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P/J pros and cons?


Cairobill
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First off, I'm a precision novice but recent sessions using a great 1977 P has me thinking about adding a P style bass to my gear.

I have an awesome jazz neck that I am going to get a body made to match and I'm considering going the P/J route with a precision body.

I'm hoping for a bass that combines the thump of a P with the tonal colour (when needed) of mixing in some bridge pickup.

Anyone know of the pitfalls of such a design or have any recommendations for pickup matching and pickup suggestions to get a good growly, thumpy P tone?

Body wood will be alder and the neck is a maple board. The neck has some heft to it and a good heavy tone to it.

Cheers!

Nick

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Pitfalls... it won't sound like a jazz..... and look for a split J pickup or something that wouldn't hum.
Pickups, nordstrand?
or actually I would try get my hands on whatever overwater/tanglewood put in their passive PJ bass. Amazing sound from them.

Edited by LukeFRC
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J pickup-wise, I`d go for the Seymour Duncan Hot Stack. Hum-cancelling, same pickup Duff McKagan uses. Sounds very Fender-ish indeed, just a bit more of everything, plus no hum.

P Pickup - apparently 70s Precision pickups are meant to sound a little scooped, so if you really liked the 77, see if maybe Wizard Pickups can wind a pickup to resemble this?

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Only cons really are, as mentioned, you need a hum cancelling J to be hum free and you can't get the slightly in-between tones as you would from a jazz setup (neck p'up slightly rolled off or bridge p'up slightly rolled off). I'd go for a switch rather than 2 volumes myself. 2 P pickups interests me, and might blend better than P+J... I rather like James Lomenzo's custom shop Yamaha BB - 2 P pickups and a big old mudbucker at the neck. Sounds gnarly!

Edited by Bigwan
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IMO the Jazz p'up doesn't add enough extra to warrant routing and doing the work to an existing bass. On a scratch built/pre made P/J bass then fair enough!
I have used the SD Hot Stack for Jazz & Qtr pound P bass setup and it sounded great. I'm currently up for a change and the Nordstand set with the split coil jazz seems to be the set to get. Bass Direct sell them too!

I'm another that's curious about the P/P sound in a Fender P bass...

Good luck and let us know what you go for.

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The PJ combo on my Yamaha BB614 is great, and the J pickup is more than capable of keeping up with the P, output wise. I tend to use one or the other - in just about every two pickup bass I've played, using both pickups seems to be the most "polite" sound of all - the characters of the different pickups seem to cancel each other out leaving you with something that sounds like a generic bass sound rather than having any grit or other defining traits. Blend pot? Pah, just give me a switch (which incidentally the passive BB414 has ;) )

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[quote name='Leon Transaxle' timestamp='1330038706' post='1552000']
Like this?

[/quote]

Yeah something like that. I was thinking more along the lines of what Gust0o says though, Double Model P's absolutely kill! I'd love a blacktop jazz if they were made properly and had un varnished maple chunky P-bass necks!

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Have a look on Ebay. You can buy just an Aerodyne body in a really cool Japan only colour and fit your neck to that. Cant think of a better way to do it. It will come from USA but its will be worth it. Aero is the best PJ around IMHO. That is unless you want to spend mucho folding stuff that is. Upgrade the jazz pup later to an SD and you will have a truly superb bass. All best

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I wasn't a fan of the P/J setup - as someone further up mentioned, the J pickup is always gonna cause a bit of hum unless you put in a hum-cancelling pickup. I really love the sound of a single P pickup, or a pair of J pickups... they each have their own thing, but mixing them up didn't really do anything for me.

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The P/J combo is great IMHO. Gives you the best of both worlds and you can get almost like a humbucker sort of sound when blended right. Ad others have said, a him cancelling J is crucial. I'm using Dimarzio Model P/Js in my Yammy, and they are awesome! Huge sound, plenty of definition, and I think they're better than any SDs I've had before. The J is split coil hum cancelling.

Gust0o - I used to have a BB414, but sold it because I always felt the pickups were lacking something. There was just no guts to the sound, it was just a bit hollow somehow. Put an Aguilar OBP2 in it, and whilst it was a big improvement, there was still something missing in the core of the sound. So I sold it..... Great basses to play though!

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I just had a quick look at the prices for the 1024/1024X, and I think I might have had my wires crossed with the higher models - they seemed pretty reasonable!

When you say hollow, what do you mean? I'm guessing just lacking in any depth, but it's hard to describe. I guess the BB414 is the entry model, so might explain if it was a little basic.

How did you find the neck?

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