P Bass question

[lofreq64]

I'm trying to somehow coax more low end from my 79 Fender P. It's has a great growl but is slightly lacking in booty. The axe is stock except for a Badass II bridge.

 

Is there a pickup out there which favors the lower frequencies while not drastically altering the original tone?

[musicfiend]

Try messing with that big box you stand i front of that has all those knobs and switches...some circles that are maybe 10, 12, or 15 inches in diameter...

(man........i kinda miss greenboy)

[RHINO_ROB]

seymour duncan hot for p-bass. it has a ton of bootay. i put one in an ibanez i have. i like it. it might have what you are looking for.

[butcherNburn]

Before that, have you tried experimenting with the tone knob (silly but some people think it should always be on 10) and/or an EQ?

 

Before I ever read anything about what other people do, I found that I don't like my tone control wide open, actually I like it at about 2. Once I found that out I went a step further and installed 1 meg pots (for volume and tone) and a slightly higher value capacitor (than the .47 standard) on the tone pot.

 

a.) Try the simple and cheap stuff first.

b.) What's right for 1 player may not be right for you.

[RHINO_ROB]

i put a push/pull pot on the tone and put two different value caps on it so i could switch back and forth.

[musicfiend]

I hope this bass ain't cherry before all these mods.........cuz it wont be aftahwahds

[Rick Hoffman]

damn, a '79 P bass , and you wanna hack it up and put new pups in there and god knows what else.

I have a Leo Quan on my jazz and changing out bridges is not an uncommon thing with fenders. Although, I know a lot of folks that change pups but only if they know what sound they want.

 

Mess with the EQ on your amp, or the tone on your bass. In between songs I'm always panning the pups on my jazz, and changin the tone knob, I get lots of desirable tones just from the instrument itself, and my fingers.

 

A '79(dammit!) P bass that needs more bottom end? Something doesn't sound right to me, but hey all our ears are different.

 

My jazz is a '91 American and I would never change out the pups.

[Big Daddy from Motown]

I have to agree with Johnny on this one, don't change the p/u on a P Bass.

Over 35 years of playing i've tried all of the available P Bass p/us. The stock ones (from any american bass) are fine.

[Edendude]

Try pulling back the EQ at 150 Hz a little, and very slightly boosting the frequencies below that.

[RalphM]

A '79 P-bass is not the same object of solemn reverance as perhaps a '59 P-bass would be.

 

My P-Bass has EMG pickups. They're a direct replacement - no hacking required. They still have the P-bass sound but a lot more tone and output across the board. I like them much better than the originals.

[lug]

Whatever you do, KEEP THE OLD HARDWARE!

 

[The Bear Jew]

I can't imagine why a'79 P-bass with a Badass bridge would lack in bootyit should be overflowing with joy.

 

As long as the bass is set up decently, tuned like a bass and has of the electronics working correctly, you shouldn't be having a problem. I mean... basses are basses.. they have those big strings, which produce low-end frequencies by virtue of the fact that the strings are so fat...

 

So the problem is more likely to be amp-related.

 

What kinda amp are you using? You can make almost any bass sound "bassy" if you eq it correctly with enough wattage.

[Quinn]

By all means, experiment with the EQ settings first.

 

If that doesn't work, maybe try some flatwound strings? It worked for me - TI Jazz Flats give my '78 P-bass tons of booty. You may like flats and you may not, but it would be much less invasive to try that before switching pickups.

[Prague]

Any 70s P-bass should be able to attain the booty-envy.

 

Adjust the pickups. Get the setup specs from somewhere (Fender.com ?) or have a good, bass player, tech do it.

 

Have another good bass player try it and see what they think.

[Tom Capasso]

Originally posted by Prague:

Have another good bass player try it and see what they think.

Just to amend this - have another good player try it and see what you think. I'm more amazed by my Kinal when it's in other people's hands (Willie, Getz, Ben, etc.) than when it's in my own.

 

And I agree - setup and amp issues are a good place to start. Changing the PUP won't fix these.

 

And Ralph - you're right that a 59P is worth much more than a 79P. But in 20-30 years, you won't mind having a stock 79P.

 

Tom

[getz out]

Originally posted by Tom Capasso:

I'm more amazed by my Kinal when it's in other people's hands (Willie, Getz, Ben, etc.) than when it's in my own.

