P Bass - Pickup Dilemma

[PatrickJ]

I'm pretty new to the world of Precision style bass ownership, but over the past twelve months I've ended up with 2 Sandberg California II's, a VS4 and a VT4 (I just need a VM4 to achieve the holy trinity). 

The VT4 has been my go-to bass since I got it but I've recently strung the VS4 with some traditional flats and have been taking it out for some blues jams.    The only thing I'm not loving is the original Sandberg pickup; the oversized poles are not doing it for me so I want to put something more traditional in it.  But fork me there are a lot of P Bass pickup options out there and I'm looking for some advice from the Basschat community on which way to go.

Question 1 would be what are the tonal differences in the P Bass era's; a lot of the pickup brands seem to offer 50's, 60's and 70's voiced options?

Question 2 general recommendations for a p bass swap ? 
     - Custom wound in the UK?
     - The Creamery, Monty's Guitars, Bare Knuckle Pickups and Aaron Armstrong all come up as options.  Any experiences with any of these?

     - High End mass produced
     Bass Direct stock a range of Delano, Aguilar & Nordstrand options?   I like the Aguilar's in my J bass, Nordstrands seem to be very popular here. Delano are obviously come in a lot of Sandbergs (incl. my VT4).

     - Seymour Duncan
     SD offer  a large range of options.

Any advice greatly appreciated

[hooky_lowdown]

Your Delano's are hi-fi sounding pickups, which going on what you want is the polar opposite to your needs. To me, it sounds like you want a 'vintage' voiced pickup, so you want alnico pickups, and the Fender custom shop 62 is the best P pickup imho, and my experience.

Others of note would be Lindy Fralin or Aguilar P4-60's.

I would give SD's a miss, the others above are all far superior.

50s and 60s pickups are essentially the same, low to medium output. 70s pickups are higher output.

Edited December 13, 2019 by hooky_lowdown

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I recently installed an EMG GZR passive P bass pickup into my '81 precision which has made it much more enjoyable to play due to the rich punchy tone that wasn't available with the original pickup. It has alnico magnets and was voiced to emulate the pickup in Bobby Vega's 1960s Precison.

[Lozz196]

Another vote for the Fender Custom Shop 62 here, amazing pickups,

[PatrickJ]

15 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Another vote for the Fender Custom Shop 62 here, amazing pickups,

Feels a bit wrong to put a Fender pup into a Fender clone bass

[Cuzzie]

Creamery are top drawer, Jaime there is a great guy to deal with and they do a ‘58, ‘65, ‘74, ‘14 but you can base a pick up on those stock ones and he will alter the windings to suit, yes there is a wait, but they are well worth it

[Cuzzie]

Plus I would consider going all out and add a Stellartone Bass Ten Tonestyler as well

Edited December 14, 2019 by Cuzzie

[PatrickJ]

26 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Creamery are top drawer, Jaime there is a great guy to deal with and they do a ‘58, ‘65, ‘74, ‘14 but you can base a pick up on those stock ones and he will alter the windings to suit, yes there is a wait, but they are well worth it

Really did like the look of these, and look good value too.  Just annoying I couldn't ask Santa for one due to wait times.

[kodiakblair]

1 hour ago, hooky_lowdown said:

I would give SD's a miss, the others above are all far superior.

Nice to know I'm not alone in thinking this 🙂

 

To the UK list I'd add Bloodstone Guitarworks. Was impressed with their 51 single coil so asked Dave about a custom build, 28K mudbucker in single coil format. 

Dave talked me through a couple of construction methods then posted it 3 days. Thing is a monster 😲 Cost less than the mass produced Duncans 👍

 

http://www.bloodstoneguitarworks.com/shop/bass-pickups

[Cuzzie]

I don’t disagree generally with the SD pick up comments, but they do have some good in amongst the standard stuff that people don’t commonly use such as the APB-1 pick up.

[Cuzzie]

6 hours ago, PJ-Bassist said:

Really did like the look of these, and look good value too.  Just annoying I couldn't ask Santa for one due to wait times.

That is annoying, and I got lucky getting my 58 second hand, not just good value, but really great sounding

[rubis]

I have a Bare Knuckles '60's style' pickup in mine and it's awesome, with round or flats, but I particularly like the sound with flats.

if it's of any help, I swapped out a Delano pickup for a Nordstrand in my Blingray and the difference was huge, I see no reason why a Nordstrand P style pickup wouldn 't give you the same difference in your Sandberg (which looks lovely, by the way)

In fact I bought a Nordstrand NP5 for my new build project, and I'm even considering making a PJ bass, well worth a look and  if the staggered poles bother you, they do a traditional looking one too!

 

 

[hooky_lowdown]

9 hours ago, PJ-Bassist said:

Feels a bit wrong to put a Fender pup into a Fender clone bass

I know what you mean, but 50s, 60s, 70s classic bass sound is fender.

The other thing to consider are what strings you play, in fact this is the biggest aspect of your bass sound. Before changing pickups, try some different strings to get close to the sound you want. I'm guessing with Delano's you use steel roundwounds? 

To get a 60s rock n roll / blues sound you'll want pure nickel or nickel on steel roundwounds.

