Picked this up yesterday OTW home from work. I’ve seen many fender P basses and played them as well. Saw This Squier contemporary, played it and was impressed with the active preamp. It’s used and looks as if it never has been played, also admired the roasted neck.
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For what you like to play the Model P and Model J are actually great choices, among the best really. Very good rock, punk and pop/punk pickups.
But here’s an alternate thing to consider - don’t upgrade the pickups! 
The BB234 has relatively strong ceramic pickups, good mids already - they aren’t bad at all IMO. They already would be great pickups for those genres.
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Nice!! And another angel gets his wings…
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Those pickups just don’t do it for me. Maybe it’s an electronics issue but I find them to be just ok. Maybe a bit too vintage sounding? Like they lean on the dark and dull side imo
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Yeah they are kind of dark and thick I guess.
So the DiMarzio set is probably a great choice then as it is very punchy and mids heavy
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Something seems amiss if ceramic pickups sound dark and dull, just my two cents. How old are you strings, what type are they, are all questions. Got the tone pot cranked wide open?
In any case I have DiMarzio relentless Middles installed in my Sire P5 (albiet not a P/J ) and love them. Punchy, not muddy or dark for sure.
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I would describe them more as “saturated” from the ones I have heard. Actually this is pretty representative for an ad:
you can hear it here too:
So yeah in retrospect “dark” is kind of wrong (those are actually pretty bright, just really saturated).
YGD pickups, in my experience, are usually really good, even on the low end of the line.
I usually prefer ceramic pickups in bass over AlNiCo just to get the stronger mids and better brightness. The DiMarzios are great for that too.
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Thanks for the YT sound samples - neat to hear. In particular the P (neck) pup wth the tone at 100% sounds bright to me.
Yeah the Yamaha VSP5 Alnico V pups in my BB434M are really good too.
Yeah they are really good. I’m not convinced the VSP7’s in the 734a and BBP are really any better, all of them sound great to me.
My very favorite P pickup I have ever heard for the styles I like is the stock YGD ceramic pickups in the SBV-550. The J is really good too.
The humbuckers in both of my TRBX’s, and also the guitar ones in my Revstars have been outstanding too. Yamaha just makes excellent pickups in my experience.
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Maybe the wording was wrong but even when I put on fresh strings it sounds like it still has old strings on. It does not sound exciting so I want to pep it up a bit. Everything else about it feels great especially for the price
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No worries, I know exactly what you meant, describing sound with words is tricky at best anyway.
Yeah it’s absolutely one of the GOATs in terms of what you get for your money.
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Comparing passive mode on the 734 to the 435, there are times (depending on what I’m playing) where I prefer the V in the 435.
Also, yeah the Revstar pickups are insanely versatile. I can get really close to a strat sound playing on the bridge pickup, or a Les Paul tone playing on just the neck.
I’ve been saying awesome things about this exact bass for a while now. I recorded a few tracks with this as it shows up well.
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It’s quite the opposite. Ceramic pickups are brighter and punchier than Alnico. I have that pickup on my Aerodyne, it’s so bright that I chose to put on a Nylon string to tame it, well it was the cycles too, I was so into Nylon at the time, 
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Could insert an off color joke here but I don’t want to break any forum rules!
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My wife asked if I wanted to go run some errands with her today. While we were out, we stopped by this place that does a huge business in second hand books, music, electronics, games, etc. It’s not close, so we don’t get there often.
Anway, when I saw that they had an Ibanez SR305M for sale at the paltry sum of $142.95, I pretty much had to buy it. It needed some TLC for sure, though, as it was kinda dirty, had action a mile off the fretboard, the strings were old, dirty, and rusty in spots. The frets needed attention. After a thorough cleaning and polishing, a new set of DR DragonSkin+, a setup in which the truss rod needed a lot of adjusting, bridge completely disassembled and cleaned, action made perfect, intonation spot-on, and fret polishing, I had a $142 player on my hands.
I really like these Ibanez basses, though TBH I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it or flip it. I like the Pearl White and the maple fretboard more than I thought I would, but I really didn’t need another bass. Still, I couldn’t pass it up at that price.
In other gear acquisition news, I also picked up an Akai MPD218 16-pad midi controller ($50) and a Yamaha mixer ($50).
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Dang! That was a good find!
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Wow, that thing looks good now and it’s 5 string😎. I’d keep it. love the white Great find.
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We all gotta do what we gotta do sometime, 
That’s a good find.
Those pickups with the radius on them are gems.
I found this exact one on eBay for $142 too, sadly it’s just for shipping.
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OMG that’s hilarious! I definitely have to show my wife that!
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