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Any inexpensive aggressive sounding P pickups around?


shoulderpet

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Hi All

Of all times when a pickup could have gone bad my P pickup in my bass has gone bad now (to be more precise one of the wires has come away from the pickup) anyway as I have always found the P pickup in the bass to be way too polite I was thinking of swapping it out, looking at P pickups and a SD Quarter pound is 80 quid :(   Is there anthing similarly rude and aggressive sounding for a bit less wonga ?  thanks

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14 minutes ago, shoulderpet said:

Awesome, thanks for the suggestion, I will get an order in for these, how is the character of these, are they bright,dark,middy? 

The PBXN are all those things used with the tone knob.

You can get any pickup, put some neodymium magnets under it and it's like giving the pickup steroids - becomes more powerful and aggressive.

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8 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

Wow, I wasn’t expecting them to be so cheap. If they’re as good as everyone above would suggest, these are an absolute steal.

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3 hours ago, CameronJ said:

Wow, I wasn’t expecting them to be so cheap. If they’re as good as everyone above would suggest, these are an absolute steal.

It depends upon what sound you are after.  I put one in my Frankenstein bass because it was cheap and I'd read good reviews.  It sounded bloomin' luvverly - loud, edgy but perhaps not as organic as some of the trad tones you can get from some P pickups.  Because the Frankenstein is so good, I then decided to change it for a Fender Custom Shop 62, because I perceived these to be the best P pickups (and one came up at a good price, of course :) ).  Yup it sounded great but, for the job in hand, I miss the aggressiveness of the Entwistle and will be changing it back again soon.  To me it sounds like the SD Quarterpounder but more so.  

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34 minutes ago, Paul S said:

It depends upon what sound you are after.  I put one in my Frankenstein bass because it was cheap and I'd read good reviews.  It sounded bloomin' luvverly - loud, edgy but perhaps not as organic as some of the trad tones you can get from some P pickups.  Because the Frankenstein is so good, I then decided to change it for a Fender Custom Shop 62, because I perceived these to be the best P pickups (and one came up at a good price, of course :) ).  Yup it sounded great but, for the job in hand, I miss the aggressiveness of the Entwistle and will be changing it back again soon.  To me it sounds like the SD Quarterpounder but more so.  

Definitely not a traditional P tone, but rather Trad P's lairy brother who's always spoiling for a fight. 

🍺 D'you spill my pint? 

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  • 2 weeks later...

How did it all go with the Entwistles? Any sound clips would be welcome 😉
 

I fancy changing the pickup in my new CV vibe 70s P. Something more of a vintage voicing but again, CHEAP. I bought a set of Tonerider Jazz pickups for my MiM Jazz last year and they are amazing. Tempted to take a punt on the P version for £35ish. Although, I have heard that some earlier CV basses use Tonerider pickups from the factory. Nothing particularly wrong with the pickup in there now but we’ve got a long few months ahead and a few little projects won’t go amiss. 

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37 minutes ago, Williams4S said:

How did it all go with the Entwistles? Any sound clips would be welcome 😉
 

I fancy changing the pickup in my new CV vibe 70s P. Something more of a vintage voicing but again, CHEAP. I bought a set of Tonerider Jazz pickups for my MiM Jazz last year and they are amazing. Tempted to take a punt on the P version for £35ish. Although, I have heard that some earlier CV basses use Tonerider pickups from the factory. Nothing particularly wrong with the pickup in there now but we’ve got a long few months ahead and a few little projects won’t go amiss. 

The Entwistles are the complete opposite to vintage voiced. If you want decent and cheap vintage sounding pups look at Tonerider (as you've mentioned), or Wilkinson Alnico pups. 😁

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On 30/03/2020 at 10:40, Williams4S said:

How did it all go with the Entwistles? Any sound clips would be welcome 😉
 

I fancy changing the pickup in my new CV vibe 70s P. Something more of a vintage voicing but again, CHEAP. I bought a set of Tonerider Jazz pickups for my MiM Jazz last year and they are amazing. Tempted to take a punt on the P version for £35ish. Although, I have heard that some earlier CV basses use Tonerider pickups from the factory. Nothing particularly wrong with the pickup in there now but we’ve got a long few months ahead and a few little projects won’t go amiss. 

Sadly I'm not gonna find out for a while, it seems my soldering skills are rubbish so I will get someone skilled to do it but obviously with the country in lockdown at the moment it could be a while.

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20 minutes ago, shoulderpet said:

Sadly I'm not gonna find out for a while, it seems my soldering skills are rubbish so I will get someone skilled to do it but obviously with the country in lockdown at the moment it could be a while.

Maybe you should treat yourself and your bass to a new wiring loom with solderless installation + you'll get the best out of your new pick ups 😎

Edited by KiOgon
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13 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Sadly I'm not gonna find out for a while, it seems my soldering skills are rubbish so I will get someone skilled to do it but obviously with the country in lockdown at the moment it could be a while.

You can change pickups without doing any soldering. If the old pickups are still soldered to the pots you can simply cut the wires connecting the pickups to the pots, then expose the copper wire, do the same to the new pickup wires and twist the two together, matching the black to black and white to white wires. This will link the pickups to the pots, you will need to wrap electrical tape around both wires to insulate them. Easy to do and no soldering. 👍

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9 hours ago, hooky_lowdown said:

You can change pickups without doing any soldering. If the old pickups are still soldered to the pots you can simply cut the wires connecting the pickups to the pots, then expose the copper wire, do the same to the new pickup wires and twist the two together, matching the black to black and white to white wires. This will link the pickups to the pots, you will need to wrap electrical tape around both wires to insulate them. Easy to do and no soldering. 👍

I never thought of that, the pvc electrical tape? thank you,I will give that a try

Edited by shoulderpet
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