How to set P Bass Pickup Height
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- In this video Radioshop's Paul Best shows you how to go about setting your P Bass' pickup height and then how to fine tune it for perfect balance.
Order your Radioshop P Bass pickup at www.radioshopp...
Fantastic! I've never taken the trouble to find out optimal heights for my precision and the way I play it - this helped so much.
Played bass for 40 years and never knew you set the height with the string depressed, i've never really fidled with the things before until recently so this is exactly what i was looking for, very nice video thanks
@Zen i like how you did that 😁
Man!!! After a hundred useless videos I finally get somewhere. Nice done, well explained and useful tips... Thank you sir!
You're welcome! Thank you for your kind words, muchas Gracias Miguel!
I immediately recognized the strings as TI flats just from seeing the close up of that E string! The silks confirmed it.
Great strings
The best video of P-Bass adjustment on youtube !!
Thank you so much Luiz!
I just had to say that your camera skills are incredible. Great video :)
Thank you Mason!
Rather than a ruler, it is much easier and faster to use a Vernier Caliper Guage which I happened to have around in my carpentry toolbox.
Set the relevant height, 3.9mm or whatever, and touch the end to the pole piece with the main body of the caliper, satisfyingly, is at right angles and rests on the string. Then adjust the string to meet the correct height.
I adjusted my pickup heights today because the string sometimes hit the pole pieces making noisy plop sounds. I guess pick players have less problems with that because they hit the string from an different angle compared to finger plucking where you pluck the string from above pushing it towards the pickup.
I think this will be helpful at some point. 1st, I have to finish wrestling a Fleor pickguard loaded with the cheapest pickups, pots, and associated wiring onto a stripped Squier P bass body/neck. The openings in the pickguard for these (almost certainly Chinese) pickups were undersize with pickup height adjustment cutouts (ear holes) only half the necessary size to allow vertical adjustments of the pickups as you've detailed in this video. I am giving new life to this Squier first, then I can get to the fine tuning. This is not a high-dollar bass or project, only one of a half dozen guitars and cases I have to get squared away. If I had known, could have bought a preloaded p bass pickguard, same price or cheaper, but didn't know.
Can you please do a video on the jazz bass pickup height?
Plug into a recording device and balance with help from the VU meters....
Exactly what I was just going to say.
I was thinking the same, but our ears don't perceive the different frequencies at the same volume, as illustrated in the Fletcher Munsun curve, as does the VU meter.
Super helpful. And that bass sounds fantastic!! Makes me want to swap out my pickups..... hmm.....
great video! I would be interested to know if the distances also fit the original Fender pickups? because Fender recommends 2.8 mm on the bass side and 2.0 mm on the treble side.
Good video. Equally, I don't think you need an hour to do this, as stated. Further, I would replace the pick-up foam pieces to ensure the pickups aren't tilting forward, as they are in this video. Instead, sit flat/parallel to the body.
Thank You. Nice sounding bass.
thank you for that information!
Thank you for the video.
Looks as though the bridge saddles are low.
That means your correct pickup adjustments will leave the pickups screwed too far into the body , leaving nothing to rest the thumb on. Also the saddle screws will protrude stick out making palm damping uncomfortable. A higher saddle will also give the bass more punch.
To keep the same action the neck will need to be shimmed a fraction.
Good pickup height reccomendations though. Many will set them far too close for maximum output and bad tone.
Thanks for the video! havieng the pickups higher could a reason for small distortion? could be?
Higher gain/input could lead to clipping/popping/dirty signal. Usually undesirable
So many things going on here, so each string has a different tension, and each string produces a different frequency, lower frequencies can travel through the pickups easier because the wavelength is longer. So you are adjusting height to counter many obstacles , tension , wavelength , and volume all at once. The absolute best way to do this and the most accurate with with a good sound pressure meter. Placed about 1 foot in front of your bass cabinet and exactly in the middle of the cone. Pluck on string , a bunch , to get the most accurate average reading , note it down. Move to the next string , do the same thing and so forth all the way across . if you read say 83 db on the low E and 85 db on the next string. Then you need to slightly raise the low E and slightly lower the next string because each coil does two strings. The key to getting good results is to wait to look at the DB only after about 2 seconds. If you read it immediately on the strike , it will be inaccurate. Only read a couple seconds after , when the string is freely ringing out. Good vid though.
