Any inexpensive aggressive sounding P pickups around?

[mcnach]

12 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Yeah I like the idea of the Model P and the aggressive tone with mid focus but don't they have like 4 sets of wires coming off them? I'm a dead simple kind of person when it comes to pickups and even more simple when it comes to fitting them, I want a black wire and a white wire and a set of screws for the pickup

 

all you have to do is twist two of the cables together and cover with tape, which connects the two halves of the pickup in series, and you have only two cables to connect as standard. 

[shoulderpet]

6 hours ago, mcnach said:

 

all you have to do is twist two of the cables together and cover with tape, which connects the two halves of the pickup in series, and you have only two cables to connect as standard. 

Ok thanks, that is good to know and puts Dimarzios back in the picture for me 

[kodiakblair]

If I'm honest Quarter pounders would not be my choice,not against Entwistle PBXN.

 

The Peavey Zodiac DE Scorpio came with Duncan 1/4 lbs. I had one and I had another built from DE parts picked up over time,it got Entwistle Neos.

Same set up,same strings,same pickup heights etc. The Entwistles left the  Duncans at the starting block,might be closer to say Entwistle took Olympic Gold while the Duncans came in fourth at a junior school's sports day 🙂

 

That was not the only time I've found Quarter Pounders to be so/so. 2 Peavey Dynabass/Unity series, 1 with QP's the other with stock pickups,actually had those out last week looking for ID. The stock are wired same as Dimarzio. Again the QP's do not shine.

 

IMO "Quarter Pounder" is a great name but that's all they have going for them.

 

[mcnach]

16 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

If I'm honest Quarter pounders would not be my choice,not against Entwistle PBXN.

 

The Peavey Zodiac DE Scorpio came with Duncan 1/4 lbs. I had one and I had another built from DE parts picked up over time,it got Entwistle Neos.

Same set up,same strings,same pickup heights etc. The Entwistles left the  Duncans at the starting block,might be closer to say Entwistle took Olympic Gold while the Duncans came in fourth at a junior school's sports day 🙂

 

That was not the only time I've found Quarter Pounders to be so/so. 2 Peavey Dynabass/Unity series, 1 with QP's the other with stock pickups,actually had those out last week looking for ID. The stock are wired same as Dimarzio. Again the QP's do not shine.

 

IMO "Quarter Pounder" is a great name but that's all they have going for them.

 

 

+1 

 

It sums my feeling/experience about them too

[shoulderpet]

16 hours ago, mcnach said:

 

+1 

 

It sums my feeling/experience about them too

Interesting, I have the Quarter pounder J pickup in a P/J bass and really like what it does for the sound and from what I remember I quite like the Quarter pounder P , in fact it is the only SD P pickup I like, that being said if it were not for the Entwhistles size quirks I would definitely be keeping it 

[Marc S]

@shoulderpet - I've got an Entwistle PBXN, if you're interested?

[stewblack]

I've decided to change pickups in a P Bass recently as well. I have ordered  Kent Armstrong Vintage P Bass Alnico pick ups. For no better reason than the Kenrt Armstrong I bought for my old Aria is fabulous. My favourite P Bass pick up is the one supplied with the Bruce Thomas Profile. I emailed to ask if they would sell just the pick ups but sadly never got a reply.

I'm interested in the Entwistle's now I've read this thread. If the ones I've bought don't do the job I'll give one of those a try.

[shoulderpet]

2 hours ago, Marc S said:

@shoulderpet - I've got an Entwistle PBXN, if you're interested?

thank you for the offer but I am about to take one out of my bass as the pickup route is not deep enough,thanks anyway

[kodiakblair]

On 05/04/2020 at 06:05, shoulderpet said:

when I fret the E string at the last fret the distance from the pickup pole to the bottom of the E string is only 2mm

Trying to imagine a situation where I'd be doing that.

[hooky_lowdown]

4 hours ago, stewblack said:

I've decided to change pickups in a P Bass recently as well. I have ordered  Kent Armstrong Vintage P Bass Alnico pick ups. 

I have the KA Hot Vintage in a short scale P bass and they sound really good. 👍

[shoulderpet]

Ok have put the Wilkinson pickups in, that was a slightly odd experience, using the twisting the wires to the wires soldered to the pots method I connected white to white wire and black to black wire, pickups sounded fine solo but both on full gave a massive drop in low end, so hearing this and knowing something was obviously wrong I reversed the wires, black to white and white to black and success low end is back , how odd

[kodiakblair]

Sounds like you encountered a phase issue.

[Stub Mandrel]

Each pickup gives an electric signal that although not identical is very similar. Connected together the right way they add up and make a louder output. Connected the wrong way (out of phase) one signal is subtracted from the other so you only hear the difference, which is mostly extra harmonics from the bridge pickup and more fundamental note from the neck pick up. This means you hear relatively little bass and lots of harmonics.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Stub Mandrel

[shoulderpet]

Yeah just seemed strange that the pickups are out of phase with the white wire connected to the white and the black wire connected to the black 

[stewblack]

On 07/04/2020 at 20:36, hooky_lowdown said:

I have the KA Hot Vintage in a short scale P bass and they sound really good. 👍

Do the poles stick out on yours? 

