Would Putting Fender 1979 P Bass Pickups in a Similar Bass Make it Sound the Same?

[ASoggyFry]

Same question for other basses that also don't have preamps. If you take the exact pickups they use and put the pickups in another similar bass (with the same wood, same fretboard foot, same neck wood, and same amp/ effects used), you are pretty much going to get the same sound, yes or no?

Thanks.

 

[Barghest]

Yeah, and I doubt anyone would tell the difference without being told that it's two separate basses in the first place.

 

[Kubicki Fan]

Yes, if keeping the same wiring harness/controls/shielding.

 

[gil_mor]

Same question for other basses that also don't have preamps. If you take the exact pickups they use and put the pickups in another similar bass (with the same wood, same fretboard foot, same neck wood, and same amp/ effects used), you are pretty much going to get the same sound, yes or no?

Thanks.

And (possibly more important) the same strings, setup, pickup height and vol/tone values.

No, I don't think the difference will be noticeable.

For what its worth, I failed an A/B blind test with my two basses, while in the process of building a lightweight version of my original PJ.

Different "feel" for sure, different vibe possibly, different sound? Not to me, and the neck and body wood was different.

 

[Yahboy]

she still sound little different ~ you forgot Wood density !

 

[Snert]

And bassist density.

 

[sylvanbass]

On the reverse side, you could probably put a set of pickups out of a Squier into that 1979 bass and it would more than likely sound the same to most. YMMV.

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

Here we go again

 

[Element Zero]

Here we go again

I believe the OP’s question is genuine. They’re pretty knew here and not everyone is at the same level of knowledge.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

It will sound like a p bass, yes. Will it sound like the same p bass? Maybe, but probably not. No one will be able to tell the difference, though.

 

[pepj]

Maybe, but still a punt, ime.
I think the 'chemistry' between all parts isn't something easily understood.

Similar is not 'the same' but depends how nuanced you are with your basses as to how much you would care

 

[LHbassist]

The following is my OPINION, and it is my experience, yours may vary. I know this will create some turbulence for some here.. but in my long time repairing guitars and basses, I have had the occasion to experience the same pickup in different basses. I was building a five string a long time ago now, and wanted to experiment with different pickups, placement, etc. I made a surrogate 'body' with a few pieces of maple. There was a large open area from the end of the fingerboard, to the edge of the bridge. The very first pickup I tried, was a good old P-bass pickup. Probably a Fender pickup, as this was before I had a stockpile of aftermarket ones. This was so long ago, that I did not have a low 'B' string in stock- so it was simply tested for overall tone with only four strings. I centered the halves at 11-5/8" from the center of the 12th. fret, where P-bass pickups are almost always located on fender basses and their clones. The scale was 34." That neck- is on the bass in my Avatar. It was completed in mid 1994. It has a very expensive Alembic circuit. Does it sound good? Oh, yeah.
So what did it sound like as just a neck on a block with a p-bass pickup? Exactly like P-bass. A pretty good one, too. Subsequent experiments yielded similar results using my notebook made over decades of measuring just about every model of bass that came through my shop. In my opinion, body wood, neck and fingerboard wood, are smaller parts in the tone pie chart, and I know that from my own builds.
What REALLY makes a bass sound a certain way- is the pickups, type, shape, configuration, and placement in the scale length. On that tone pie chart, I'd say that makes up about 70-80 percent of the overall tone of a bass. My other builds that use the same layout as my yellow bass, and sound remarkably similar. EMG's in one, Bartolini's in another. The placement of the pickups creates the similar tone.

P.S., I have a Warmoth build, Swamp Ash, Maple neck, P-J configuration, The P-bass pickup is from an early 70's Fender bass, and the bridge pickup, is a Schaller- that is exactly like a 70's DiMarzio hum cancelling. What does it sound like? -A Fender P-bass. A good sounding one. It sounds just about the same as my other P-J with a Maple body and a Maple neck with a rosewood board, and EMG's.

 

[bassdude51]

No.

Depending, there could be up to a 10% difference in sound for each bass with the same pickup. IMO

Just as there are no 2 snowflakes exactly the same, so it is with bass guitars.

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

My bass doesn’t sound the same each time I play it.
But to answer your question yeah, it’ll pretty much be the same.
A discernible difference, maybe
Being able to tell them apart without playing them side by side and back to back, probably not.

