Hi,
I bought a MIM P bass a few months ago and am very happy with it. It's the first fender bass i've owned, and even though I wasn't keen on a P bass for some reason or another, it just felt 'right' when i held it and played it.
Anyway, as good as it is in rehersal (where i play about half my gigging volume) it loses a bit of it's punch at gigs. At rehersal, it thumps and punches along and really cuts through tonally as well, and once I lock in with the drummer it really drives the whole band.
At gigs though, it doesn't quite have the same effect. It's not a volume issue, there's more than enough of that, it just seems to lose that bass 'punch', the almost rhythmic pound that drives along. And if I throw in a quick fill here and there, say on the G string for instance, it's even worse- the whole bass just drops away. You can hear the notes easily, it's not a volume issue, (I spent ages setting the pick up height and the strings seem to be of equal volume, and it's never been a problem at rehersal) it's just the rhythmic punch just drops away as soon as I hit the G string. I don't want to sacrifice the drive of the band for the sake of a quick bass riff, but it would be nice to have both.
I want the bass to have that punch even at gig volume, and to keep that punch whenever I venture forward with a fill!
The bass is bog-standard at the moment, although I have ordered a new wiring harness (how much difference it will have I don't know) but what I'm thinking, obviously, is pick up and bridge options.
The gotoh 201 bridge seems a good bet for the bridge option. Having the top-loading strings is obviously costing me a bit of thump at higher volumes, and a higher mass bridge should help me out a bit.
Pick ups is where i'm confused. I had thought about Quarter Pounders, but to be honest I never really got a clear description of what they would do to my sound, just vague descriptions like 'it'll make your P bass sound like a musicman' , but having heard they were a good all-rounder, and an improved version of the MIM pick up, i was leaning that way.
Wizard pickups seem to have a lot of love on this forum though, and obviously the one that caught my eye was the 'Thumper'!
As well as having that percussive thump, I also like clarity in the bottom end, being able to hear the notes I'm playing as much as I feel them. At rehersal my standard P bass pick up is [i]almost[/i] there, it loses it a touch on the G string, but nearly there. At gigs it's nowhere near enough. I like the tone of it though. You can always hear what I'm playing, as it cuts through the mix well, unlike some 'wooly' basses i have played in the past.
Can anyone throw some suggestions my way?