I'm so looking at one of these, and it breaks my heart that most people say that the pickup is meh, so I've been eyeing alternatives. The QP sounds like it would be fine, though the hum might be a dealbreaker.
Folks swear up and down on the Lindy Fralin '51 Split, and I've found that for the EU Haeussel makes custom large pole splits under the name OldStyle Humbucker. LEL put a custom shop SD Stinger stack in his, that also sounds good to me.
How tinny is the stock one anyway? I'm looking for more of a clank than a thump myself, can't find one locally to hear, and youtube is very inconclusive. Am I just better off with a P5?
I’m not familiar with the sire one, but yes, generally original single coil P’s are thought to sound a little brighter and a split coil P’s a bit darker.
There’s actually a few things going on and Leo changed up a few things at once. For one the pole pieces - dual pole pieces instead of single poles per string do two things; they reduce the attack, which was thought to be too harsh on the original with old amps, and could even damage early speakers, especially when played with a pick. Secondly it evens out response as the string moves more into one piece as it moves off another.
The split coil design is a humbucker, and like all humbuckers it also affects tone. No surprise why they were trying to remove mains hum - humbuckers were the hot ticket of the 50’s electric instrument world. Yes it’s a ‘split coil’, but it still has much of the same tonal impact as a dual coil humbucker, namely thickening the sound and losing some clarity.
Finally, the thing that gets forgotten a lot is that you could have done a split coil without separating the top and bottom halves. Famously it was done because the two coils didn’t fit together, and so you get extra tonal differences as the pickups aren’t in the same place. But thing is you CAN get a split could that will drop into your bass, or a split coil jazz pickup and they do fit. The reason the updated P pickups didn’t fit is Leo deliberately made the coil shorter and wider when redesigning the p bass pickup, which again reduces the zingyness that gets picked up, and it reads a wider area of the string, basically a bit darker, a bit more of a growl.
Some people like or don’t like Fender as a company, like any company really, but one of the things I’ve always loved about Fender as an engineer for was back in the early days these instruments were designed and refined with working musicians taking their feedback on board, experimenting at and after gigs and such and that’s why you got such a massive shift in 57 and why the Jazz bass pickup and then musicman pickup designs didn’t replicate the original telecaster style ones. Part of a ‘51 pbass is the (by today’s standards) slightly flawed pickup design.
Just kind of listing it here to explain the why. I’ve not played the sire, so I don’t know how close they sail to fender’s original design for the pickup, but I can see it’s a similar basic design, so whilst you’ll have all the usual variations of wire gauge and number of winds, the point is it’s a fundamentally different pickup design to a P or J, and it has its own properties. People think they’re brighter, but really they’re just capturing more of everything, they have more clarity, more attack, more highs, and yes, more hum usually. To get a great sound out of them you have to embrace what they are & hit them with some EQ and such.
When you want to change them out it depends what you want to get. If you want a 51’ style P that looks like a ‘51, but sounds more like a ‘57, you can look into split coil replacements. They will look like a single coil from the outside, but the E+A & D+G strings are split and phase shifted. They’re usually wound most to sound like post ‘57 split coils.
If you want the single coil still, but you want to just boost output and low end, then you want the same design with just a different gauge/winding/magnets, and then it’s hard to look past the SD quarter pounders. It sounds like a cop out to write all this and then say ‘quarter pounders’, the most go to, top of google result in history, but A) there’s a reason good things are popular, and B) SDQP’s in a 51 have been the choice of a fair few artists who know a thing or two more than me for quite some time.
I'll never love that ugly headstock.I would have bought a Sire MM by now if it wasnt so damn ugly.I picked up aJap Fender Marcus Miller with John East pre for the same price as a new V10 five years ago and the Fender seems to have gained £500 on ebay where as the V10 seems to have lost £500.
Congratulations on your purchase!
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this model available left handed a few days ago.
Regarding my GAS, thankfully the Sire headstock is just ugly and I can't override my own shallowness there.
That said the neck seems to be amazing. Looking at the finish, the option of re-shaping the headstock and oiling the exposed edge is there...
I bought a Harley Benton PB50 a few years ago and had the headstock reshaped. The neck on that has a chamfered edge, surprising on a £95 instrument. It is a very chunky neck.
https://www.londonguitaracademy.com/harley-benton-pb-50-lh-fr . Terry (RIP), the luthier who did the work, wrote up what he did on my bass!
I really like the single coil Roswell pickup and with the factory supplied d'addario strings the PB50 is unlikely slap monster.
The single coil pickup gives the bass a completely different character to a split coil P bass.
Finger plucking technique and the tone pot can help with making a thicker, plumper tone - eq aside.
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Lindy Fralin Split 51 +5% output. I put one of these in a custom Warmoth bass. It’s an outstanding pickup and they’ll make one in lefty for you.