 

[FugaziBomb]

The following is my OPINION, and it is my experience, yours may vary. I know this will create some turbulence for some here.. but in my long time repairing guitars and basses, I have had the occasion to experience the same pickup in different basses. I was building a five string a long time ago now, and wanted to experiment with different pickups, placement, etc. I made a surrogate 'body' with a few pieces of maple. There was a large open area from the end of the fingerboard, to the edge of the bridge. The very first pickup I tried, was a good old P-bass pickup. Probably a Fender pickup, as this was before I had a stockpile of aftermarket ones. This was so long ago, that I did not have a low 'B' string in stock- so it was simply tested for overall tone with only four strings. I centered the halves at 11-5/8" from the center of the 12th. fret, where P-bass pickups are almost always located on fender basses and their clones. The scale was 34." That neck- is on the bass in my Avatar. It was completed in mid 1994. It has a very expensive Alembic circuit. Does it sound good? Oh, yeah.
So what did it sound like as just a neck on a block with a p-bass pickup? Exactly like P-bass. A pretty good one, too. Subsequent experiments yielded similar results using my notebook made over decades of measuring just about every model of bass that came through my shop. In my opinion, body wood, neck and fingerboard wood, are smaller parts in the tone pie chart, and I know that from my own builds.
What REALLY makes a bass sound a certain way- is the pickups, type, shape, configuration, and placement in the scale length. On that tone pie chart, I'd say that makes up about 70-80 percent of the overall tone of a bass. My other builds that use the same layout as my yellow bass, and sound remarkably similar. EMG's in one, Bartolini's in another. The placement of the pickups creates the similar tone.

P.S., I have a Warmoth build, Swamp Ash, Maple neck, P-J configuration, The P-bass pickup is from an early 70's Fender bass, and the bridge pickup, is a Schaller- that is exactly like a 70's DiMarzio hum cancelling. What does it sound like? -A Fender P-bass. A good sounding one. It sounds just about the same as my other P-J with a Maple body and a Maple neck with a rosewood board, and EMG's.

I did something similar a while back, but just screwed a bridge to a wood block, which I screwed to my work bench and clamped a headstock from an old broken Squier neck to the end of the same bench to mimic a 34" scale so I could play around with pickup placement. No neck, no body - just a bridge, a headstock, a mounting block for the pickups and wiring, and an old work bench. The pickups sounded exactly the same regardless of if they were in an ash body, alder body, or just in the jig I made to slide around the table. After that, there was no question to me that tone woods are a myth.

It was actually an interesting exercise for anyone who has the resources to do it. One of the things I found surprising was how good a 5 string jazz bass pickup sounds with the pole pieces sorta between the strings. I'm surprised more builders don't do that.

Edit: it's worth noting that the J Bass pickups I had were the single pole variety

 

[blastoff]

definite maybe

 

[Auer]

You could put those PU's on a 2x4 and nobody could tell the difference.

 

[TheReceder]

The following is my OPINION, and it is my experience, yours may vary. I know this will create some turbulence for some here.. but in my long time repairing guitars and basses, I have had the occasion to experience the same pickup in different basses. I was building a five string a long time ago now, and wanted to experiment with different pickups, placement, etc. I made a surrogate 'body' with a few pieces of maple. There was a large open area from the end of the fingerboard, to the edge of the bridge. The very first pickup I tried, was a good old P-bass pickup. Probably a Fender pickup, as this was before I had a stockpile of aftermarket ones. This was so long ago, that I did not have a low 'B' string in stock- so it was simply tested for overall tone with only four strings. I centered the halves at 11-5/8" from the center of the 12th. fret, where P-bass pickups are almost always located on fender basses and their clones. The scale was 34." That neck- is on the bass in my Avatar. It was completed in mid 1994. It has a very expensive Alembic circuit. Does it sound good? Oh, yeah.
So what did it sound like as just a neck on a block with a p-bass pickup? Exactly like P-bass. A pretty good one, too. Subsequent experiments yielded similar results using my notebook made over decades of measuring just about every model of bass that came through my shop. In my opinion, body wood, neck and fingerboard wood, are smaller parts in the tone pie chart, and I know that from my own builds.
What REALLY makes a bass sound a certain way- is the pickups, type, shape, configuration, and placement in the scale length. On that tone pie chart, I'd say that makes up about 70-80 percent of the overall tone of a bass. My other builds that use the same layout as my yellow bass, and sound remarkably similar. EMG's in one, Bartolini's in another. The placement of the pickups creates the similar tone.

P.S., I have a Warmoth build, Swamp Ash, Maple neck, P-J configuration, The P-bass pickup is from an early 70's Fender bass, and the bridge pickup, is a Schaller- that is exactly like a 70's DiMarzio hum cancelling. What does it sound like? -A Fender P-bass. A good sounding one. It sounds just about the same as my other P-J with a Maple body and a Maple neck with a rosewood board, and EMG's.

Do you really want to bring logic into this discussion? Know what I mean, wink wink; nudge nudge; say no more.

 

[Bassinthemudd]

...there are no 2 snowflakes exactly the same...

True, but they do sound the same.

 

[Gino t]

a pro jazz player I know ordered 2 Ernie Ball custom 6 string guitars and directed that they sound, look and play exactly alike, body, neck and fingerboard from the same quartersawn logs, electronics/other parts identical and when he got them, one sounded significantly darker than the other, so .....