PJ Pickups

axisus · January 2021

Haych said:

Bridgehouse said:

Seymour Duncan quarter pounder PJ is a stalwart set for upgrade. The EMG geezer butler set is a good option as well. Worth listening to vids online to get a view of the difference.

Of course there’s loads of hand wound to choose from, and they won’t actually be that much more expensive.

I was looking at the SD PJ set, but I know toffee about bass so wouldn't know if it would be a worthy upgrade or a waste of 150 notes.

Keep an eye out for secondhand on eBay. If you fit them and don't like them you can probably get your money back reselling.

Funkfingers · January 2021

ICBM said:

Personally, I wouldn't even consider a PJ set unless the J was overwound compared to the P and preferably hum-cancelling

That pretty much describes the EMG-GZR PJ set. I have them in a 2014 Squier VM bass. I have mixed feelings about them.

guitarfishbay said:
I had the Geezer P pickup and I was much happier after replacing it with the Duncan SPB1. It’s been a while since the Geezer was in but I remember feeling like it didn’t quite have enough clarity for me.

Geezer uses enormous gauge DR Black Beauty strings. (Makes sense for down tuning.) If the outer wraps are stainless steel, that might explain where he gets some of the high frequency detail.

guitarfishbay said:

Duncan SPB1... sounds just like I expect a P bass to sound.

Alnico 5 rod magnet polepieces and 11k is the formula. Elderly flat wound strings complete the picture.

Haych said:
I take it you're not a fan of the J Pickup.

Only when paired with another one.

I toy with the idea of combining a P middle pickup with an Oil City Pickups Overkill J. Unfortunately, those pickups would be worth more than my Squier bass.

Jeremiah · January 2021

I have a Squier Affinity PJ bass and have replaced the P pickup with a Seymour Duncan SPB1 - it sounds good to me, though I have mine strung with flatwounds and tuned BEAD, so it's pretty thumpy, which is what I wanted. I also replaced the bridge with a Gotoh, though this was more because the original bridge had very sharp screws sticking up that cut into my hand, rather than anything to do with tone.

I haven't replaced the J pickup, as I didn't really get the bass for the J sound, so I'm not sure if it's worth spending the money. If I did, though, it would be a hot, noise cancelling pickup as @ICBM suggested.

thegummy · January 2021

I'd suggest a useful exercise might be to find some videos on Youtube of people playing that bass with the stock pickups. If any of them get the kind of tone you're looking for then you'll know it's not the pickups that are the problem.

Then again you might find that every example you find has the same tone problems then you could listen to some other pickups in videos to see which get you where you want.

On the other hand, I'm with ICBM on the P only setting - if you haven't tried turning the bridge pickup all the way down (soloing the P pickup) then try that and you might get there instantly.

mike257 · January 2021

My first bass was the very same - Squier P Special with the PJ pickups and the Jazz neck.

I put Wizard 84s in it and fitted a Badass bridge, sounded great. I'd agree with other folks regarding the usefulness of the J bridge pickup though - a good P pickup can get you all the tone you need. I certainly wouldn't go to the trouble of wiring the two pickups to individual outputs as you mentioned.

In my experience, the best way to vary your tone on bass is through right hand technique and picking position. Even on twin pickup instruments I only use one at a time - usually the neck pickup - and just moving your right hand position from the bridge up to the neck gives you huge tonal variation, much more so than on guitar. Between that and the different techniques across fingers and plectrum playing, you can find a tone for any occasion without ever touching the controls or worrying about which pickup you're on.

thegummy · February 2021

Anyone else find it weird that the lowest end of the Squier range is all PJ and it's not til you go up to a certain price point that you can get just a P bass?

Seems a bit counter intuitive; I'd have thought the lowest cost basses would omit the J pickup to save even more money.

Haych · February 2021

Given the garbage they’re installing they won’t be saving much.

They probably have a glut of crap pickups they can’t otherwise shift unless they shove ‘em in a cheap bass and sell to unsuspecting punters.

Funkfingers · February 2021

It is a way appear to give better value for money. It may even help to secure purchases from punters who are conflicted between the P and J Bass sounds.

At the entry level, Squier has to be seen to offer the same features as rival manufacturers such as Yamaha, Cort, JHS/Encore/Vintage and Ibanez/Soundgear.

thegummy · February 2021

Funkfingers said:

It is a way appear to give better value for money. It may even help to secure purchases from punters who are conflicted between the P and J Bass sounds.

At the entry level, Squier has to be seen to offer the same features as rival manufacturers such as Yamaha, Cort, JHS/Encore/Vintage and Ibanez/Soundgear.

That's a good point about people deciding between j and p, if the p only had one pickup a newbie might see that as a downside.

When I bought my first bass it was a jazz because I foolishly believed people on forums telling me the neck pickup sounded like a p bass.

Years later I love P (and even getting really in to MM) but still trying hard to get in to J.

ivansc · February 2021

in 1982, I was given a prototype Explorer bass made in Japan by Epiphone`s makers for Gibson. It was never actually put into production but from the factory had a fairly naff precision pickup. I bought one of the very earliest P/J sets from EMG, including the pream stuff & had them fitted.
39 years later I still have it & still play it. Several studio engineers & live sound engineers have commented that it`s the first active bass they ever liked the sound of. So I would go with the EMGs!

Funkfingers · November 2021

Thread resuscitation

This week, I have been mostly changing pickups between bass guitars. One transfer involved an EMG-GZR PJ pair.

Earlier in this Discussion, I shared some of guitarfishbay's reservations about the treble response of EMG-GZR pickups. I now suspect that some of this was caused by the host instrument. (Squier VM P, agathis body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, high mass bridge.)

The same pickups sound far happier in an alder/maple J/P mongrel of my own devising.

For devilment, I tried the new arrangement through a Seymour Duncan Paranormal EQ/DI pedal. All three fixed frequency bands enhanced the basic tone, altering it from traditional towards Marcus Miller Sadowski territory. Sweepable mid control would be nice but there isn't really space in the J-style body for it.

… unless I fill the coffers of John East again!

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