OMFG
It’s out for delivery. It coming today.
5 Likes
What did you buy, I misswd thenpost.
3 Likes
MIJ Fender P.
4 Likes
New MIJ Fender P, yeah. Haven’t posted it yet because I had them takkyubin it to my place, because I had my backpack and didn’t want to wrangle both on the train 
Should be here today.
5 Likes
Ikebe’s usually quick but that was pretty fast for US customs
5 Likes
Yeah, it arrived at 10:37 last night and customs released it at 11:27, so 50 minutes in customs.
My very own MIJ
I don’t wanna work, I want to thump on my bass all day
7 Likes
Congrats, Wombat.
4 Likes
Looking around at potential P-Bass upgrades, mostly for fun but we’ll see how much I end up liking the stock Fender pickups.
Some likely contenders, what do you think?
Pickup
- EMG Geezers. Weird that these come with 25k pots though - is that for real? I’d have expected 250k. Great sound though.
- DiMarzio Relentless. These sound awesome. Not sold on the metal cover look. There’s lots of other DiMarzios though - any recommendations? I like that they are killer sounding ceramics.
- Fender CS '62. These seem less likely; expensive and only really salient if I want to go for that purely classic tone.
- Bare Knuckle '58s - Wow. Very expensive though.
- Quarter Pounders - inexpensive, probably don’t quite compete with DiMarzio for tone, but still solid.
- Aguilar DCB-4P - expensive but Aguilar is generally a solid choice for pickups.
- Any other suggestions?
Bridge:
- HipShot Badass looks like a solid choice. Kinda spendy but looks worth it. Might be too big? Need to measure. It will go right up to the edge of the P body, I suspect.
- Hipshot A or B style, both look good. The A-style looks like a hack to make it work with Fender mounts though; only uses three screws. Turn-off there.
- Gotoh 201-B. Inexpensive but only looks like a moderate improvement over the Fender stock. Not a bad looking choice though.
- Fender Hi-Mass. Inexpensive, plus same brand as the bass. Looks nice but @terb tried it and went back. He and I like similar bass tones so that’s probably a good signal for me.
- Schaller 3-D4. This one is interesting. Also three screws, but I like the string width adjustment.
I am concerned about all of those because they all look taller than the stock Fender vintage bridge, and I don’t want to have to shim the neck. The stock bridge is also not bad at all, I kind of like it actually.
6 Likes
I swapped out the stock bridge for the Gotoh 201-B. Same screw spacing as the Fender so drops right in. No discernible difference in sound, I did it purely for the aesthetic. Nicely made, intonates correctly. All good.
I like the stock MIM pickups.
8 Likes
Nice! Yeah the 201B looks like the choice with the easiest fitting. And it looks more “solid” and nicer than the stock bent metal. Can’t beat the price either. No issues with height?
4 Likes
No problem getting it low enough for me. I’m running around 2mm on the low E at the 12th with no buzz.
5 Likes
Perfect, sounds like no issues then. Thanks!
4 Likes
My advice: keep the stock bridge and invest in better pickups.
You could check out the Aguilar DCB-4P. Bit expensive, but I love the sound on my jazz pickups.
4 Likes
Ahh yeah that was another one I saw, thanks. I’ll add it. In general I like their pups.
5 Likes
No @eric I got it from these guys. It’s beautiful, but I was using my Boss wireless transmitter and I cracked it against the edge of the desk and split the pick guard at the jack where it’s very thin. Totally my fault, it’s well made but it is just a very thin piece of wood.
If you’re not an animal like me you’ll be OK 
5 Likes
Kickass is looking kind of marginal for P’s:
Hipshot A-style and B-style look like they fit fine though.
6 Likes
Didn’t @terb had a thread about using different tails on a P?
That said you should do whatever you fancy
5 Likes
Hoping he chimes in
here we go:
Here’s the hi-mass he used on Greenie:
the tl;dr is he went back to the Vintage in the end.
6 Likes
I like all the Dimarzio’s I have. Relentless, Sizties P, and the Model P. I like the Relentless, but I like the Sixties and Model P more. Sizties sounds more vintage, and Model P a bit more modern. Also has traditional covers, and adjustable pole pieces to adjust the height. If mail were working I would ship you one - I have a spare from when I installed my Sixties P.
They all have good output
5 Likes