fretmeister

I stuck a J pickup in my Lionel so the P pickup is the Fender way round. Just with a 3 way switch. I pretty much never use the bridge pickup alone on it, but the P+J is very useful.

The PJ lionels and the full scale ones do have the P pickup the other way round. They do sound a little different. It makes a lot of sense - tighten up the EA and give a bit more bass on the DG. Leo had a habit of doing things the strange way round - the strat and tele bridge pickups are really angled the wrong way too. My strat has the bridge pickup the Hendrix way round and it's a slightly different sound - more twang on the lows and more fullness on the highs.. Probably don't notice it when the drums kick in though!

That's a great colour too - would look ace under stage lights!

Pickup coil width is a fascination to me! (I know, I know: get a life!). I'd like a shortie stingray, but with a pickup that is smaller so all the relative dimensions are the same. I'd love to find out if I can hear a difference. With the usual pickup on a shortie the pickup is sensing a higher percentage of the string than on a 34 scale. Aguilar and Nordy do thin Bart sized soapbars with separate lines of polepieces, although they are doubles and not the 1 large pole as on a 'ray pickup. Maybe one day I'll get someone to make one... and then discover I can't hear the difference and I've wasted £500 on a custom pickup!

Congrats on the new bass BTW - it's a lovely colour!

Mine is passive. I swapped the pickup for an Aguilar AG-4P for more vintage tones. I've had other basses with the Sandberg 2 band EQ and I've never thought that the detent position was actually flat - more like a little boosted on both knobs. Just back the bass knob off a bit if you need to. It's a P pickup so it's also very easy to balance output by adjusting the pickup height on one side or the other. Makes a big difference. I also think that the "30 inch sound" is a myth. There are sounds for particular 30 inch basses - like a Mustang with it's unique pickup, or the woody thud of a Hofner Beatle bass - but after owning 3 shorties all with P bass pickups in them (a variety of passive and active pickups) - they all sound like a precision and different string choices have just as much impact as on a 34 inch precision too. They sound so much like "proper" precisions that I got rid of my proper ones as the shorties are so easy to play. If there was a 30 inch sound then there would be a 34 inch sound too - and just listening to a P and then a J shows that's not true. If you take out the Lionel's pickup and preamp and put a Mustang pickup and passive loom in it, and a set of La Bella Mustang flats - it will sound very close to a Mustang and not the same as a P bass anymore. IIRC the Mustang pickup is not quite in the same place as on a P so there will be a little difference for that.

I am really liking these. Lovely feel. A touch less tension would be great but I’m sticking with them.

12th fret to the neck side of the pickup on an original stingray is 321mm That’s what I went with. Not quite enough room to have the P pickup as well.

Get stuck in! Get the pickup in the right spot and you’ll be grand.

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Yeah, I think that's fair. It does put me off trying the regular Super Polished as the gauges for those are higher and I definitely don't want more stiffness / tension. I'd describe the feel as either a smoother round or a lumpy flat! I really like the feel. Just wish I could get lighter gauges.

The arrived yesterday and I got them installed on a Sandberg TT4 I usually have TI Flats or D'addario 40-100 rounds on this bass. The La Bella's have much higher tension that either of those. Possibly a bit much for me - I'll have to play more and see. I've done a set up and adjusted the action and so on but it's still a lot more effort for the left hand than my usual choices. I think they feel smoother than the D'addario nickels. Left hand finger noise is a little lower, but interestingly the finger noise is at a very different pitch - much lower - so it doesn't stand out as much anyway. Doesn't feel like a flat to me. When played finger style they sound deep and clear. My Sandberg TT4 is quite a bright / articulate bass with rounds and these tame the top just a little but without losing clarity. When swapping to slap they sound much brighter. So far I like the tone, I like the general feel, but I do wonder if the stiffness will annoy me. They are not La Bella DTF stiff or anything, just more than I usually like. The 103 E string is perfect, but the ADG could do with being a lighter gauge for me. 40-58-78-103 would be about perfect for me as a guess. I have some recording to do in Eflat and D tunings so that will no doubt be easier, and if they survive getting wrapped on a large tuning head post then they might be just right on a shortie until La Bella get round to offering them for 30 scale. There was a little stickiness out of the packet but after a rub down with Fast Fret to clean them that went away in about 10 mins.

The white one is definitely not going anywhere!

You might get a Jim Deacon shortie precision for £150. The construction of them is great but they do really need a few upgrades. I have two of them and put in a good pickup and loom (the stock pots were really on/off without gradient) and as they are neck-divey I put a set of Hipshot ultralite tuners on. So if you can find one of them and some luck with parts in the classifieds and you'd have a great little bass. One has rounds with an EMG P-X pickup and the other has an Aguilar AG-4P pickup and flats. They sound like great P basses. Just 30 inch. Slim nut with some nice chunk front to back and reasonably narrow spacing at the bridge too. Super easy to play. I'll quite often pick them before my Lionel, they are great with the upgrades.