Cool! Thanks a lot for this
Interesting but those settings don't work for me (too close). I play with pick but quite agressively / percussively (punky and alternative stuff mainly), so just end up backing off the E string until I don't get any click, then adjust the others to get a similar volume.
this Bass sounds really great!! Would you tell something about strings and adjusted action? Thx in advance & best regards Ralf
i am not that comfortable with pickup heights on my p bass so i acutally try get someone to do it for me
I like the sound of the bass so much! what are the main elements that make up this sound? yes, I know: everything!
but which are the most important in this case? i want this sound in my studio! I have a P-bass like bass with half flat wound strings but it sounds like mud....(i am a guitar player)
Thank you Toro! Well it would be a pleasure for us to make a set for you 👍 Let me know if I can help at all. Paul
@@RadioshopPickups thanks! but I didn't ask for new pick ups..I have decent Seymour Duncan P bass pickups.. I just want to know what is the most important element to get that 'plastic woody attack ' sound !
Well get your height adjustment spot on and you'll be halfway there 👍 I use thomastik jazz strings and a Dunlop green sort of powdery plectrum. That combined with a tiny bit of muting will get you close. Hope that helps
@@RadioshopPickups thanks! I tried allready some of that and do some more research. the problem is, if you like someone else's his guitar/bass/instrument..it will be almost impossible to get the same sound. every tiny little detail contributes to the sound. but this bass-sound is exactly what I want and an instrument which is about the same is not good enough for me, I want to buy that bass from the video !! :-) maybe I can try to build the same bass with (almost ) the same parts? I have a project bass with alder body, rosewood fingerboard...a question about the price on your website: is it for one set (so, two parts) of a P bass pickup configuration?
@@torosuave Left Hand muting though. It's just DI'ed into a focusrite Scarlett. Slightly biased but I think the richness you're hearing might just be a result of our handwound pickups too 😜
Your pickup height is quite a bit lower than fender spec. Is there any reason?
Less output = more headroom = more opportunities for saturation / distortion / modulation / whatever else you'd like / before you record
For soapbar pickups is the same procedure?
I only have a problem with the height of the pickup when I slap. There's an dingy 'thud' sound against the pickup closest to the neck
Pick up needs to lowered. Your strings are hitting the pickup when you slap
Hello,which wrench is best for my fender cv 70s bass? 3/16 is too big obviously, and 4mm is a little bit loose , it almost makes me crazy😢 thanks
If the bass had a low B string would you just go .1 of a milimetre lower than the E?
Help please! My seventies P-Bass pick ups cannot be adjusted because the foam has deteriorated into a solid mass. It appears to be attached to a metal baseplate. Best way to remedy this, please ??
Replace it with new foam. Search for pickup height foam at stewmac
I used a sponge for dish washing. Works great. But I think 4.0 mm is too much. 3 mm on E and A and 3 on D and 2.8 on G works for me. But it’s nearly impossible to be so precise. Set 3 mm on all 4 screws and use your ears to fine tune. Measurements can vary greatly from instrument to instrument.
Hi! I just don't understand why my pickup doesn't answer the height as I screw like that. It looks likes doesn't have space on base to fit the way. My bass is a squier classic vibe 60's precision bass
I literally have the same bass with that issue
today i put some extra foam under the pickups so now theyre at the optimal distance
@@calumgoetz3718 yes, when i took mine to the luthier's he put some shim too
micro tune
7:16 ferst
9:10 final
11:00 and more
3.9 mm? No way!
Why? 2.8-3 tops
yep, I agree that it's very low, I like to go from factory specs that are 7/64th, about 2.7mm and then work from that. Then again it sound great in the video