[shoulderpet]

Anyway just wanted to say that the Wilkinson pickup sounds great, a good well rounded P bass tone, i am not sure yet if I will keep or if my desire for an aggressive tone will win out but for anyone looking for a decent classic sounding P bass pickup with reasonable brightness this is a winner and at around £25 it is a bargain at a fraction of the price of most aftermarket pickups, thing is I would like to keep that classic tone but just add a bit of bite and growl to it, the model p sounds good but I don't know if it will be bright enough. 

Anyway the possibilities I will be considering are as follows, not in any particular order 

1. 1. Model P
2. Duncan Quarter Pounder
3. Duncan SPB-4 Steve Harris P pickup
4. Kent armstrong Hot Vintage - not sure if this will be what im after but i am intrigued
5. Keep the Wilkinson in and swap the J pickup for a Model J or similar

Edited April 10, 2020 by shoulderpet

[hooky_lowdown]

7 hours ago, stewblack said:

Do the poles stick out on yours? 

Yup

[stewblack]

1 hour ago, hooky_lowdown said:

Yup

Good. Thanks. 

[PaulWarning]

9 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Anyway just wanted to say that the Wilkinson pickup sounds great, a good well rounded P bass tone, i am not sure yet if I will keep or if my desire for an aggressive tone will win out but for anyone looking for a decent classic sounding P bass pickup with reasonable brightness this is a winner and at around £25 it is a bargain at a fraction of the price of most aftermarket pickups, thing is I would like to keep that classic tone but just add a bit of bite and growl to it, the model p sounds good but I don't know if it will be bright enough. 

 

MY Vintage V4 has Wilkinson pickups as stock, tbh there's hardly any difference in the sound between that and my MIA standard 

[Lozz196]

10 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Anyway just wanted to say that the Wilkinson pickup sounds great, a good well rounded P bass tone, i am not sure yet if I will keep or if my desire for an aggressive tone will win out but for anyone looking for a decent classic sounding P bass pickup with reasonable brightness this is a winner and at around £25 it is a bargain at a fraction of the price of most aftermarket pickups, thing is I would like to keep that classic tone but just add a bit of bite and growl to it, the model p sounds good but I don't know if it will be bright enough. 

Anyway the possibilities I will be considering are as follows, not in any particular order 

1. 1. Model P
2. Duncan Quarter Pounder
3. Duncan SPB-4 Steve Harris P pickup
4. Kent armstrong Hot Vintage - not sure if this will be what im after but i am intrigued
5. Keep the Wilkinson in and swap the J pickup for a Model J or similar

I have a Vintage Tony Butler Precision with and as @PaulWarning has said the Wilkinson pickups in that are very similar sounding to those in US Precisions. Which in turn are also very similar in sound to the SD Steve Harris, however the Steve Harris is a tad more aggressive and breaks up quicker into gain/drive/growl. 
 

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Lozz196

[Stub Mandrel]

12 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Yeah just seemed strange that the pickups are out of phase with the white wire connected to the white and the black wire connected to the black 

They might be both neck or both bridge units?

Usually a matched pairs have opposite magnet orientations to reverse the signal. Can you test with a magnet to see if they are both the same polarity? If so you will get a decnt signal but won't get a humbucking effect with both dialled up.

[mcnach]

13 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Ok have put the Wilkinson pickups in, that was a slightly odd experience, using the twisting the wires to the wires soldered to the pots method I connected white to white wire and black to black wire, pickups sounded fine solo but both on full gave a massive drop in low end, so hearing this and knowing something was obviously wrong I reversed the wires, black to white and white to black and success low end is back , how odd

 

You wired it out of phase at first, which results in a very thin sound with little to no low end. But you fixed it

 

[mcnach]

12 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Yeah just seemed strange that the pickups are out of phase with the white wire connected to the white and the black wire connected to the black 

 

You can't rely on the wire colours, as you've found.

 

[shoulderpet]

4 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I have a Vintage Tony Butler Precision with and as @PaulWarning has said the Wilkinson pickups in that are very similar sounding to those in US Precisions. Which in turn are also very similar in sound to the SD Steve Harris, however the Steve Harris is a tad more aggressive and breaks up quicker into gain/drive/growl. 
 

 

That's very handy to know, I was thinking about the Steve Harris SPB-4 so it sounds like that is a solid choice, wasn't sure as I hated the Spb1

Edited April 10, 2020 by shoulderpet

[shoulderpet]

5 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

MY Vintage V4 has Wilkinson pickups as stock, tbh there's hardly any difference in the sound between that and my MIA standard 

Just googled the V4 damn that's a beautiful looking bass