Why does my P-bass sound so good?

[REMBO]

All I Need Is A P-Bass!!
My Favorite By Far!

 

[TjMetalhead]

There's just something magical about P basses. Out of all the basses I have ever owned I always come back to them and I'm here to stay. Back in February I had a local luthier assemble a Franken P bass for me. It has a Squier classic vibe 70's body and an Allparts jazz neck. I modeled it after a 1975 P bass with a few personal touches. It's been my most favorite P bass I have ever owned, and super light to boot!

 

[Supernaute]

There's just something magical about P basses. Out of all the basses I have ever owned I always come back to them and I'm here to stay. Back in February I had a local luthier assemble a Franken P bass for me. It has a Squier classic vibe 70's body and an Allparts jazz neck. I modeled it after a 1975 P bass with a few personal touches. It's been my most favorite P bass I have ever owned, and super light to boot!
View attachment 5059038

Nice Triforce sticker.

 

[Real Soon]

P's deliver the skunk to the doorstep by nature.

I'm lucky that my active basses do bring their own kinds of stank very effectively, but I also enjoy picking up my '60 P with flats or ~'16 50s Classic P with Pressurewounds and letting the tang loose.

 

[Les Fret]

A P is really nice but I am a bridge pickup guy. I don’t like PJ’s too much. That why I don’t own a P anymore. There are more good sounding basses than just a P.

Also I heard a lot of concerts where a P gets buried in the mix….

 

[blastoff99]

@Fernando Costa I'm not sure if you're trolling me or someone else, so if you could clarify that detail, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

(SNIP) ... Anyone else have these same thoughts about their own bass collection?

I have the opposite situation. My '79 P-Bass has all the great things we want out of a P-Bass, but my Epiphone AccuBass sounds identical and weighs 1.5 lbs. less.

Also, I can get a ton of cash on today's market for the P-Bass. It's going on the block.

 

[TN WOODMAN]

If it's got dual J pickups, a push/pull series/parallel switch is a popular option to beefing up a Jazz styled bass.



*Edit*
Just saw it's a J/MM.

A bit of a spin, but maybe swap the neck pickup with one of these,
51J4S
No, it's not a split-P, but it is a split design based on the OG Precision pickup, which I always thought was fantastic.

Yeah, it'll cost you some dough, but it's a reversible mod.

Looked up that linked pickup-sounds amazing-I ‘d swear Greg Koch wrote their ad copy.

 

[salmon256]

Have to also jump on the train of "Love my p-bass but..." but my jazz bass works best for me personally. Also I just dislike my P-bass neck, I'm getting it set up very soon so I'm hoping that'll really make me happy and I'm thinking some nice new pickups down the line... but I do love my for practicing and through my rumble I love the tone for Blues, however really really love my jazz the most always so far for me personally. P-bass still rules though

 

[Jazz Ad]

I was going to do that 15 basses ago but, never did. There are days when a bass sounds excellent then, not so excellent the next day. A bunch affects sound so that bass is having a bad day.

When you only have one bass it's your best sounding instrument every day.

 

[JEDI BASS]

Of all the many different basses I've owned, the J is my least favorite.

Same. But, the look of a vintage J sure is attractive. If a bass looks beautiful, I'm more likely to play it. And, I'm a firm believer that a bass player worth their salt can get their sound out of any bass, usually with just hand positioning & volume and tone knob tweaks. And those that say they don't care how a bass looks?? Come on! We're in the entertainment business! Play beautiful instruments! People in the crowd appreciate it. When I leave my flashy basses at home, I always get asked by audience members where they are and why. Life is too short to play boring or ugly basses.

 

[andare]

I'd be willing to entertain the idea of putting P pups in my BB70, but is that the totality of the secret? There's the chunky maple neck that I love on the P-bass. The body is heavy alder is it? The headstock is beefier than the 2x2 headstock on my Carvin. I hate to chop that beautiful tiger quilted koa top on the BB70.

I would not do that. The chunky neck is part of why your bass sounds good, in my experience.

 

[JEDI BASS]

I had a similar revelation after avoiding P bases for 25+years. I’m really curious to figure out if it is the location of the pick up, the split pick up configuration itself, or a combination of the two factors. Would a bass with a different passive pickup in the P position sound the same or as good?

Different pickups in the same location can get you very close to the split P pickup equipped p bass sound. A single coil 51 bass has the pickup closer to the neck and is, of course, not humbucking. But, it still sounds like a P bass to my ears, just more barky and aggressive. On the other hand, I've built a '54 with a split 51 Nordy and later modified the bass with a TV Jones Thunderblade, in the same location. Neither configuration sounded close enough to a split P style P bass for the owner to be satisfied. Yet, the next person to play the bass had to have it, and is thrilled with it. So, it depends on how particular you are.

