WTB - PJ Bass Pickups

TTony

I put this together a while back;




Overall, I love it.

But the p'ups (Kent Armstrongs) don't work for my ears.

So, anyone selling any other PJ sets?

Funkfingers

Active or passive? Also, what budget?

FatPete

I have an active Fernandes set if you're interested. Probably a bit tatty looking, but price would be negligible/charitable/something. I could bring them to the show on Saturday. 

TTony

Funkfingers said:

Active or passive?

My initial thinking was passive, just to keep it simpler, but - being new to  bass - perhaps I should try different  options to work out what works for my ears.

Funkfingers said:

Also, what budget?

Looks like a new SD or DiMarzio set (which I guess would be reasonably "safe" options) would cost £100-£125, so half-ish of that for s/h alternatives?

FatPete said:

I have an active Fernandes set if you're interested. Probably a bit tatty looking, but price would be negligible/charitable/something. I could bring them to the show on Saturday. 

@FatePete - please bring them to the show.  I'll certainly give them a try.

4114Effects

What are the pickups on there? Looking for a set for my vm short scale jaguar bass :-)

TTony

@4114Effects

Kent Armstrongs - although wound by his son Aaron.

4114Effects

Cheers. I meant more what model ... just wondering what it is about the tone you don't like. That is if you're likely to be selling them. :-) 

TTony

They're a mystery model!  I've got some pics of the underside somewhere, but this is what Aaron had to say about them;

    The pickups are hand made by me by the looks of the hand writing, although my dads hand writing is pretty similar to mine (pretty un-tidy!). The p-bass pickup has a slightly thinner gauge wire than a standard p-bass, and slightly less turns with a ceramic magnet, this should give you a bright punchy sound. The jazz pickup is an SS humbucker (2 coils are on their sides with magnets in them and a blade of steel running down the length of the pickup. This should give you good attack but not the usual unwanted back ground hum of a jazz bass.

And yes - they'd be redundant if I can find another option.

Funkfingers

4114Effects said:

... just wondering what it is about the tone you don't like.

TTony said:
"... ceramic magnet ..."

To anyone accustomed to the sounds of a traditional Fender bass pickups, constructed around alnico rod magnets, anything with a ceramic bar magnet and steel polepieces sounds odd. Too modern. Too bright - unless it is a Bartolini.

4114Effects

TTony said:

They're a mystery model!  I've got some pics of the underside somewhere, but this is what Aaron had to say about them;

    The pickups are hand made by me by the looks of the hand writing, although my dads hand writing is pretty similar to mine (pretty un-tidy!). The p-bass pickup has a slightly thinner gauge wire than a standard p-bass, and slightly less turns with a ceramic magnet, this should give you a bright punchy sound. The jazz pickup is an SS humbucker (2 coils are on their sides with magnets in them and a blade of steel running down the length of the pickup. This should give you good attack but not the usual unwanted back ground hum of a jazz bass.

And yes - they'd be redundant if I can find another option.

Lovely. Let me know when you do. Cheers! 

TTony

Thanks @FatPete - good to meet you on Sunday and thanks for the package.  And now I clearly understand where your username comes from!

(For anyone who's not met Mr F Pete, he's about as un-fat as it's possible to be, whilst still being visible).

Any other offers out there before I jump into getting something custom wound, or hitting the SD / DiMarzio options ....

robinbowes

Did you ever find anything? I'm lining up a bass that needs at least one new pickup and starting to look for options...

TTony

robinbowes said:

Did you ever find anything? I'm lining up a bass that needs at least one new pickup and starting to look for options...

@robinbowes - I've not done anything as yet - other than collect the active set from FatPete at the show.

This is my first bass, so I want to try different p'up options to test out what difference they make to the sound.  It's all on a long learning curve that I've not got enough time to work through!

TTony

4114Effects said:

TTony said:

They're a mystery model!  I've got some pics of the underside somewhere, but this is what Aaron had to say about them;

    The pickups are hand made by me by the looks of the hand writing, although my dads hand writing is pretty similar to mine (pretty un-tidy!). The p-bass pickup has a slightly thinner gauge wire than a standard p-bass, and slightly less turns with a ceramic magnet, this should give you a bright punchy sound. The jazz pickup is an SS humbucker (2 coils are on their sides with magnets in them and a blade of steel running down the length of the pickup. This should give you good attack but not the usual unwanted back ground hum of a jazz bass.

And yes - they'd be redundant if I can find another option.

Lovely. Let me know when you do. Cheers! 

@4114Effects ;

Looks like I will sell these and replace with something more traditional.  No idea what they're worth as there isn't exactly a lot of examples of these being sold on evilB.

If you're still interested, PM me an offer?