I think you're more amazed you actually get it back.

 

I have never found Precision basses super deep sounding by default. They always sound more like a midrangey Stingray to me. A Jazz bass with the bridge pickup rolled off... now that's DEEP.

 

However, just cheat your right hand (assuming you're a righty) up towards the neck a bit. Rest your thumb on the 18th fret or so, and pluck those strings. Insta-booty.

[Rick Hoffman]

Yes, Getz...

Hittin the nail right on the head as always. I like to do exactly that(with my jazz bass), with a smooth touch and lots of headroom!(Tone set to taste)

Jazz pickup configurations are my favorite.

 

But I still like any American P bass, too.

[Nicklab]

A stock P-Bass has quite a bit of booty. It just needs some decent EQ. Just give it a little low end boost on your amp and dial the tone knob down on the instrument and you should get a decent sound pretty fast.

 

A couple of things to keep in mind in the meantime:

 

-How old are your strings? Dead strings don't help your tone overall.

 

-Regarding your strings even more, it might be good to go for a heavier gauge string. That could give you a little more "oomf".

 

-When was the last time you had the instrument setup? The height of your strings in relation to the pickup might lead to you losing some signal. This could be worth checking out.

 

Now if you REALLY want to consider playing around with things a little, you might try getting the Sadowsky outboard preamp . This little box adds some nice tone shaping features and works well with almost any Fender.

[Belazaras]

I have an 78 P, and sound too deep for me. it have growl, even with the tone control fully bass.

But I want more highs/attack, more like Stingrays punch. I want to play with my fingers and the sound of a picked string. I want to slap with my P !!

Changing pups can help? (of course P pickups, I dont want to route the body) I achieve the sound equin the recorded line in PC, but sound sound too unnatural.

[lofreq64]

Thanks for all the responses. I've tried tweaking the amps, a'71 SVT and a '71 V4-B through an SVT 810 cab or a 410 HLF. I can obviously get the heft that way, and playing up towards the neck w/ the right hand helps as well. But I'm talking about the uncolored natural sound of the bass. To my ears it's a little thin. I had a recording session over the weekend and with the bass through my countryman DI and the board flat, it wasn't doing it for me.

 

I think I'll try some of the pickups suggested. Flatwounds might be cool but I slap a bit and I'm not sure there would be enough zing.

 

I knew when I posted I'd be met with scepticism, but this bass lacks girth. I've owned one other Precision: a '72 which weighed in at about 45 lbs and had the bottom to match. I also own a fretless Jazz and a 5 string Jazz Deluxe.

[Metal_Boy16]

Originally posted by getz76:

Insta-booty.

That made my day

[73 P Bass]

This is a little late in the game, but I had a Nemesis NC210 that's bass tone control was centered on "earth shaking"! It created a perfect dub, or reggae sound with any bass I plugged into it.

Have you tried just rolling some top end off with the bass' tone control?

[Fred TBP]

From a "pure collector" standpoint, a 79-P with a Badass has already been modded. Even if you buy a rusted replacement, some Simple Simon of a critic is gonna see the Badass tool marks and scream "unacceptable". Big whoop! I don't buy basses because they look good cluttering up my living room or to impress the guys lining up to play the open mike night at the local taproom, and neither should you. We be PLAYIN' these mojo machines, bro!

 

But if you're serious about a non-threatening mod, look at pickup rewinding. Last time I checked Lindy Fralin was doing P-Bass rewinds for under $50 (to mention only one) and your local repair-shop might be willing to third-party the shipping/handling of your cherised cherry P/U for a rewind. I had Lindy rewind an older single-coil Tele pickup once, and was very happy with the results: except for the new cardboard mounts and wiring, it could've rolled off the Fender assembly line yesterday.

[73 P Bass]

Originally posted by Fred the bass player:

From a "pure collector" standpoint, a 79-P with a Badass has already been modded. Even if you buy a rusted replacement, some Simple Simon of a critic is gonna see the Badass tool marks and scream "unacceptable".

I actually took the Badass off my '73 last night, and put the original back on! Although it is an original Badass, I never routed the body (I shimmed the neck, and lived with slightly high action), so there's no evidence that I ever doubted Leo's genius.

With the shimmed neck the action is just sick!

[Stackimo]

Strings first as stated previously. If you have steel roundwounds, it may sound brighter then if you had nickles or flats.