P Baas with more twang?

[Benjy_26]

Hello everyone.

My younger brother has been playing bass in a post-punk band for a while now, and has been using a fretless Fender Jazz and a Squier Pete Wentz P Bass live with them for the duration. Lately, he's been playing the Wentz more and more, saying he digs the cut and twang that the duncan designed p-bass pickup and single pot give him over the more mellow fretless sound he's getting from the Jazz. With that in mind, he bought a Squier Jaguar bass for a great price. It's basically a long scale PJ with an offset body. Upon arrival, we polished the frets, cleaned everything up, and put on new Ernie Ball strings. It sounded somewhat muffled and dull, so we decided to swap the battery. At this point, the battery cable broke, so we decided to bypass the active bass boost and we added an old Duncan Designed J pickup. This *really* opened up the sound of the bass. The "blanket over the speakers" tone was gone from both pickups. He's played a few shows with it, and likes the tone coming from the bridge pickup, but has said that he misses some of the treble and pop he gets from the Wentz and the Duncan Designed PB105 pickup that came in it.

I know that some of that clarity comes from only having one 500k pot in the circuit, but is there a P bass pickup out there that is on the brighter side of things?

 

[ICTGoober]

Bill Lawrence EB-60P

 

[Mincer]

I think a working preamp would give you the twang you need. It is hard to add that in with passive pickups- they can't compete with active twang. The closest might be Antiquity II, but I'd probably get the preamp working again.

 

[Benjy_26]

I think a working preamp would give you the twang you need. It is hard to add that in with passive pickups- they can't compete with active twang. The closest might be Antiquity II, but I'd probably get the preamp working again.

That bass didn't come with a pre-amp exactly. It came with a bass boost that's pretty well known to make the overall bass sound dull and boomy. Bypassing it was a big improvement, but the stock pickup is still a bit too round for my brother's liking. I'll check into the Antiquity II and the EB-60P.

 

[Dudeman7]

Quarter Pound P-Bass is what I settled on in my project Precision bass. It is definitely more modern sounding than typical Fender P-Bass pickups.

It has lots of output, solid low end and an upper midrange presence that really brings out the details of whatever I do with my left hand. Not quite as punchy and aggressive as the EMGs in my other basses, but it gets close to the same ballpark.

Most of the time I have the Tone control set near the middle of the range. I don't use a pick. Cranking the Tone all the way up brightens things up enough for a passable slap bass tone, though it won't do that as well as a bass with a bridge pickup.

 

[some_dude]

Try brighter strings… NYXL or stainless steel strings.

You can get a lot of tonal variance just by switching string brands/types. Whenever I get a new bass I rotate brands until I find one that really clicks with that specific bass.

 

[PFDarkside]

Try brighter strings… NYXL or stainless steel strings.

You can get a lot of tonal variance just by switching string brands/types. Whenever I get a new bass I rotate brands until I find one that really clicks with that specific bass.

I put stainless on the bass that has Quarter Pounds, wow that’s got some zing!

 

[Clint 55]

Put a 1 meg volume in. I like Daddario Pro Steels cuz they're bright and clear. You could probably find a brighter pickup too such as the Vintage P Bass.

 

[GuitarStv]

Stainless steel strings are very zingy. Much too much for my J-bass, but I bet they would brighten up a P-bass nicely.

 

[alex1fly]

Try brighter strings… NYXL or stainless steel strings.

You can get a lot of tonal variance just by switching string brands/types. Whenever I get a new bass I rotate brands until I find one that really clicks with that specific bass.

Yeah. The classic post punk bass sound comes from bright strings and a thick pick. Really grinding those highs in there. It's a simple formula and has been done with tons of bands. He can try some different pick materials and thickness too. There's a ton of variety to be found in there. If that doesn't work, some kind of pedal with tone shaping is the way to go. I swear by my Sansamp - there's different models - to get me every bass tone I've ever wanted.

 

[Mincer]

The Steve Harris P Bass pickup is pretty clangy, too. Certainly more so than most P pickups.