Re Leland Sklar

[copacetic]

Has anybody ever tried a duo split coil (precision pickup) system? I am curious. I always thought it somehow looked weird but wonder how it sounds. Some 36 years ago I had the honor to meet Leo Fender and he had a prototype Music Man with him and in the bridge position he had a precision pickup. I played it but cannot recall the sound (just that I did not really like the feel of that bass) Now reading that Leland Sklar interview reminded me about his go to bass.  I have several blank bodies and been thinkin what to try out. Anybody tried or have this P/P combo?

[Chris P.]

A guy in Holland assembles some basses with dual splits. I dunno if Peter is on this forum too. I'll ask him.

Fender used to have an active PP-bass in the eighties and nowadays there's a PP-jazz.



My Stryker has the Entwistle-mirrored P configuration. I don't think it's very much like a P, because it has active pickups, active electronics, it's neck through and it has a hollow body. But still my experience:

The split on the front has the pickup underneath the E and A to the front and the D and G to the back, like a normal P. I always find this a bit strange, because the thinner strings sound even thinner.
But the second split has the D and G to the front, so very close to the other one, and the E and A have the coils at the back. In that way, the E and A have the singlecoil and something at the back without much use, but the thinner D and G strings have two pick ups very close, like a humbucker, so the whole bass sounds more even.

Is that clear? English isn't my mother tongue, so sometimes it's hard to explain things:)

[Dave W]

Gibson did put out the short-lived Leland Sklar signature, Uwe has one, also a couple of other people some of us know from the Pit days, Bob Gollihur and Jerome Gaw (funkycarnivore). Uwe doesn't think the sound is anything special.

It was too Fender-like to ever sell much for Gibson even if they had really promoted it -- which they didn't. IIRC it had the same setup as Leland's bass it was modeled on.

[jumbodbassman]

i built a double p bass from warmoth years ago and very recently sold it in my tag sale on TB.  Had schaller pups in it which are even hotter dimarzios.  Actually put ser/par switches in it as it was too hot at times.  The bridge position is very j bass like without  the hum but  slighther thinner on the d g strings because where it is.  If i were to do it again  (more like when)  i would flip the pups around which IIRC is what Sklar's  bass has also EMG's..  



Warwick likes the bookended  p bass which i don't love on this anniversary blondie which i never use and will sell one of these days.  

[uwe]

The Gibson LS Sig was originally a Valley Arts project, Lee knew the owner of Valley Arts, essentially a boutique Fenderesque instruments outfit. They got bought by Gibson and the project torn from them at the behest of Henry J. Lee had wanted a budget version of his heavily sanded down Frankenstein Fender, but through the Gibson transfer it mutated into a Custom Shop project. They matched the original slavishly, mandolin frets, reverse split coils, Hipshot hardware and passive treble control (though the pups are active). Lee didn't like the end product for whatever reason and claims that he never played or owned one, but that might be history revisionism, the basses were advertised with him holding one at the time and that can't have happened without his consent.

The bass sounds like a tame Stingray I guess or like a Sabre minus the extreme cancelling out of the Sabre's two pups. It's the kind of instrument wihich delivers a consistent signal that can be processed well straight into the board, think of Lee's flangy, chorussy and cushiony sound on those Phil Collins ballads. Not a sound I can do much with, I have mine strung with Roto black tapewounds and it sounds with them like a Piezo bridge bass would, minus the harshness. Interesting, but perhaps you wouldn't have needed the Gibson Custom Shop for it!!!!