p retro? or not

[fluffo]

I have a p bass that I want to upgrade.
My choices are east p retro, this is the easy option, but no sure what the slap sound will be like.
The next option is to cut a jazz bar in at the back, put the jack in from the side and reuse the scratch plate hole for the third dial, I could use a stacked pot for 2 volumes one per pickup that would leave room for a 2 band equal or may be a 3 band if I use a 2nd stack knob. If routing for the pickup Ithen I could stick a battery cavity in the back if room is tight under the scratchplate. Or a emg pj set which would just be 3 dials.
Give me your opinions. I have 2 other basses with jazz retros in them.
I have a 2 band eq floating around that I could use that with a pj set of sd's or dimarzios ect.

Edited November 18, 2012 by fluffo

[iiipopes]

The most versatile option is to go with a vintage-style P pickup, good pots and caps, add a noiseless or humbucking J-pickup (like a DiMarzio J or UltraJazz, or Fralin or Aguilar end-to-end, Fender Noiseless, or Seymour Duncan vintage Stack), wire it V-V-T, like a J-bass, by adding another hole in the pickguard on an arc to match the existing V-T-jack, and rock on. As you bring up the volume of the J-bridge pickup, you will get a good slap.

Edited November 19, 2012 by iiipopes

[fluffo]

Yeah that's what I'm doing but with an active 2 band aswell

[iiipopes]

On my 5-er, to keep things simple, instead of active preamp and controls that can get a bit unwieldy on stage, I have the Ibanez version of the EMG EXB after the V-V-T. It variably cuts mids while boosting treble and bass. So it's a combination "vintage-to-modern" or "slap contour" knob. I find it most useful for those songs that require some tone shaping beyond the stock pickups. So with four knobs, V-V-T-EXB, it sounds like it has a dozen.