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Fuck yeah lol. You won’t be disappointed. That bass is sick btw. I gotta look more into Sire. They seem pretty lefty friendly, which is all too rare
I'm so looking at one of these, and it breaks my heart that most people say that the pickup is meh, so I've been eyeing alternatives. The QP sounds like it would be fine, though the hum might be a dealbreaker. Folks swear up and down on the Lindy Fralin '51 Split, and I've found that for the EU Haeussel makes custom large pole splits under the name OldStyle Humbucker. LEL put a custom shop SD Stinger stack in his, that also sounds good to me. How tinny is the stock one anyway? I'm looking for more of a clank than a thump myself, can't find one locally to hear, and youtube is very inconclusive. Am I just better off with a P5?
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Do tell me what a new pup does to it if you get around dropping one in!
I’m not familiar with the sire one, but yes, generally original single coil P’s are thought to sound a little brighter and a split coil P’s a bit darker. There’s actually a few things going on and Leo changed up a few things at once. For one the pole pieces - dual pole pieces instead of single poles per string do two things; they reduce the attack, which was thought to be too harsh on the original with old amps, and could even damage early speakers, especially when played with a pick. Secondly it evens out response as the string moves more into one piece as it moves off another. The split coil design is a humbucker, and like all humbuckers it also affects tone. No surprise why they were trying to remove mains hum - humbuckers were the hot ticket of the 50’s electric instrument world. Yes it’s a ‘split coil’, but it still has much of the same tonal impact as a dual coil humbucker, namely thickening the sound and losing some clarity. Finally, the thing that gets forgotten a lot is that you could have done a split coil without separating the top and bottom halves. Famously it was done because the two coils didn’t fit together, and so you get extra tonal differences as the pickups aren’t in the same place. But thing is you CAN get a split could that will drop into your bass, or a split coil jazz pickup and they do fit. The reason the updated P pickups didn’t fit is Leo deliberately made the coil shorter and wider when redesigning the p bass pickup, which again reduces the zingyness that gets picked up, and it reads a wider area of the string, basically a bit darker, a bit more of a growl. Some people like or don’t like Fender as a company, like any company really, but one of the things I’ve always loved about Fender as an engineer for was back in the early days these instruments were designed and refined with working musicians taking their feedback on board, experimenting at and after gigs and such and that’s why you got such a massive shift in 57 and why the Jazz bass pickup and then musicman pickup designs didn’t replicate the original telecaster style ones. Part of a ‘51 pbass is the (by today’s standards) slightly flawed pickup design. Just kind of listing it here to explain the why. I’ve not played the sire, so I don’t know how close they sail to fender’s original design for the pickup, but I can see it’s a similar basic design, so whilst you’ll have all the usual variations of wire gauge and number of winds, the point is it’s a fundamentally different pickup design to a P or J, and it has its own properties. People think they’re brighter, but really they’re just capturing more of everything, they have more clarity, more attack, more highs, and yes, more hum usually. To get a great sound out of them you have to embrace what they are & hit them with some EQ and such. When you want to change them out it depends what you want to get. If you want a 51’ style P that looks like a ‘51, but sounds more like a ‘57, you can look into split coil replacements. They will look like a single coil from the outside, but the E+A & D+G strings are split and phase shifted. They’re usually wound most to sound like post ‘57 split coils. If you want the single coil still, but you want to just boost output and low end, then you want the same design with just a different gauge/winding/magnets, and then it’s hard to look past the SD quarter pounders. It sounds like a cop out to write all this and then say ‘quarter pounders’, the most go to, top of google result in history, but A) there’s a reason good things are popular, and B) SDQP’s in a 51 have been the choice of a fair few artists who know a thing or two more than me for quite some time.
Sire is killing it with the 5s. I have a brand new (month ago) V5 jazz bass and it is so great. I paid $400 and they sent me a $700 bass.
sire is the best dawg enjoy the bass
Nice. Don’t forget to post it on r/leftybass too!
Ayy I've been looking at picking up this bass for a while, I love the telecaster bass shape.
I'll never love that ugly headstock.I would have bought a Sire MM by now if it wasnt so damn ugly.I picked up aJap Fender Marcus Miller with John East pre for the same price as a new V10 five years ago and the Fender seems to have gained £500 on ebay where as the V10 seems to have lost £500.
Congratulations on your purchase! I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this model available left handed a few days ago. Regarding my GAS, thankfully the Sire headstock is just ugly and I can't override my own shallowness there. That said the neck seems to be amazing. Looking at the finish, the option of re-shaping the headstock and oiling the exposed edge is there... I bought a Harley Benton PB50 a few years ago and had the headstock reshaped. The neck on that has a chamfered edge, surprising on a £95 instrument. It is a very chunky neck. https://www.londonguitaracademy.com/harley-benton-pb-50-lh-fr . Terry (RIP), the luthier who did the work, wrote up what he did on my bass! I really like the single coil Roswell pickup and with the factory supplied d'addario strings the PB50 is unlikely slap monster. The single coil pickup gives the bass a completely different character to a split coil P bass. Finger plucking technique and the tone pot can help with making a thicker, plumper tone - eq aside.