shoulderpet

Good p bass comparison video below, some of them are p/j basses and not sure if he used both pickups but still an interesting comparison and a surprising variation in tone between the basses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACVRdQZtP20

This is a strong contender

Machine gun bass

I would go for the Squier, im sure the Greco is probably nice but I have a Hofner that is not being used as I brought it, fell in love with the tone and then realised after getting back into gigging that I am P bass, overdrive and rounds kind of person, I can get the Hofner to sound aggressive with some extensive eqing but on the P all it takes is the right set of strings and I can get either aggressive or thumpy and everything inbetween, also the string spacing on the Hofner style basses tends to be very tight which can make it difficult to switch between basses.

1 hour ago, gypsyjazzer said:

Would the short scale have perhaps a more 'fatter / rounded' tone?

Yes precisely that -all other things being equal, slightly less treble and upper mids although this can be countered with string choice, as @hooky_lowdown mentioned type of strings will have the biggest impact.

This from an article on short vs long scale basses explains it well:

each note played on bass (or any instrument, for that matter) includes a series of harmonics that are predictable ratios of that note. The volumes of these harmonics give an instrument its unique tone, or timbre. When the string length changes, the character of those harmonics (and their volumes) change. 

This is easily demonstrated on any stringed instrument. For instance, play an E on the 12th fret of the low E string. Then, play the same note on the 7th fret of the A string. While the pitches are the same, the timbre is different. The E played on the 12th fret of the low E string is darker than the E played on the A string, which is due to the shorter length of string resonating in that position. So, because of their reduced scale length, short-scale basses are inherently darker and, arguably, richer in tone than long-scale basses.

Quote

Solid body v semi-hollow body make a difference?

 

Yes semi hollow will be warmer and woodier sounding 

I agree with what has been said so far, cant hear anything bad about either of them, 1st bass is stronger in the mids 2nd sounds scooped, both sound fine to me , which bass is it you don't like the sound of?

Thanks, those look just the ticket, Newtone sounds like a good idea

Hi

Have a couple bits for sale,

Big Muff Pi, a few scratches but works fine £30 shipped, big fat sound to this pedal

thanks, i will give them a try

On 03/03/2020 at 17:44, 6feet7 said:

I've only played it at home but it's so far absolutely wonderful. Got the Rickenbacker sound but it can also do 'normal' bass sounds too. I normally only play lightweight basses (I've got two Maruszczyk Jakes - both around the 7lbs/3.15kg weight - one if for sale at the moment to pay for this if anyone is interested) so would normally avoid anything even remotely heavier (this is 9lbs/4kg) but it feels as light as the Jakes (this is the walnut version. I understand the standard ones are a little heavier). 

When I first saw pictures of this I was disappointed that both the iconic bridge shape had gone as well as the chrome pickup surrounds etc (and the triangular shaped new pickups), but in the flesh it's still a Rickenbacker (but very well made

You've got a much better bridge there than the old Rick bridge

Hi all

After some string recommendations, am playing a short scale p bass and with lockdown meaning extra hours practising bass and my hands being more sensitive than most to string tension and a bit too much playing Rio the 105-45 set of strings (warwick longscale nickel strings cut down) I am using have started make my hands ache a bit, I am thinking of going 95-40 or so and interested to know what people have used that is good, I am not completely averse to stainless but for some reason nickels seem to sound better on this bass, I prefer a brighter, gnarlier kind of tone , thanks

1 hour ago, Kev said:

Yeah, best sticking to couriers, which largely seem to be running fine, which is interesting.

My last royal mail parcel took 1 month to get to me, first class. Last Hermes, next day...

Yeah I learnt this recently, placed an order and took 5 days to get to me which doesnt seem like long but not being able to go out to buy these things in person it seems like forever, next time I ordered I spent a couple quid more and got a courier delivery which showed up within a couple days

18 minutes ago, danbowskill said:

Me too. Didn't care for it at all, and the spb-2.... Just louder mud

The SPB-2 I hated, mids, mids and more mids but it might have been that I was using flats at the time so what ever highs there were just got obliterated by the pickup, that being said the mids that were there were the wrong kind of mids, not the growly bitey kind of mids but more the 200-300hz ish region that most people try and avoid boosting

45 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Nice observations, I’m similar re the SD SPB-1, I just couldn’t get any definition from it at all, sounded to me like the tone control was fully off. Yuck.

