Tell me about P-Bass pickups...

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Hey, I love this forum. Lurking around here is wonderful!

I'm hoping to start a small discussion on P-Bass pickups. I can find threads here and material in books all about other pickups - strats, teles, humbuckers, p-90s, but the Precision bass split coil gets no attention. Partly for some experiments (but mostly for my curiosity), what is there to know? I understand the humbucking effect, but is it otherwise like a humbucker? Do you have a typical number of winds (say, 8000) split in half for each coil, or does each coil have to have a full number of winds to get full output? I'm seeing the resistance is typically closer to a humbucker, so I'm guessing it isn't the case with split coils. The bobbins always seemed very narrow, more like a p-90 than a strat, which I found interesting. Has this always been the case?

It kinda bugs me that not much attention has been given to these - it seems like most builders don't really seem to care about them. I wonder why that is, given the popularity of those basses.

Thanks,
FunkyK

[David Schwab]

The standard P bass pickup has 10,000 turns of 42AWG per coil. Both coils should be wound the same for maximum hum cancelation. The squat coils give the pickup a fatter tone.

[LtKojak]

The standard P bass pickup has 10,000 turns of 42AWG per coil. Both coils should be wound the same for maximum hum cancelation. The squat coils give the pickup a fatter tone.

Man, that's a whole lotta wire! Like two P-90s!

[David King]

It kinda bugs me that not much attention has been given to these - it seems like most builders don't really seem to care about them. I wonder why that is, given the popularity of those basses.

They are a pain to rout for and once you install them you can't really go to any other pickup shape. They are more or less a one trick pony too but it's a pretty neat trick.

[David Schwab]

Man, that's a whole lotta wire! Like two P-90s!

Yes it is, but they are rather small bobbins.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Thanks for the info. That is a lot of winding, no doubt about it. But, with the smaller bobbins it means less resistance... I've liked the idea of a split coil to cancel hum, but perhaps that's where a lot of its signature sound comes from, because it can get so many more turns.

I suppose you're right about it being a one trick pony. I tend to hear them as hotter or mellower, but there aren't a lot of other qualifiers one can offer to differentiate p-bass pickups. The question is (perhaps more philosophical than technical) if it is because no one has bothered or if that is just how that pickup always turns out. I've never wound one, but with so small a bobbin, it doesn't seem like there is much room for creativity.

Don't mind me, just thinking out loud....