'51 P Pup opinions/experience

[JohnDaBass]

There are quite a number of '51P style bass fans on the Forum and I wondered if it would be helpfull to share opinions and experiences of Pups we have used on Bitsa builds and upgrades?

I have used , very successfully,  Jess Loureiro split P and the Lindy Fralin split P pickups and would recommend both to anyone thinking of using either one. I read on the TB forum a comparison of a $12 Pup with other famous brands and it was very revealing. 

So I just thought perhaps we could compile here some experiences for others  to absorb.  

Edited May 27, 2020 by JohnDaBass
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[Cat Burrito]

I was a massive fan of the Seymour Duncan Antiquity range and it always struck me as a marked improvement on the stock Fender pickup.

[yorks5stringer]

I put an Oil City  bespoke one into my Blueflower reissue which had more tonality than the OEM Japanese one.

[DiMarco]

Fralins are lovely. When you get the chance, also try the Lollar.

 

[WingedWords]

I'm currently building a 54 style P Bass and have ordered a McNelly pickup. I've used quite a few of Tim McNelly's pickups on Teles and a Jazzmaster so I'm confident it'll perform.

https://www.homeoftone.co.uk/collections/bass-pickups/products/mcnelly-p-bass-single-coil-pickup?variant=19320967303

 

On another forum I was recommended these UK builders

 

https://www.herrickpickups.com/products/tele-51-bass-single-coil/

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

I've no experience of them.

 

Here's a pic of the build so far.

[Lozz196]

Great looking bass, and def worth checking out Herrick pickups.

[police squad]

I have a seymour duncan stack '51. Sounds nice but because the pole pieces are flat, the E and the G are louder than the A & D.

I find it irritating and have to use a little compression to sort it

[kodiakblair]

I've tried plenty of 51 single coils.

The Seymour Duncan Antiquity was a nice pickup though quite low output. The Duncan 1/4 lb'er,£80 odd and wave goodbye to your mids .No thanks 😁

Herricks split single and single. Good looking pickups, fairly strong output,nice even response across the strings.

Jess Loureiro's split single is the same,have that fella in my duck egg P-bass.

 

The old Wilkinson single was a bloody great pickup,think Duncan Antiquity only a wee bit louder. The Roswell, now in the Harley Benton PB-50. Looks weird having 1/4" poles like the Duncan 1/4 lb'er. Lower wire count so it's basically a Duncan 1/4 lb'er only you still have mids 👍

 

The £8 Chinese alnico 5 ? Another louder Antiquity 😄 A real eye opener that had me question single coils with £80 price tags 🤣 The folks making these don't have advertising costs NAMM booths to pay for which might explain the difference .

 

Current favourite is Bloodstone Guitarworks. The 51 staggered pole impressed me so when I fancied a change I had a word with Dave . The change was another split single only this time overwound. Overwound to 29.9k ohm to be exact 😱 An out of the ordinary request and a bit of a challenge. Lucky me, Dave likes a challenge 😁

A completely custom pickup delivered in 4 days. Won't say the price but it was a lot less than anything coming from the USA 😎

Here's the monster next to it's wee cousin 🙂

 

 

 

[Cuzzie]

16 hours ago, police squad said:

I have a seymour duncan stack '51. Sounds nice but because the pole pieces are flat, the E and the G are louder than the A & D.

I find it irritating and have to use a little compression to sort it

Is that the custom shop one which is in the Dusty hill bass?

Just picked one up at a bargain price to pop into an Ash body I am carving up. 
 

It’s wound to 29.8k so should be a monster.

I would also consider Creamery Pickups in Manchester, Jaime does a 51 P and if it’s owt like his 58 I have, it will be sensational

[bloke_zero]

I have a nice one from https://www.bassculture.de/bilder.html

Stacked - lovely warm round tone.

[police squad]

3 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

Is that the custom shop one which is in the Dusty hill bass?

Just picked one up at a bargain price to pop into an Ash body I am carving up. 
 

It’s wound to 29.8k so should be a monster.

I would also consider Creamery Pickups in Manchester, Jaime does a 51 P and if it’s owt like his 58 I have, it will be sensational

it was the one Sting used in his 57 only his is wired in parallel. I wire it in series.

It says, 'Stinger' on the bottom

 

[kodiakblair]

9 minutes ago, police squad said:

it was the one Sting used in his 57 only his is wired in parallel. I wire it in series.

It says, 'Stinger' on the bottom

 

How did you get it ?

Seymour Duncan won't sell direct to the EU and their "International Dealers" link is a blank page.

 

BTW my Bloodstone 29.9k version is in series too, never saw the point of a split single going parallel.

[Cuzzie]

Mines this

http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/51-p-bass-stack/

Possibly not the same, doesn’t say Stinger anywhere on it

 

[police squad]

22 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

How did you get it ?

Seymour Duncan won't sell direct to the EU and their "International Dealers" link is a blank page.

 

BTW my Bloodstone 29.9k version is in series too, never saw the point of a split single going parallel.