Glad its not just me, it was vintage sounding in the worst possible way and although they claim it is modelled after vintage Fender ive never played any Fender that sounded like that, would be great if I played dub reggae though

Anyhow I'm sticking with the Kent Armstrong pickup so if anyone wants the Wilkinson pickups I will be selling them, they are decent pickups but I am satisfied with the KA pickup

14 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said:

That's a lot of pickups in a little amount of time. I am not a fan of Seymour Duncan pickups, I've tried most models and they all sound fairly characterless to me. Another cheap brand I like which rival Wilkinson and Tonerider are Roswell. I think all three brands are made in Korea.

Glad you like the KA's. 👍

Yeah, the only Seymour Duncans I got on with with the Quarter pounders, the SPB-1 was all boom,  no mids and the treble seemed kind of timid so basically they just sounded boomy and dark, very polite sounding too, no growl , I tried the SPB-2 a few years back and couldn't get rid of it quick enough, was like the mids were on full regardless of eq, also very smooth sounding, not cool growly mids and they seemed to wash out the low end, that being said when I tried them it was with flats so that may have been the issue, i would like to try them again to see if that was the issue but at £80 a set I dont really want to take the chance

3 minutes ago, Bleat said:

I put a Tesla pickup in a P-Bass with maple board using the original 500k pots. It definitely produced the brightest and most aggressive tone I've got out a P-bass. 🎸

Interesting, that is a name that doesnt come up that often

Ok, I have them fitted, on opening the package I was pleased to see a nice attractive cardboard KA branded box, makes a nice change from the cheap looking plastic boxes that some pickups are packaged in, the wires are cloth covered and waxed which makes fitting them a little easier, one gripe though is that the wire connecting the two pickup halves is way longer than it needs to be, the space under the control plate on my Jaguar bass seems to be quite cramped partly because the person who soldered the SPB-1 eons ago seems to have left the wires coming off the pots a bit on the long side, I am using the twisting the wires together and covering with electrical tape method of wiring up the pickups so I am not about to mess with what is already soldered.

On fitting them I noticed that they seem to use the same colour coding as the Wilkinsons , I wonder if they are made for KA by the same company that makes Wilkinson pickups.  Once wired up they sounded good, I was surprised that they were not as bright as I had heard, I would say they are probably similarly bright as the Wilkinson pickup but to be fair I have heard a couple of accounts of people being surprised at the Wilkinsons being fairly bright , also worth noting is that my bass amp is at my drummers place at the moment so my impressions are based on the tone through the (admittedly fairly crappy sounding) Amplug and my impression hearing it through a proper bass amp would likely be different. 

One thing for sure is this is definitely louder than the Wilkinson pickup, whereas the Wilkinson sounded low-ish output and sounded like it lost a lot with the Quarter pounder J pickup rolled off this sounds like the Quarter pounder J pickup is adding a little extra sizzle rather than dominating the tone, this pickup is not as loud as the Entwistle though and that pickup made the Quarter pounder J sound like a vintage output pickup.

So all in all the KA adds a little extra muscle to the tone compared to the Wilkinson but its kind of like comparing different photographers taking a photo of the same thing at the same time, one of the photos may jump out more aggressively , one may be more muted but they are basically different flavours of the same thing.

Another thing learnt is that there are some surprising gems to be found and also that cost is not necessarily any kind of indicator of quality when it comes to pickups, out of the pickups I have tried during this mass swap-out (Duncan SPB-1, Entwistle PBXN, Wilkinson Alnico and Ceramic, KA Hot Ceramic) the only one that I actually disliked the tone of was the Seymour Duncan SPB-1, the cheaper pickups were surprisingly good even the cheapest Wilkinson ceramic was at least fairly good and the other pickups all compare favourably to pickups from the more expensive brands. 

On 13/08/2019 at 15:11, dave_bass5 said:

Clip on tuners as well. Got a few of those, and love the TC Electronic ones, but even the £10 Snark tuners have been great for gigs etc.

Got the Boss TU-01 clip on tuner and it is the best tuner clip on or not that I have had, much better than there stomp box tuner 

Ok, curiousity finally got the better of me, the Wilkinson pickup sounds good however the bass tone I tend to go for is about as subtle as using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut so I figured something more aggressive was probably in order, having had a look at the available options I have gone for a Kent Armstrong Hot P Ceramic pickup, I recall reading some positive feedback on this pickup from @Paul S and it looks like the pickup is geared towards the bright and growly end of the spectrum so I though I would give it a try

16 hours ago, Williams4S said:

Just before we were sent into our houses for the foreseeable (big shoutout to those key workers who are out making the world go round), I bought myself a Squier Classic Vibe 70s Precision bass. I had sold a Squier Chris Aiken bass last year that I had modified with EMG GZR pickups and really regretted it, so it was time for another.

