Favorite Brand P bass Pickup? + other questions

[Brion]

I'm building a P Bass Style bass. Just curious which brand of pickups some of you would recommend. I've checked out the Lollars ($90) Fralins ($120 :NUTS ) and Fender original Recipe or whatever they call it as well as some of the Duncans Basslines, but I hate that they have writing on the cover. What would you recommend.

I'm thinking of a Leo Quan Badass II Bridge any opinions? Pro's and Cons vs. the original Fender style bridge?

What Tuning machines would you suggest? I believe the pre drilled holes are 3/4".

[Denyle_Guitars]

For my next bass, I was thinking about getting Vintage Vibe to build me a P-bass set in the fashion of a CC. I haven't asked Pete yet but I'm sure he could do it.

I like Gotoh bass tuners, Hipshot & ABM bridges.

[The Golden Boy]

For pickups that have writing on the cover, you can use fingernail polish remover, it'll come right off-

Last set of P pickups I bought, the pickups were seperate from the covers...

Bridges... as long as it's not crappy it's good. What I mean by that is that I replaced the 'bent piece of metal' bridge on my Jazz Bass because I lost a set screw- but it was an excuse to get a "better" bridge on the bass. I didn't notice one bit of difference other than the Badass was shinier and bigger than the original. I didn't notice a bit of difference in tone or sustain, it didn't intonate any better and it didn't play any better. If you can do a Gotoh or Hipshot bridge for less than it costs to get the Badass, there's some pretty nifty designs- the original Fender isn't bad either- despite what common sense may tell you.

[alanbass1]

I have Lollar's on my Sadowsky NYC P and these sound athentic 60's (against my 63 P Bass). The BadAss II will give you more upper mid presence and take away some of the smooth lower mid that P basses naturally have. If you want a more traditional sound you will need to go for something with less mass and the Hipshot bridges are good high quality alternatives to the traditional piece of bent metal. Hipshot lightweight tuners would be good if you have gone for a lightweight body.

[Brion]

I checked prices on the hipshot 4 string bridge. It's more than $100. I guess I'll stick to the original design type bridge for now. If the Badass bridge changes the EQ of the bass that much, I'll just use an Original type bridge. The Fralins in my Tele and Strat do sound very vintage like to me. It makes sense that his Bass pickup would do the same.

[BDT]

I've had good luck with Fralin P-bass pickup (current) and SD Quarter Pounder pickup for P-bass. Likewise with the Leo Quan bridge.

[Denyle_Guitars]

Originally Posted by Brion

I checked prices on the hipshot 4 string bridge. It's more than $100. I guess I'll stick to the original design type bridge for now.

The Hipshot type B is about $60 from LMI.

[Thor]

Check out Pete Biltoft: got a P-J set and they are great! Also very well priced.

http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/about.html

[RedDucatieMan]

I was also thinking of updating pickups on my Ibinez PJ Clone. I am not really a Bassist but I use it to add tracks for home recording. I am looking for a real tight sort of springy tone (Graham Maybe from Joe Jackson's albums). I recommendations for Pups? Hell I'd change the Bridge too if it got me closer to that tone.

[mainsale]

Fender's '62 P-bass pickups are excellent, I think they are noticably warmer and richer sounding than their standard P-bass pickups. I just modified an American Ash P-bass and put in a Lollar P-bass pickup, a Hoveland tonecap, Badass III and 50's wiring. I'm also very pleased with that result. There are many, many good P-bass pickup options to choose from these days. Almost too many!

[Vibrolucky]

I have a set of stock P-Bass Fralins installed in my 82 USA Fender and it sounds better than any set I've ever used. Records well, balanced, and especially sweet with a maple neck. The Fralins are consistantly good, and lots of folks will agree with me on this one.

[bmgblues]

I have a set of Duncan quarterpounders in my P Bass and it sounds great!! Not to say that the Fralins or any other botique pickup isnt good, its just that they are WAYYYYY expensive. After all, at the end of the day, its just a electro magnet. I'm totally satisfied with the Duncan. SWWWEEEEETT tone.

[John Phillips]

I have the Duncan Basslines Hot P-Bass pickup (and a Hot Jazz Stack) in my own-made bass - sounds great. Actually I like the cover logo, but you can easily remove it - T-Cut or Brasso works well - or just use different covers.

I also have the pickup wired so I can switch it from series (standard P-Bass wiring) to parallel, which gives a much clearer, lower-output tone and less noise. You need to add extra wires to the coils to do this though.

I have a Schaller bridge (the cast one with the threaded roller saddles so you can adjust the spacing) and tuners on it too... rock solid.

[thunderbroom]

Duncans. There is nothing bad about duncans but i have a set of lollars in a nash pbass that i like very much.