I got it 7 years ago. Maybe they dont bring it in anymore, I dont know. But it was a custom shop job, and quite expensive IIRC

[police squad]

21 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

Mines this

http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/51-p-bass-stack/

Possibly not the same, doesn’t say Stinger anywhere on it

 

it's probably the same. I got mine 7 years ago, it went in my Bravewood Sting replica. I wanted it to be as authentic to Sting's bass as possible

[kodiakblair]

39 minutes ago, police squad said:

I got it 7 years ago. Maybe they dont bring it in anymore, I dont know. But it was a custom shop job, and quite expensive IIRC

There's some guff about "radiation/wiring regs" but I think the real reason is SD's No Returns policy doesn't hold water in the EU 😀

 

Once I saw the price then estimated postage,allowed for VAT,import tax and lousy exchange rates it was a relief to spot the no EU sales 😄

[police squad]

2 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

There's some guff about "radiation/wiring regs" but I think the real reason is SD's No Returns policy doesn't hold water in the EU 😀

 

Once I saw the price then estimated postage,allowed for VAT,import tax and lousy exchange rates it was a relief to spot the no EU sales 😄

to be honest, what you have probably sounds the same (if it's made the same)

[Jonesy]

On 27/05/2020 at 23:05, kodiakblair said:

I've tried plenty of 51 single coils.

The Seymour Duncan Antiquity was a nice pickup though quite low output. The Duncan 1/4 lb'er,£80 odd and wave goodbye to your mids .No thanks 😁

Herricks split single and single. Good looking pickups, fairly strong output,nice even response across the strings.

Jess Loureiro's split single is the same,have that fella in my duck egg P-bass.

 

The old Wilkinson single was a bloody great pickup,think Duncan Antiquity only a wee bit louder. The Roswell, now in the Harley Benton PB-50. Looks weird having 1/4" poles like the Duncan 1/4 lb'er. Lower wire count so it's basically a Duncan 1/4 lb'er only you still have mids 👍

 

The £8 Chinese alnico 5 ? Another louder Antiquity 😄 A real eye opener that had me question single coils with £80 price tags 🤣 The folks making these don't have advertising costs NAMM booths to pay for which might explain the difference .

 

Current favourite is Bloodstone Guitarworks. The 51 staggered pole impressed me so when I fancied a change I had a word with Dave . The change was another split single only this time overwound. Overwound to 29.9k ohm to be exact 😱 An out of the ordinary request and a bit of a challenge. Lucky me, Dave likes a challenge 😁

A completely custom pickup delivered in 4 days. Won't say the price but it was a lot less than anything coming from the USA 😎

Here's the monster next to it's wee cousin 🙂

 

 

 

I'm in a similar boat and just tinkering with a HB i bought years ago, I was thinking about playing around with different pups, but your perfect response may have just saved me some dosh! I really like the Wilkinson pup already in it and was wondering if there was anything more aggressive sounding out there? 

Have you played around with changing anything else in the electronics? 

[kodiakblair]

3 hours ago, Jonesy said:

I really like the Wilkinson pup already in it and was wondering if there was anything more aggressive sounding out there? 

I stuck a Peavey SF in one, being ceramic it was a bit brighter and louder.

That wasn't a planned change,dropped a chisel and the wider SF footprint hid the scar 🤣

 

There's not much to the electrics, 2 pots and a cap. 1 has a 0.1uf cap but that's the opposite of what you're looking for 🙂

Try swapping the 250K tone pot for a 500k, should add some bite 👍

[Jonesy]

2 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

I stuck a Peavey SF in one, being ceramic it was a bit brighter and louder.

That wasn't a planned change,dropped a chisel and the wider SF footprint hid the scar 🤣

 

There's not much to the electrics, 2 pots and a cap. 1 has a 0.1uf cap but that's the opposite of what you're looking for 🙂

Try swapping the 250K tone pot for a 500k, should add some bite 👍

Hahaha, at least it turned out to be a happy accident! Not sure I'm brave enough to dig into the body of this, but I do have a pj body that I'm thinking of putting a MM pup in as the next project.... 

I do like ceramic pups though, do you know if anyone makes a '51 sized one? 

Ta for the advice on the tone pots, I'll give it a go! 

[kodiakblair]

6 minutes ago, Jonesy said:

I do like ceramic pups though, do you know if anyone makes a '51 sized one? 

I've seen a couple use guitar rail pickups, they hid the rails with  gold covers. Looked bloody awful 🤣

 

Best bet is ask one of the UK lads to build you one. It's much cheaper than you'd think.

[Jonesy]

On 29/05/2020 at 22:43, kodiakblair said:

I've seen a couple use guitar rail pickups, they hid the rails with  gold covers. Looked bloody awful 🤣

 

Best bet is ask one of the UK lads to build you one. It's much cheaper than you'd think.

Brill, I'll start with Bloodstone & Herrick as they've had some good mentions, but if you have any others you recommend i'm all ears 😃

[kodiakblair]

Been a few developments in the last 4 and half years.

 

My monster Bloodstone is still around, had it in a custom build from last Summer. Few months later I swapped in the Herrick multi coil, nice enough but as always no drastic change.

Both now reside in the parts box, replaced by the one below right.

 

  

 

Stumbled across them on eBay/Ali-Ex while hunting for a Musicmaster pickup.

 

Staggered pole came from eBay, seller (7th Songs) gives you various options for poles and string wrap. Cost £18 and is a very nicely built 'vintage' single coil, fibre flatwork/cloth push up wire/Alnico 5 magnets/ wax potted/ 6.8k ohm DCR and comes with foam pad, springs/tubing and both wood/machine screws. Raised pole for A threw string balance out, likely fixable by adjusting string height but the 2 saddle bridges I favour are limited in that respect.

 

Flat pole model came from Ali-Ex (Shenzhen Finger Musical Instruments). Though I can't say for certain it and the staggered pole came from the same factory I'd take that bet, they're identical in every respect bar the poles 🙂 This one cost an astounding £10 inc VAT and shipping .

 

[BassBiscuit]

I have a 'Nordstrand 51P' in my D5...

I like it...

[JJMotown]

1 hour ago, BassBiscuit said:

I have a 'Nordstrand 51P' in my D5...

I like it...

What difference is there between the nord and the stock pup?