I wanted a P bass that I could leave in the back of a van or not worry so much if it gets knocked or, to a lesser degree, nicked. I've got some great basses but it's hard to relax when you've got a couple of grand on a stage in a dodgy venue! I needed a 'cheap' bass. So here she is...

£339 from A Strings in South Wales. They had two in stock, this and a brown one. The brown one looked cooler on the Internet but the black looked better in real life and this one played better. 

 

I also wanted a bit of a project - I enjoy taking guitars apart and wanted my new bass to be different to everyone else's. So I decided to set myself a bit of a challenge, Top Gear style (but without the laughs and million pound budgets). A cheap bass challenge it was then.

I gave myself the challenge of spending 10% of what I paid for the bass on each upgrade - maximum of £34 per modification. I'd been looking at P bass pickups and the prices you can pay are crazy - you can easily spend 50% of what I paid for this bass on fancy pickups alone, so I thought I'd try a few budget conscious options out. 

 

First to go was the bridge. The bass played very well to begin with, but I've always had a problem with the thin, bent metal bridge that Fender supplies on its poverty instruments. I find they wobble a bit in the saddles and don't feel secure. So I ordered a Fender High Mass bridge from here -> https://mickleburgh.co.uk/shop/fender-jazz-bass-p-bass-brass-bridge-assembly/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItePq_P7q6AIVQbTtCh08ZgWEEAQYAyABEgISgPD_BwE for £34. 

 

I wanted to see if the age old forum rumour was true - does a bridge increase sustain and improve tone? To find out, I recorded myself before changing the bridge and after. (Soundcloud link at the end, and no it doesn't!)

The new bridge made the bass feel a lot tighter, and better screwed together, weirdly. It also added some weight to the very light body and helped it sit a bit more nicely on a fabric strap. It's a quality item, with well machined parts and no sharp bits. Intonation was easy to sort and it required very little saddle adjustment to get the bass playing nicely again. I'd recommend Fender's Hi Mass bridge. In terms of sound, I didn't hear any difference. See for yourself in the Soundcloud link below. The notes don't sustain for years like people say and the tone of the bass remained the same. I never understood why someone would want a bass that sustained for ages, I've certainly never found any use for 2 minute long sustained notes... yet. 

Happy with the bridge, I decided to try some new pickups. The pickups that came with the bass were a pleasant surprise - they had character and a nice output. The tone control was useful and helped tame some top end but it could also let the bass 'bite' when you wanted it to. I decided to change them just because I had some free time and I was curious. 

 

I had acquired a set of Seymour Duncan SDP-1 pickups courtesy of @shoulderpet. They arrived really quickly and I set about carving up my bass to try them out. They needed a little soldering, but I fancied a challenge. Unfortunately, I was only getting sound out of the E and A strings. Upon going through everything with a fine tooth comb (and a magnifying glass), I had realised that in trying to solder a connection from one half of the pickup to the other, I had lost the end of the winding. I had probably lost it when I put some heat on the solder point and it had slipped out of it's hole and gone missing. Bugger. I shelved those for now and I ordered a set of Entwistle PBXN pickups to see what the fuss was about.

Whilst I was waiting for them to arrive, I decided to shield the insides as per @la bam's awesome thread on his John Deacon bass. I had noticed a bit of noise when I wasn't touching the strings previously so thought why not. I got some aluminium tape and went to work on the gizzards. It's a surprisingly therapeutic thing, putting foil tape in the pickup cavity, but my attempt did look a bit like a 5 year old had finished it off. I put some on the back of the pick guard and we were done. This was the tape I used, a whole £4.09 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fixman-190288-Silver-Aluminium-Adhesive/dp/B00FHXA7TE/ref=pd_nav_hcs_rp_2/258-0320931-5931511?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00FHXA7TE&pd_rd_r=abbd6043-4e0b-4aae-9843-e48fde7dfe81&pd_rd_w=LHmq1&pd_rd_wg=TIXYi&pf_rd_p=12e82a50-703f-4e6f-ae56-e22f8e18f1f0&pf_rd_r=M0X9MJ3HJM004AQ0HFH7&psc=1&refRID=M0X9MJ3HJM004AQ0HFH7

The new pickups arrived from Pickupsplusmore on eBay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Entwistle-PBXN-pickup-for-bass-guitar-neodymium-designed-by-Alan-Entwistle/233364897542?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649). First thing's first, these pickups are DEEP. The screws that go through the pickup go pretty much the entire height of the pickup again underneath. I had to cut the foam that kept the original pickups secure in half and put them either side of the screws that hang down. After a quick test with a tap from a screwdriver and happy that they worked, I tried to refit the pick guard, but as is well documented on here, the 'ears' of the Entwistle pickup cover are bigger than the originals.   