 

[JEDI BASS]

I would not do that. The chunky neck is part of why your bass sounds good, in my experience.

We also can't negate how the feel of an instrument affects our perception of how it sounds. If a bass feels like a cactus in our hands, we'll perceive it sounding worse than it actually does. Where as, if a bass feels like our favorite comfy lounge around the house clothes, we'll swear that it sounds better than reality.

 

[Rib 13]

Different pickups in the same location can get you very close to the split P pickup equipped p bass sound. A single coil 51 bass has the pickup closer to the neck and is, of course, not humbucking. But, it still sounds like a P bass to my ears, just more barky and aggressive. On the other hand, I've built a '54 with a split 51 Nordy and later modified the bass with a TV Jones Thunderblade, in the same location. Neither configuration sounded close enough to a split P style P bass for the owner to be satisfied. Yet, the next person to play the bass had to have it, and is thrilled with it. So, it depends on how particular you are.

I actually did a video about this called "P-Bass Conspiracy Theories". Its not a knock to P-Basses (as a matter of fact,it includes two reasons to own one) but rather a way to mitigate social media P-bass lore such as some of what Im reading in this thread......It includes a "Find The P-Bass Challenge" with five basses with pickups in that position.......We as bass players - as well as most producers - often microscope the minutia of our instrument as being substantially differentiating. I'll be the first to say that a standard Split P humbucker has certain response characteristics that differentiate it from just putting any pickup in that position. I can hear the difference. However, over the decades of wearing the hats of session guy, engineer, and producer, I found that - for practical applications - almost any bass with a pickup in that position delivers a Classic P-ish like tone which gets the job done. In all my years, I never had anybody say "You must use a P-bass". The producer or project leader would just say something like "I want something warmer" or "Can you get a tone like <insert bass player name>?" or "Use a pick" or "less stringy" etc. For many years, the soloed front pickup in passive Series mode on my G&L ASAT was my go-to P-bass when I needed it.........On my "Find The P-bass Challenge", all the basses sound different, however all are inherently P-bass esque. I posted it on many messageboards and Reddit. By the way, as of this writing, all the basses got votes - some more than others

 

[micguy]

micguy's in depth replies are always a fun read

Thanks!

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

I actually did a video about this called "P-Bass Conspiracy Theories". Its not a knock to P-Basses (as a matter of fact,it includes two reasons to own one) but rather a way to mitigate social media P-bass lore such as some of what Im reading in this thread......It includes a "Find The P-Bass Challenge" with five basses with pickups in that position.......We as bass players - as well as most producers - often microscope the minutia of our instrument as being substantially differentiating. I'll be the first to say that a standard Split P humbucker has certain response characteristics that differentiate it from just putting any pickup in that position. I can hear the difference. However, over the decades of wearing the hats of session guy, engineer, and producer, I found that - for practical applications - almost any bass with a pickup in that position delivers a Classic P-ish like tone which is what the producer or project manager may want. In all my years, I never had anybody say "You must use a P-bass". The producer or project leader would just say something like "I want something warmer" or "Can you get a tone like <imsert bass player name?" or "Use a pick" or "less stringy" etc For many years, the soloed front pickup in passive Series mode on my G&L ASAT was my go to P-bass when I needed it.........On my "Find The P-bass Challenge", all the basses sound different, however all are inherently P-bass esque. I posted it on many messageboards and Reddit. By the way, as of this writing, all the basses got votes - some more than others

I have a comparison .mp3 featuring a '79 P-Bass and a (?)'93(?) AccuBass.

People cannot tell me which is which. It's hard for me to differentiate and I made the damned thing!

In fairness: I use (some pretty nice) headphones whereas a lot of people do everything on their phones, these days.

 

[wjl]

It took me a while, but what I ended up with is:
- a Precision bass (fretless, Squier), and
- an upright (Christopher 200)
Happy with these two...

 

[Jeff Hughes]

A P-Bass is the carbon atom of bass guitars.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

I have three great basses in my stable:

1996 Carvin BB70 all Koa body with ebony board.
1999 Sector Q4 with EMG soap bars
2017 MIM Fender Classic 50's P-bass black lacquer, gold anodized PG and maple neck

In my studio, the Carvin and Spector sound great, but out on the gig there's no balls.

The P-bass on the other hand sounds great in my studio, and blows me away on gigs.

The Koa Carvin is so light, and I would prefer to play it because of that fact. The spector and my P-bass weigh the same.

I feel like I should just get rid of the carvin and the spector since the P-bass does everything better.

Anyone else have these same thoughts about their own bass collection?

If a bassist brags about his bass, without a sound demo, does it make a sound?