Any decent bright vintage P pickups around?

[thewalruswaspaul]

Ok so I swapped out the pickup in a Mia P bass for an SPB-3 and ended up accidentally cooking the original pickup with the soldering iron and sadly the SPB-3 is not doing it for me, it seems to have less highs than the original pickup.

 

Anyway I am after a P bass pickup with a vintage-ish voice and plenty of brightness, I love the brightness of new strings and so change my strings once a month and after something that will bring out that brightness

 

Boutique pickups like Fralins are out of the picture as I cannot afford to spend a fortune on pickups so looking at £90 top whack.  The pickups I am considering so far are Fender original p bass pickup, Wilkinson wpb pickup, Warman p bass pickup and Kent Armstrong hot p pickup.

The Kent Armstrong is said to be bright but does it sound vintage? Will the Wilkinson be bright enough?

 

Any suggestions welcome, thanks

[Geek99]

EBay “blues tribute” is what I use 

@Stub Mandreltried it as did @petecarlton

Edited November 28, 2021 by Geek99

[Lozz196]

Herrick 58 sounds like it would fit the bill:

 

https://www.herrickpickups.com/products/split-p-58-humbucker/

 

 

[The fasting showman]

Might seem a crazy suggestion but a few years back I had, for a while, 2 basses with identical P bass pickups (a 2008 USA P bass and an old wreck of a rerouted Tele bass I still have that I bought a stock US P bass pickup for) yet the Volume pots were respectively 1Meg in the Tele bass, 250 k in the stock Fender. I won't open the maple / Rosewood board can of worms but all I'll say is they sounded electronically very different, the 1 Meg pot bass had a much more open sound that I was able to darken if needed, the 250k pot bass seemed under a blanket somewhat.

 

Hope this helps, I'm not an authority on the P bass sound but it's what I experienced anyway. Maybe the pot change might get you what you want without changing pickups. I've never got on with the SPB3 either, I preferred the SPB1.

 

 

Martin

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by The fasting showman
Hadn't made myself clear!

[Boodang]

As always from me, a shout out for Creamery pickups. I got the solo P which is designed to cut through a band mix but if you have something special in mind he'll do a custom. And very reasonable prices. 

[Thunderbird]

Kent armstrong hot vintage pick up that is all 😀

[ezbass]

Nordy NP4 or NP4A for a more scooped eq? I’m currently thinking of buying a nice playing Squier CV P and upgrading the crap out of it, so I’m on YT comparing pickups - a lot. Current winner is the DiMarzio DP122, which turns out to be ceramic, to my surprise.

[Dan Dare]

Perhaps "bright" and "vintage" don't really inhabit the same universe.

[thewalruswaspaul]

15 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

Perhaps "bright" and "vintage" don't really inhabit the same universe.

I'm not sure about this, people tend to think of vintage tone as being dark but I think this is mostly due to the flatwounds and limitations of these eras, most vintage pickups are wound fairly lightly which would suggest a brighter frequency response, not many vintage pickups had a heavy wind

Edited December 5, 2021 by thewalruswaspaul

[bloke_zero]

On 29/11/2021 at 18:17, The fasting showman said:

the 1 Meg pot bass had a much more open sound that I was able to darken if needed, the 250k pot bass seemed under a blanket somewhat.

This is totally a thing - pots with higher values allow more of the top end to pass through - could be a way forward, though you are then breaking the holy P trinity of alnico 5, .1uf cap and 250K pots.

 

Maybe try a 500K? In the end it's about what you want to hear.

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited March 16, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[thewalruswaspaul]

On 08/12/2021 at 10:19, Jus Lukin said:

I agree with the Kent Armstrong Hot Vintage, too!

A classic voice with plenty of clarity- the ceramic also has a great P sound but with an even more open top end.

Cool, sounds like the Ceramic might be the one