shoulderpet

Oh and the Wilkinson I am using now is the alnico version, I actually brought the ceramic one as well as i figured it was cheap enough to give both a try, the ceramic version is more middy but I wouldn't say it was brighter in terms of treble response, there is less bass and more mids but not in the highest mid frequencies, the ceramic version kind of reminds me of a bridge pickup, I have decided the alnico one is the better pickup, the ceramic one sounds good combined with the bridge pickup in my bass but was lacking on its own. Looking at the ceramic pickup it is clear that more care was put into the alnico version, the alnico has magnetised pole pieces and looks like pretty much any decent after market pickup in terms of construction whilst the ceramic has bar magnets on the back of the pickup, the ceramic also just generally looks cheaper with the pole pieces looking like a cast alloy than a solid metal, the ceramic is also sealed so the covers are part of the pickup. All this being said my Rumble 500 is at my drummers place so I am basing all this on what I am hearing through my Amplug

Just googled it and it is apparently 25mm deep, the one I just took out is massive so this doesn't surprise me

Just googled the V4 damn that's a beautiful looking bass

That's very handy to know, I was thinking about the Steve Harris SPB-4 so it sounds like that is a solid choice, wasn't sure as I hated the Spb1

Anyway just wanted to say that the Wilkinson pickup sounds great, a good well rounded P bass tone, i am not sure yet if I will keep or if my desire for an aggressive tone will win out but for anyone looking for a decent classic sounding P bass pickup with reasonable brightness this is a winner and at around £25 it is a bargain at a fraction of the price of most aftermarket pickups, thing is I would like to keep that classic tone but just add a bit of bite and growl to it, the model p sounds good but I don't know if it will be bright enough. Anyway the possibilities I will be considering are as follows, not in any particular order 1. Model P Duncan Quarter Pounder Duncan SPB-4 Steve Harris P pickup Kent armstrong Hot Vintage - not sure if this will be what im after but i am intrigued Keep the Wilkinson in and swap the J pickup for a Model J or similar

Yeah just seemed strange that the pickups are out of phase with the white wire connected to the white and the black wire connected to the black

Ok have put the Wilkinson pickups in, that was a slightly odd experience, using the twisting the wires to the wires soldered to the pots method I connected white to white wire and black to black wire, pickups sounded fine solo but both on full gave a massive drop in low end, so hearing this and knowing something was obviously wrong I reversed the wires, black to white and white to black and success low end is back , how odd

I dont boil mine but I do something similar, rather than putting a pan on the boil and leaving it to boil I stick them in a tub in some boiling water for about 10 mins (give them 5 mins then put the kettle on again pour out the water and top up with the freshly boiled water and give another 5 mins) seems to brighten them back up and as it doesnt stress the strings as much as putting them in a pan of boiling water on a hob. That being said nothing beats a fresh set of strings, I love that new string sound.

thank you for the offer but I am about to take one out of my bass as the pickup route is not deep enough,thanks anyway

Interesting, I have the Quarter pounder J pickup in a P/J bass and really like what it does for the sound and from what I remember I quite like the Quarter pounder P , in fact it is the only SD P pickup I like, that being said if it were not for the Entwhistles size quirks I would definitely be keeping it

Ok thanks, that is good to know and puts Dimarzios back in the picture for me

Yeah I like the idea of the Model P and the aggressive tone with mid focus but don't they have like 4 sets of wires coming off them? I'm a dead simple kind of person when it comes to pickups and even more simple when it comes to fitting them, I want a black wire and a white wire and a set of screws for the pickup

Thanks for the suggestion, I am proper ham fisted though so not sure I would trust myself doing so. I think I'm gonna go for one of the ceramic Wilkinson pickups for the time being and when I get the cash I will go with a quarter pounder. I wonder if it would be worth getting some neodymium magnets to stick to the underside or on top of the pickup poles?

No worries , you will get first dibs

Ok thanks, as I have spent a lot of time on my setup recently I might just get a set of Wilkinson ceramic P pickups to take me through till I have the cash for some Quarter pounders

Thanks, if the neck angle is being changed slightly will I need to do a truss rod adjsutment afterward?

Thank you, so at the butt end of the neck? How much of the neck pocket should the shim take up? Why only the bridge end and not the full pocket? Sorry for silly questions

Ok, so I have a newly discovered problem with these pickups They sound amazing...but due to the honking great big magnets I cannot get them low enough, when I fret the E string at the last fret the distance from the pickup pole to the bottom of the E string is only 2mm and I dont have particularly low action, is set at around Fender spec , im quite keen on upper register playing so this could be somewhat problematic. What to do? Is there an easy fix I can try before I decide whether to move these on? Assuming I can't sort this issue this leaves Wilkinson WMPB (their ceramic pickup) and Kent Armstrong hot ceramic pickup as possible contenders, anyone have any input on these?

How do you record sound clips, is it as simple as di box into pc mic input?

If it has been setup and still has fret buzz then it probably needs a fret dress which is not uncommon, if you don't want to do this you can of course raise the bridge saddles but obviously this last result in an action higher than your preference

Ok, got the PBXN fitted , sounds good, only one problem Gonna have to either file the pickguard to fit or but some other pickup covers , I love the logos on them so would be a shame to have to swap the covers out, have left the pickguard off for the time being

Thanks, my long term plan is to swap out the 250k volumes for 500k and take out the tone control completely

Thanks, strange that they would recommend that, kind of like how Seymour Duncan recommend 250k pots for the Quarter pounder pickup

Ok ordered the electrical tape just got to wait for it to arrive now. The instructions that come with the pickups recommend a 0.1 MFD Capacitor , any idea what this would do? Im gonna stick with whatever capacitor is currently in my bass but would be good to know

See my post above this one if the Spb-1 interests you