markdavid Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 (edited) Hi, have recently swapped the pickup in one of my basses for a seymour duncan spb2 hot for p bass pickup. The pickup is great however the labella flatwounds that used to sound great with it now sound less than ideal with the new pickup, something about the highs/high mids of the labellas is just not working with the new pickup so i was hoping someone with experience of this pickup could offer some suggestions on flatwounds that work well with pickup , thanks Edit: have found I have a set of Ernie ball Group 4 95-70-60-40 spare , I will try those, hopefully they will be similar tension to the labella 760fx , any string suggestions still welcomed Edited November 24, 2015 by markdavid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie Posted November 26, 2015 Share Posted November 26, 2015 I'd seriously think about whether the problem might actually be the pickup. I was not impressed when I tried it. The SPB-1 on the other hand...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markdavid Posted November 26, 2015 Author Share Posted November 26, 2015 (edited) [quote name='stevie' timestamp='1448534396' post='2916157'] I'd seriously think about whether the problem might actually be the pickup. I was not impressed when I tried it. The SPB-1 on the other hand...... [/quote] Hi , funny you should say that, I am having the SPB-2 taken out at the weekend and the stock pickup put back in, on paper it sounded like a great pickup, rolled off treble, increased low mids, all the reviews etc said that it was a really fat sounding pickup. Have had the pickup fitted and after a few days to evaluate it I have found it is just not a useable tone, it has less lows than the stock pickup, the treble is rolled off but everything is masked by this horrible obnoxious midrange, it is like the midrange is turned up to full all the time and its not a useful midrange either, trying to get a nice warm round tone is next to impossible unless you scoop all the mids on the amp and seriously boost the bass on the amp as well , in short I hate it , in fact the SPB-2 is the worst pickup I have ever heard Edited November 26, 2015 by markdavid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LayDownThaFunk Posted November 27, 2015 Share Posted November 27, 2015 That pickup is best with rounds that's why! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markdavid Posted November 27, 2015 Author Share Posted November 27, 2015 [quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1448626971' post='2916944'] That pickup is best with rounds that's why! [/quote] I suspected that may be the case as the treble from rounds would no doubt offset the blurry midrange , unfortunately I am a flatwounds guy, haven't used rounds in a long, long time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markdavid Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 Have the stock p pickup back and a wilkinson j pickup, no more blurry midrange and the warmth is back Sometimes the stock pickup is just fine and this is an example of that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markdavid Posted January 5, 2016 Author Share Posted January 5, 2016 (edited) [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Am finding that the wilkinson Jazz pickup and the p pickup blended together seems a little honky in the upper mids with the low mids a little scooped, I did not notice this characteristic with the stock j pickup it just sounded like a moderate scoop in the low and hi mids.[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]My question is this: what do you think is causing the upper mids bump ?[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]To my mind there are a few possibilities[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]A) the wilkinson is more scooped in the lower mids which is causing the upper mids to be emphasized, the wilkinson is not overly bright either which could further emphasize this[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]B ) the hotter output of the wilkinson (compared to the stock j pickup) is causing it to be louder than the p pickup (the p pickup is only around 8k if i remember the squier specs correctly) which is emphasizing the upper mids[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]C) the low output of the stock j pickup causes it to have more highs and less mids than the wilkinson which is further emphasized when combined with the p pickup[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]D) the low output of the stock j pickup means that only a touch of the j pickup is added when on full volume [/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]I had a local well respected luthier who builds custom basses do the pickup swap so I am sure it is not out of phase pickups issues[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Fwiw I may well be returning back to the stock j pickup[/font][/color] Edited January 5, 2016 by markdavid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LayDownThaFunk Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Maybe the strings are out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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