Which are best vintage P bass pickups?

Gear
21

In the end it’s all subjective. You should pick what you like to hear, but it’s good to know what options are out there. The Fralin sounds good too.

Personally I like Aguilar and Glockenklang. Sadowsky surprised me and EMG is better for modern imo. That said I rather do my tone shaping external and keep the stock pickups.

Deciding guitar pickups is a lot harder tho :sweat_smile:

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22

I have a lot of P pickups across the basses and the Fralins are the best IMO for old school tone. Better than Fender CS (where on Jazz pickups the '62CSs are really really close to the Fralin JJs).

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23

All three pups sound good in these clips. It’s hard to go wrong with any of them.

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24

Yeah they are all very good sounding to me.

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25

To my ears the PV 63 is the winner!

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26

Yeah, I keep being attracted to the Fralin and PV’63, in that order.

Bare Knuckle P pups come in two flavors: the ‘58 and the ‘65. Of the two, I like the ‘58 better.

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27

On the bright side, you can’t make a wrong decision given your shortlist

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28

:+1: :+1: :+1:

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29

Here’s a very interesting shootout between three Nordstrand pups. Give it a listen.

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30

I’m upgrading my MIA jazz Fender to Nordstrand split coils. Spent awhile comparing to the Fralins online, for you I still think the Fralins.

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31

I hate to point out another big elephant in the room, what string? Some flats pair terribly with vintage pickups. Rounds are less forgiving in general.

Edit: I just order 2 sets of TI flats 4 and 5 string last night. One for my MusicMan Caprice because I flipped out how well it perform in my G&L SB2. The 5 string is going on my Tobias Renegade. I have the feeling that it would play really well with the quad coil Bartolini.

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32

I play rounds.

Also, Nordstrand NP4 has taken the lead in my search. Its classic (their term) string clarity and articulation and open, woody tone is what I’m after, I believe.

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33

Nordstrands are fantastic. The custom ones they design for Ibanez are great.

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34

I thought the NP4A was right up your alley as it bumps up the low mids and has a hotter output than the NP4.

I have a set of NP4 pups coming my way.

35

Yeah was gonna say it was my favorite of the three. Though I think I like the DiMarzios better - they are definitely punchier.

I love ceramic pickups.

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36

Cool. I’m glad the DiMarzio pups are working for you. But, man, they must have a hell of a punch if they’ve got more than the NP4A set. :boxing_glove::boxing_glove:

37

Hot, lots of clarity, punchy, nice articulate mids and highs. Love them.

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38

I actually watched that video recently as I pored over a slew of pup demos. I cast a wide net. :laughing:

I can see why you dig it. :+1:

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39

Oliver Tobyn made a comment that the DiMarzio Model Ps had decidely more punch than the Nordstrands, and it made a comparison video difficult (as he likes to keep setup the same for all pups I expect, he did not say that but that’s my extrapolation)

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40

His videos are really good.

1 Like