IMG_3912.HEIC 900.9 kB · 1 download

Luckily, I had the Seymour Duncan pickups here which I salvaged the pickup covers from. Popped the Entwistle ones off, put these on, and the pick guard fit. Voila. 

I'm not a badge snob by any means (in fact I'm a bit gutted not to be representing a British guitar legend), but the Seymour Duncan covers look cool and the Entwistle pickups are superb. Using neodymium magnets obviously gives these pickups an increased output, but they can sound aggressive and menacing or they can chill out but keep a fat, smooth sound. There's more of everything - every frequency seems to have been turned up by 4 or 5 notches. Playing with these pickups reminds me of the first time I plugged my old MiM Jazz into my friends Fender Bassman 135; it made my bass sound higher in quality compared to playing through the shitboxes I usually went through. There were deep, rich overtones and each note left my bass beautifully. I feel like that is what these pickups have done to this bass. I'd be impressed if they were £130, but they aren't. They're barely £30. Honestly, a brilliant buy. 

 

I recorded this bass throughout the (admittedly limited!) mods. I've uploaded them to Soundcloud with a fingerstyle, a slap line and a picked blues tune to give a bit of a range. The fingerstyle pieces were played with the tone at 50% but the rest had the tone fully open. There is no compression, no touching up (oh matron...) or do-overs, or even a backing sound. Just the raw sound of the bass with all of my mistakes after each mod. 

 So in all, this bass has cost me:

£339 - bass

£34 - Fender Hi Mass Bridge

£29.49 - Entwistle PBXN

£10 - Seymour Duncans (that I ruined, sorry!)

£4.09 - Aluminium Tape

Total = £416.58

I'm really pleased with everything, and all upgrades cost no more than 10% of the bass. I've spent around 23% of the bass' new value modifying it. God, lockdown is fun, isn't it?  

Hope you manage to get the SPB-1 sorted, the Entwistle is a fine pickup though I had to take mine  out as due to the size of the pickup I could not get it low enough, I also have the Fender Hi Mass bridge, I fitted it to my Squier Jaguar and on that bass it seemed to brighten up the tone a little but as your bass has a maple fretboard it is probably accoustically a lot brighter than my Squier so that would explain why it made no difference

8 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

Yup, I am a DiMarzio Split P Fanboi.  I find they have a wider more powerful response. They are effectively two humbucking pickups and consequently provide much higher gain but are easily controlled. Great sound. Very versatile can emulate from Fender CS 60s to 70s and right through to modern hi fi. 

Cool, what is their inherent tone like, I have seen them described as dark but the way that Dimarzio describe them makes them sound very modern, kind of brings to mid the Bartolini MK-1 pickups in the Ibanez SR range, I had an Ibanez with those pickups in and they had that kind of dark sounding but modern and smooth characteristic to them

Its an ugly headstock but the rest of the bass looks so nice that I could overlook the ugly headstock

Ok so I may be keeping the pickup in for a while at least for a bit longer, not being able to play music with bandmates due to the covid thing I was playing along to some music and the Wilkinson alnico pickup just has this gorgeous punch and fatness in the low mids,very Mike Mills from REM kind of P bass sound. I think going with some more aggressive pickups may sacrifice some of this quality so im going to give it some thoughy first.  Anyone who is considering P pickups the Alnico Wilkinson WPB pickup is well worth consideration, don't be fooled by the price it is a decent pickup.

Juse purely out of curiousity has anyone played the Dimarzio split P pick (the rails one not the model P) ? Wondering what that pickup sounds like, always thought it was meant to be quite a smooth deep sounding pickup then I heard the bassist from Maxx Explosion using one and defintely doesnt sound that way but who knows what processing his bass goes through on the way to the amp

3 hours ago, hooky_lowdown said:

I'd say the Wilkinson Alnico pickup you have wired direct to the jack, with Markley Blue Steel strings as @kodiakblair says, run through a sansamp with the high mids boosted will get you the Bello sound.

Wiring the pickup direct to jack will increase the output and increase the high end. Playing with a heavy (1mm) pick will also help achieve the sound. 😁

Thanks, can I wire both pickups direct to jack? Also I take it I would have to move the groud wire to run from the jack ?