It took me years of buying and selling basses to realise the biggest fundamental of my bass sound is the strings. Get them right and you're 70% there, get the right strings and pickups, and you're 90% there, the rest is technique. 😃

[PatrickJ]

18 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said:

I know what you mean, but 50s, 60s, 70s classic bass sound is fender.

This is true.

19 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said:

The other thing to consider are what strings you play, in fact this is the biggest aspect of your bass sound. Before changing pickups, try some different strings to get close to the sound you want. I'm guessing with Delano's you use steel roundwounds? 

Actually I'm a flats guy, the VT4 is strung with Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats and the VS4 with Ernie Ball Group III flats.

On the VT4 I've tried Chromes, Labella's, Pyramid and Rotosound flats and the Ernie Balls have gotten me much closer to the tone I'm looking for.  Though I've been some what tempted to try Dunlop's Flat Wounds.

1 hour ago, Cuzzie said:

That is annoying, and I got lucky getting my 58 second hand, not just good value, but really great sounding

It is, but this close the Christmas it's understandable that anything custom wound is not going to be available.

[Lfalex v1.1]

8 hours ago, PJ-Bassist said:

Really did like the look of these, and look good value too.  Just annoying I couldn't ask Santa for one due to wait times.

Maybe the elves could wind faster?

[Paul S]

Trying to chase 'the right tone' is the Devil's own job because 'the right tone' is so subjective.  As others have said it does seem to be all about the right strings and pickup - most other things I have found to be less important other than perhaps the material of the fretboard.   

The strings I have settled on are TI Flats.  I love the tension, general feel and tone, exactly what I like and I have them on all my basses.  They aren't as thuddy as most flats but not as 'plinky' as I found the cobalt slinky ones to be.

For the pup I just kissed all the frogs I could possibly find until, finally, I have got there.  I tried the vintage sounding P pups like the Fender 62 RI, Wizard Trad, Aguilar 5P-60 in my 5er but found I wanted a little more bite at my disposal, especially with the flats.  I found the SD 1/4lber a bit harsh but very much enjoy the Delano PC 5 AL/M2 I have fitted into my Maroos-chick Jake 5.  So much so I bought another and now have this fitted to a modded Sterling 5er which now sounds much the same as the Jake.  After reading a lot of love for them on here I have very recently fitted fitted an Entwistle PBXN to my Frankenstein 'Honcore' and to my ears it doesn't sound actually very different to the Delano - just 1/4 of the price.  But the extra bite of these pups can be nicely tamed if required by rolling off the tone control a little to give that real organic sweet spot - mellow yet with a decent amount of bite for slightly harder edged blues/rock.

I expect next year my opinion would have changed, of course.

[therealting]

I have the Nordstrand NP4 in my ‘64 P, the Bareknuckle 60s in my ‘61 P, the Fender Custom Shop 62 in my MIJ Medium Scale P, plus Yamaha and Dingwall’s own pickups in my BB435 and Super P5. They’re ALL fantastic pickups.

(The previous owner of my ‘64 had a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder in there which I hated.)

[timhiggins]

Years back I spent a long time trying to get a Jamerson type sound and one thing that made a lot of difference was lowering my pups and having a higher action ,i used both Thomastic flats and Labbellas , they both worked nicely on my fender P and on a bitsa with Delanos ...

if you are after that old finger style sound it might be worth a try before splashing out.

[ratman]

I'm a long time user of Seymour Duncan's pick ups on my Ps. But I recently bought a Fender Pure Vintage 63 and it blows all of my SDs off the map. (If I remember correctly the 63 has lightly less mids and slightly more bass than the 62 model) My 63 was £125, so not cheap, but so worth it. I won't be buying any more SDs.

[Jack]

I can't help with your specific query (I put Will Power pups in mine which the exact opposite of what you're after) but seeing as you asked about Aaron Armstrong: he's AMAZING. My Stingray pickup came back exactly what I ordered and for cheaper than many off the shelf brands.

[PatrickJ]

1 hour ago, Jack said:

I can't help with your specific query (I put Will Power pups in mine which the exact opposite of what you're after) but seeing as you asked about Aaron Armstrong: he's AMAZING. My Stingray pickup came back exactly what I ordered and for cheaper than many off the shelf brands.

Thanks @jack, good to hear as he's doing the pickups for my Shuker Custom Build

[mcnach]

On 14/12/2019 at 00:21, PJ-Bassist said:

Feels a bit wrong to put a Fender pup into a Fender clone bass

 

eh?

[LukeFRC]

On 14/12/2019 at 09:03, Cuzzie said:

I don’t disagree generally with the SD pick up comments, but they do have some good in amongst the standard stuff that people don’t commonly use such as the APB-1 pick up.

The APB-1 is a great pickup. It doesn't sound outstanding but IME in the mix it really shines

[PatrickJ]

31 minutes ago, mcnach said:

 

eh?

I'm sure it's a weird me thing, but I may as well have bought a fender if I'm going to retrospectively fit Fender OE parts into a non fender bass.

[LukeFRC]

1 minute ago, PJ-Bassist said:

I'm sure it's a weird me thing, but I may as well have bought a fender if I'm going to retrospectively fit Fender OE parts into a non fender bass.

so that's where you went wrong!