ead Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 (edited) If we had two identical basses, but one had a '51 P bass type single coil pickup fitted and the other a single coil J bass type pickup fitted (in exactly the same location) how would the differ between the two basses? Edited May 31, 2019 by ead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 They could be built/wound completely differently. That would create a different sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 The J pickup would be noisy, for a start. Otherwise I’m not sure there would be a great deal of difference; after all a split P pickup is basically a J pickup cut in half.... Thats before you start looking at how different pickups of the same type sound, but in principle, similar. For example G&L used a single jail ‘Jazz’ shape pickup in their early P bass types. Being an MFD pickup it was extremely high output so whilst a single coil is noisy, the signal to noise ratio was ok, however it was later split into a humbucking type. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ead Posted May 31, 2019 Author Share Posted May 31, 2019 Just now, ped said: The J pickup would be noisy, for a start. Otherwise I’m not sure there would be a great deal of difference; after all a split P pickup is basically a J pickup cut in half.... OK, was the '51 style pickup a split coil too as I thought they were single coils and that the noise issue was one of the motivations for the introduction of the split coil humbucking P type pickup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 Ah sorry I missed that detail. Someone PM sting! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 The 51 pup will have a fatter, warmer sound. The jazz pup despite position will still retain some of its honky characteristics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbayne Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 The 51 had a high output. A hard pluck would create such a spike it would damage speakers. They tamed it with the J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 13 minutes ago, Hobbayne said: The 51 had a high output. A hard pluck would create such a spike it would damage speakers. They tamed it with the J 51 single coil has a high output? That's a first for me, they are generally low output, between 6-8k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbayne Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 (edited) 25 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said: 51 single coil has a high output? That's a first for me, they are generally low output, between 6-8k. I,m sure I read that somewhere. Thats why they changed the design in 1957 to the split type. No. You are right. This is what I was thinking of in my post above. Edited May 31, 2019 by Hobbayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 On 31/05/2019 at 11:34, hooky_lowdown said: 51 single coil has a high output? That's a first for me, they are generally low output, between 6-8k. I'm not sure the DC resistance of a pickup is a solid indication of its output. For example, a Stingray pickup is typically around 2 ohm (wired in parallel). It's not exactly a low output pickup (I'm talking passive, no preamp). It can be wired in series, at around 8 ohm then, which gives you a punchier sound with stronger low mids, and it is louder, but not THAT much louder. My old '51 style Precision was pretty high output. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 23 minutes ago, mcnach said: I'm not sure the DC resistance of a pickup is a solid indication of its output. For example, a Stingray pickup is typically around 2 ohm (wired in parallel). It's not exactly a low output pickup (I'm talking passive, no preamp). It can be wired in series, at around 8 ohm then, which gives you a punchier sound with stronger low mids, and it is louder, but not THAT much louder. My old '51 style Precision was pretty high output. What specific pup did you have in your 51 style? An original 51-57 pup is not high output, and not that loud, especially in combination with the 0.1 cap. It would not spike a speaker as suggested due to its lack of highs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 8 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said: What specific pup did you have in your 51 style? An original 51-57 pup is not high output, and not that loud, especially in combination with the 0.1 cap. It would not spike a speaker as suggested due to its lack of highs. It was not an original '51 (I wish ) It was the Squier CV series one. Output-wise was comparable to... pretty much every other bass I own, on the high side but not by much. Not sure how close it is to the original types, to be fair. The DC resistance, 'though, is not a measurement of output. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 1 hour ago, mcnach said: It was not an original '51 (I wish ) It was the Squier CV series one. Output-wise was comparable to... pretty much every other bass I own, on the high side but not by much. Not sure how close it is to the original types, to be fair. The DC resistance, 'though, is not a measurement of output. Interesting you say output is comparable, as many people say the output of the Squier 50s CV p bass is weak, and upgrade to get more output and more lows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 16 hours ago, hooky_lowdown said: Interesting you say output is comparable, as many people say the output of the Squier 50s CV p bass is weak, and upgrade to get more output and more lows. Well, it is what it is. That thing was not weak at all. I think when we say "many people" we're actually talking about two guys in a forum posting a few times At the time I was in a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band and for fun I used it a couple of times with the band. That bass also has a pretty cool slap sound. I miss it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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