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Vintage sounding P Bass pick up options- Got a '62- Not Sure?? Too much boom, not enough thump!


cameltoe
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Hi guys, would like a bit of advice on a vintage voiced pickup for my Road Worn.

I emailed Fender when I first bought the thing, and they told me they use an American Standard pickup in the Road Worn. I have read online though that they actually use MIM standard. Neither would surprise me.

I'd ideally like to change it now to something more vintage voiced. The bass sounds amazing unplugged, and the woody feel definitely translates when unplugged, however I feel some of the subtleties of tone are pole-axed by what is, essentially a standard P Bass sledgehammer pickup.

It's nicely rounded, has a good thump, and I wouldn't want to lose that, but it doesn't really have the vintage tone it deserves.

I was looking at Seymour Duncan Antiquity, which get good reviews, and ideally I'd like the raised pole pieces, because, well, I played a custom shop that had them and I thought they looked pretty cool.

I emailed Wizard to find out about custom made scatterwounds (someone mentioned scatterwounds when I searched the threads) but nothing back yet.

Any advice, always welcome.

Edited by cameltoe
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[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1336666375' post='1649217']
Got one of those in my 62RI - it does do the trick.
[/quote]

Ive got one in my P but would love another Fralin. I think the Fender has a more woody tone but i loved the Fralin P i had (2 in fact)

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[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1336666955' post='1649231']
The Fralin is quite pricey though.
[/quote]

And thats the reason i have the Fender pup :-)

The Fralin i brought (new) cost me about £125 for the USA.

I recently sold my Wizard Thumper. As nice as it was i felt it wasnt quite as Fender sounding as i hoped.

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Having always played P's and gone for vintage tones I'd recommend 3 pickups.

The Wizard Trad in third place & probably the cheapest. It's a nice pickup that delivers a really good woody thump.

Second place is Seymour Duncan's SPB-1, vastly superior to any Fender stock pup I've heard (ducks for cover!)

First place though is the pricey Seymour Duncan Antiquity. It really is stunningly good & not just good looking

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Ok the SPB 1 and Fender Original sit nicely in my budget and both sound as if they are what I am after- has anybody tried both and can describe the differences? A quick google search brought up a couple of talkbass threads and the general opinion was the SPB 1 has a deeper, bassier tone- more Motown, while the FO has a bit more growl for a more rocking 60's tone. I play fingerstyle on rounds, so might edge for the Fender if that's the case.

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Have you considered just moving to flats? I was called in to dep for a Motown covers group last year and rather than go for new pups or faff around teying to borrow a precision, I got some flats (La Bella Deep Talkin), restrung the blazer and it nailed the sound!

Truckstop

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[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1336672666' post='1649330']
Ok the SPB 1 and Fender Original sit nicely in my budget and both sound as if they are what I am after- has anybody tried both and can describe the differences? A quick google search brought up a couple of talkbass threads and the general opinion was the SPB 1 has a deeper, bassier tone- more Motown, while the FO has a bit more growl for a more rocking 60's tone. I play fingerstyle on rounds, so might edge for the Fender if that's the case.
[/quote]
My 62RI with flat La Bellas sounds very Motown.

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No I'm not a flats guy- I think this will help those of you that have been kind enough to give me advice- but the sound I'm after is definitely less deep smooth bass and more woody thump. Less motown more vintage rock. More attack. I don't like modern sounding pickups- Stingray's and the G&L L2000 I used to own sounded horrible to me.

I'm always blown away by the way my P feels, but always a touch disappointed with it plugged in. That the lovely wooden feel and sound you get from my P unplugged is being masked somewhat by a generic pickup. I'd like the tone to be more coloured, in a way, rather than stock MIM sounding. It sounds almost identical (just a touch softer) to my American Series P if I don't string the Am. thru body. And they are vastly different feeling guitars and sound totally different unplugged.

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[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1336672666' post='1649330']
Ok the SPB 1 and Fender Original sit nicely in my budget and both sound as if they are what I am after- has anybody tried both and can describe the differences? A quick google search brought up a couple of talkbass threads and the general opinion was the SPB 1 has a deeper, bassier tone- more Motown, while the FO has a bit more growl for a more rocking 60's tone. I play fingerstyle on rounds, so might edge for the Fender if that's the case.
[/quote]

There is a thread on here somewhere, with soundclips of may Precision pickups, including these two, and your description above is spot-on.

If wanting to keep the bass as authentic Fendery sounding as possible, I`d go for the FO, but have to admit those SPB1s sound very nice - they were my fave out of the selection.

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[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1336727455' post='1649953']
So many variables its fun finding the right combo.
[/quote]

Yes. With a SD SPB-1 (for example) you'll get a vintage 'Motown' sound with flats and a 70s-type 'rock' sound with rounds. IMHO, YMMV, GLWTS, etc. :D

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  • 1 month later...

Hey guys,

Went for the Fender Original in the end. Just fitted it today. Only played for 5mins at home, wow. Very punchy, warm, and nicely voiced.

Hopefully i'll be as impressed at rehearsal tomorrow.

Saving up for the raised A SD Antiquity to go in my Road Worn P!

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Mixed opinions on this pickup to be honest.

Used it a couple times at rehearsal now, and the tone of the thing is great, but what I'm struggling with is the lows. It seems to be very fat sounding, like its moving too much air.

I was hoping for a tight, punchy pickup, which really sat in the mix and gave a woody thump. It sounded really full, but I actually struggled to hear myself in the band mix. The lows were far too fat sounding. Turning up the volume just made it worse!

I'm wondering whether it may partly be a limitation of my cab, or the rehearsal room, so I'm reserving judgement for the time, at least until a gig, but wondered what people's opinions were of this pickup in general with regards to what I described?

Do you guys get a good thump from this pickup? Or is it a bit fat and scooped, like I found it?

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I do find that sometimes my bass sounds fantastic, other times its just plain horrible. This is normally down to the room and the EQ. My cab is very middy so i dont have that full, big low end tone (i wish i did,it does effect the tone quite a bit) so cant say ive noticed the low end being over powering but i wouldn't say it was scooped.

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