Why Does My P/J Setup Sound Unbalanced? by Stew McKinsey

by Stew McKinsey

This is one of the most common questions we get and the answer is a little bit involved, however there are solutions to this problem for many players. This article won’t get too in-depth, but it should give you a better idea of what’s in your bass.

Leo Fender introduced the P-bass with a pretty specific goal: to be a working player’s tool. Not only has it proven about perfect for that, but it has become a staple of the industry and a true icon. To do it the man created a real beast of a pickup. With its small magnets and incredibly overwound coil wired together in series, the P has gone on to be surprisingly versatile for a single pickup passive bass. 

But of course musicians wanted something different. The esteemed Mr. Fender listened to what players said they wanted and in response he came up with the J-bass. Still passive (onboard preamps didn’t exist then), the new instrument used two pickups with taller magnets and less wire on the coils, then gave them a good separation to create a much different sound which fit in the mix just as differently. The two pickups were created specifically to work together to have a balanced sound.

It would be more than twenty years, in the mid-80s, that Fender decided to combine these two things. The idea wasn’t bad. P players could get a bit more definition by having a bridge pickup and J players could have a bit more muscle with a burlier neck pickup. But there were some faults in the design.

First was the obvious one: the P was designed to be the only pickup in a bass and the J was designed to work with another J. This meant they would never really sound completely right together as the neck pickup was so much more powerful. But the combination also used a hum canceling pickup with a single coil, so the bass was inherently noisy any time the bridge pickup was used. Several people have approached these fundamental issues and the results have been mixed. 

To balance the output only so much can be done with the setup, lowering the P further from the string while raising the J closer to them. But it does help a bit. When hum canceling J pickups were created, this also made things easier for players, especially in the studio. However the set was still clearly unbalanced. 

One solution is to underwind the neck pickup while overwinding the bridge pickup, but this introduces another problem: neither pickup would have the character that made it great. The P was weaker and the J was less articulate, also gaining a darker sound. 

The easier solution is to put something more muscular but still articulate in the bridge position. This will allow the neck pickup to keep everything that makes the P great while still giving the bassist something useful at the bridge. We offer a number of things that will pair well in a bridge position for those who want to go this route. Some of the most popular pickups players use in the bridge are the Big Split, Dual Coil and BigRig. If you are considering this modification to your P/J, feel free to contact us at the shop for advice about which model will give you the sound and performance you want. If there is sufficient response to this article, I may write a piece explaining some of the different options and what each will do when combined with a P-pickup. But for now, here’s some food for thought. I hope this helps to clear up why things sound the way they do with your P/J!