P/MM Combo recommendation

T

thatpatguy

New member
Hi,

I'm building a bass from scratch (my first time) and am looking for a passive P/MM combo. I was curious if anyone had any recommendations as to which two will sound good together. I really don't want one pup overpowering the other and I'm hearing conflicting info from other forum posts (on other forums) that I've read with some people saying MM pups are more powerful and other people saying P pups are more powerful.

I've got the routing so that the MM pup is in the sweet spot, which has meant I've had to move the P pup closer to the neck and have flipped it so that the treble side is above the bass side. I'm looking to make them passive, with two volume knobs and a single tone knob. I am also thinking I'll make both of those tone knobs push pull switches, so I can toggle between series and parallel for either pup.

My initial thoughts were to go with the Hot P and the Ceramic MM, but any and all recommendations from folks that know more about this stuff than I do would be appreciated. Thanks
 
thatpatguy said:
I'm hearing conflicting info from other forum posts (on other forums) that I've read with some people saying MM pups are more powerful and other people saying P pups are more powerful.
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That is some confusing and conflicting information. There are P bass and MM pickups of all kinds of flavors, EQs, and outputs. P-bass pickups can range from vintage output to Steve Harris. One style of pickup is not necessarily louder or has a higher output than the other. What kind of music will you be playing with the pickups? Rock? Funk? Metal? Or are you trying to build a Swiss Army bass that will give you a range of tones?
 
Securb said:
That is some confusing and conflicting information. There are P bass and MM pickups of all kinds of flavors, EQs, and outputs. P-bass pickups can range from vintage output to Steve Harris. One style of pickup is not necessarily louder or has a higher output than the other. What kind of music will you be playing with the pickups? Rock? Funk? Metal? Or are you trying to build a Swiss Army bass that will give you a range of tones?
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Steve Harris P-bass pickup. Just saying.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk
 
Securb said:
That is some confusing and conflicting information. There are P bass and MM pickups of all kinds of flavors, EQs, and outputs. P-bass pickups can range from vintage output to Steve Harris. One style of pickup is not necessarily louder or has a higher output than the other. What kind of music will you be playing with the pickups? Rock? Funk? Metal? Or are you trying to build a Swiss Army bass that will give you a range of tones?
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Thanks for your reply, Securb, and yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking but I'm really new to all of this so maybe there was something inherent about how a P pup or MM humbucker is made that makes one naturally higher or lower output than the other. From what you're saying I guess not though.

So, I'm pretty much an vintage/old school style P player and have a whole mess of P basses in my arsenal already. My dream tone would be somewhere in the Duck Dunn/George Porter space, but I'm not building a vintage P bass, I'm building something different. So, I guess I'm looking for something that is more of a swiss army knife, but I think I still want it to have a bit of vintage character to it.

I tend to play old school r&b, funk, blues, and rock that is influences by those styles (so like Black Crowes, Black Keys, The Band, CCR). My main money making band these days, however, is an 80s new wave tribute band, which requires more modern tones. I have a P/J bass that I use for that, but I'd love for this new bass to work for that band as well as my more old school/vintage grooves.

Oh, for the record, the P/J I'm using in the 80s band has a SD pups, specifically the Vintage P and the Apollo J. I love the Vintage P, but the Apollo J doesn't do much for me when soloed (combined with the P it does add some nice brightness and note clarity though). I hope that helps.
 
ive done this a few times. reverse stagger p pup and everything. ive found the quarter pound p and alnico mm are a great pair. i always wired the mm pup to an on/on/on switch to get series/split/parallel and find all those options useful. ive never wired a p bass pup in parallel. a vintage p pup might not keep up with a mm pup but the tone might blend well if you dont want something as hot as the qp
 
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jeremy said:
ive done this a few times. reverse stagger p pup and everything. ive found the quarter pound p and alnico mm are a great pair. i always wired the mm pup to an on/on/on switch to get series/split/parallel and find all those options useful. ive never wired a p bass pup in parallel. a vintage p pup might not keep up with a mm pup but the tone might blend well if you dont want something as hot as the qp
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That wiring with a Steve Harris P pickup.
Done.
 
Whatever the OP decides, I'd like to see and hear the result, because I've been wanting to build something along the same lines.
 
ICTGoober said:
Whatever the OP decides, I'd like to see and hear the result, because I've been wanting to build something along the same lines.
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yeah, there's a few forums where I'm going to have to post some sound samples once this project is done. I have found so many threads where this or similar questions come up and then they just die out with no follow up. Very frustrating.
 
Steve Harris P and the Alnico MM pickup. Done. I love the Alnico MM pickup. Put that in my Sub Ray4 wired in parallel, passive circuit wired like a P Bass. I've had the idea to do a P/MM as well but I want the P pickup in the usual spot, usual orientation. Knowing me, I'd wire it with 2 volumes and no tone on a Tele control plate.
 
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