

1. Nordstand (Many configurations to choose from)
2. Aguilar OBP-3 with CTS pots/Switchcraft output jack
3. Any size-appropriate high-quality DPDT toggle switch or CTS push/pull pot
4. Allparts EP-2929

 

What kind of sound are you going for? Any one style of music specifically? What is your budget?

 

Nothing but a P pickup will quite sound like a P bass. But Warpeg's suggestions are solid. With a 3-band EQ, you should easily be able to transition between a modern and vintage sound by adjusting your EQ. A soap-bar in the neck position with mids boosted and a bit of lows and highs cut should get you in the general neighborhood of a P-bass tone. And with both pickups and a flat EQ, or even a little bit of a mid-scoop will get you that modern MTD-like tone.

 

Oh, you want to sound like a P Bass and modern? That will be difficult.

 

Nordstrand will do other sizes. Email them. I had them make pickups in bartolini p2 size. It cost $10 extra per pickup.

 

Seymour Duncan NYC

 

You must really like what you have to not buy a used Precision.

 

Whatever you decide, ship it to Mo's Custom Shop (Nordstrand Audio). They have everything you need and Mo is the man.

 

Bartolini !

 

Delano quad coil maybe..? At least for neck position. Cross coils are noiseless and they're probably the closest ones to what you're looking for. In parallel they're pretty modern sounding.
Install dpdt switches for pickups if you're going for this kind of versatility.

 

I’ve found that the position of the pickup under the strings on a P has a big determining effect on the P tone; where on the string length the vibration is sensed. If you want to be able to suggest a P tone I think you’ll need one of your pickups to be in the P location, regardless of what actual pickup type you install there.

 

Depends on what bass you have, what you mean with "P sound" and "modern sound," and how much compromise you are willing to accept.

A Big Split in the neck J position (or thereabouts) will do a good P sound, but more on the modern end of the spectrum. It will lack some of the mid grunt, but you can also mess around with loading it down with some resistors or capacitors, or just tweak the preamp since you want one. With the bridge pickup, you can then get a variety of "modern" sounds.

I've read people here think the Big Rig and Zen Blade pickups can do a good P sound, but I don't have personal experience with those pickups. I'd definitely consider them for a 5 string bass, because I feel weird about mismatched coils on a 5 string split coil. There's threads on all these pickups here, so just browse/search.

And that's just Nordstrand pickups... Many others like Aguilar and Delano make EMG sized pickups, but I like the weirder designs that Nordstrand makes. I'd also consider Q-Tuner, but I'd probably pair it with a filter-based preamp like ACG, for something a little more weird/different. Then there's Sentell, but he's just too weird, and I can't bring myself to try his stuff