Springywheel Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 (edited) The stock pickup on my classic vibe p bass is nice but I was wondering if anyone can recommend a different single coil that has a bit more bite in the upper mids and that that growls nice, not unlike the Geezer pup, but in single coil format? The stock one sounds a bit mellow to my ears, even after adjusting distance from the strings, and also picking near the bridge. I'd like to be able to play with fingers near the neck and still have it cut through. I use my bass for anything from Sabbath to ambient music ha... So not looking for anything too hot. 'Vintage Hot' I'd say. Edited February 7 by Springywheel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 (edited) Bloodstone? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166394234237 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164244335726 Edited February 7 by PaulThePlug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springywheel Posted February 7 Author Share Posted February 7 (edited) 2 hours ago, PaulThePlug said: Bloodstone? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166394234237 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164244335726 Thanks for the suggestion. Have you tried it? Does it growl? 🐺 Edited February 8 by Springywheel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 No... but look intriguing especially for the £... plus options they offer. The noise cancel may be a winner in a studio or of ya like things brighter I'd contact em direct and see whats what. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor J Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Rattling off lists of pickups without being able to hear them is fairly pointless. When I was building a single coil P, I went through loads of videos and sound samples to try to find something which matched the sound I was chasing. An old P pickup is never going to sound just like the split P for a multitude of reasons, but there's still a lot of variety out there and a lot of different sounds to choose from, more than you'd think. I thought, in theory, I would prefer a double coil wired in series as I was after a healthy mid bite but, to my ears, a proper single coil was closest to the sound I was actually chasing. Leave the tone open and it's bright and aggressive, roll it off and it fattens up nicely. Anyway, here's what a Seymour Duncan SCPB-1 sounds like with D'Addario Chromes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 I had a '54 slab P with a single coil. It arrived with a Roswell pickup, which I considered to be quite nice in a low key, vintage kind of way. I wanted more bite, a bit more oomph, and swapped it for the Retrovibe 9.2K Route '51 and it was the exact sound I wanted. With the tone fully open it was dark and angry but easily tamed. They aren't megabucks, either, at £35. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kodiakblair Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 21 hours ago, Springywheel said: The stock pickup on my classic vibe p bass is nice but I was wondering if anyone can recommend a different single coil that has a bit more bite in the upper mids and that that growls nice, not unlike the Geezer pup, but in single coil format? Have you access to a graphic or para EQ gizmo ? That'll get you much closer to what you want than swapping a pickup. Doing a quick count, I've had quite a few 51 single coils, 3 from Duncan, 3 from Herrick, 3 from Bloodstone, 3 from Martin Harmer, Wilkinson, Roswell, no-name from China, Jess Loueiro and a couple of others. Had them in single, split and stacked 51 footprint. Magnets ranged from Alnico 2 & 5, ceramic, neodymium and alnico5/neodymium mix. Wire counts going from 6.7k ohm to 29.9k ohm. Tested in the same bass, none of them have made earth shattering differences from each other. Some are a wee bit louder, split/stacked are a bit polite, big slugs a wee bit slow on attack (bloody hard to describe.); all very subtle and the character of your bass will remain the same. Before plugging in a soldering iron, play around with pickup height, play around with you amp settings and borrow an EQ pedal 👍 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazed Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Excellent info @kodiakblair this could have saved me hundreds….. why do we never learn that pickup changes will only ever be a subtle change. It’s rare I’ve swapped pickups alone and noticed a massive difference unless the original was faulty/noisy. Tone wise it’s always slight. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kodiakblair Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 1 hour ago, Dazed said: Excellent info @kodiakblair this could have saved me hundreds Could have saved myself hundreds but I'm a victim of "shiny/new" 😀 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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