Does this sound feasible? P-bass w/MM pickup in bridge

[Scott01]

I want to build a project bass, planning to make a 4 string P bass, with a triple coil musicman humbucker in the bridge position.

I wanted to get that sterling/stingray sound, but I cannot find any cheap basses for to rebuild, so I thought about making it from scratch.

Then I could only find pre-made blank bodies in the Jazz or Precision style, so I got this idea about building a P bass (because I'd love one of them also) and just adding in a musicman pickup with a 2/3 band preamp to get that funky musicman sound. However, I don't know whether this is going to get the stingray sound I'm after... I can't see why it wouldn't. I know the features aren't exactly the same as real musicman, but it wouldn't be that far off either

Do you think this would work?

Here is the body/neck I planned on buying:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300340342646&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290341730451&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I know, the maple neck grain looks fugly, but I was planning on making the whole guitar matte black; neck, headstock, body and all (like the Musicman S.U.B's) and having just chrome hardware/pickguard.

The body is northern hard ash, and not southern swamp ash like the musicman's but nonetheless warmoth describes the wood as being popular for its tone. So i figured it should be alright.

The rest of the hardware/electronics etc I haven't decided on, I am interested in some suggestions though... Basically I just want a quality P bass sound, more modern (punk/rock sound) rather than vintage and from the MM pickup I want to get as close as possible to the typical Musicman stingray/sterling sound (similar to flea's earlier sound).

Any help or advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Edit: One area I would like advice with is the paint... I have no idea what type of paint or how I should apply it. Apparently the northern ash is open pore and requires a lot of finish to be applied. Does this mean I should use an undercoat or something? How would I go about painting the maple neck also? (I will be masking off the fingerboard + Nut)

[FunkMetalBass]

The location of the MM pickup might not be exactly where it is on a stingray, but you can feasibly stick an MM-pup in between the P-pup and the bridge.

[Scott01]

Well I figured both P and Stingrays are 34" scale, so if I measured out the distance from the saddles to the pole pieces, I'd be able to located where the identical position would be on a P bass... Trimming the pickguard and routing it wouldn't be too hard.


Anyway, on a more important note, I priced up the cost of all the hardware and electronics.... its over $600 for just those alone

I guess this won't be happening. Maybe if by chance a really good deal comes up on a P bass, I might buy it and mod it. I had no idea building from scratch would be so expensive

[FunkMetalBass]

My argument about pickup placement is due to the fact that the p-pups might get in the way of properly placing the MM-pup.

Why not grab an SX p-bass or some other knock-off brand and mod that? Then you can grab the pickup and EQ for $300-ish and it'll be a much cheaper route.

[edgebass5]

Originally Posted by FunkMetalBass

My argument about pickup placement is due to the fact that the p-pups might get in the way of properly placing the MM-pup.

+1

A split coil P pickup in ints traditional location and an MM in the traditional MM location (i.e. not a "true" bridge position like you'd find with a J+J configuration) will overlap one another. The P has to go forward, or the MM has to go backwards.

In regards to Flea's early tone: He earliest tones were largely a Spector (I can't recall the model) and a Wal Mach 1.

In regards to the triple coil MM: These are tough as a typical routing template for an MM pickup won't get the job completely done. There's a "trench" route that has to be added to the bottom of the pickup route to accomodate the third coil for silent single coil operation. There are a number of pickup manufacturer's that make quad coil MM's that will fit into a typical MM route. As I recall, these won't allow for silent single coil operation, but they do allow for some interesting combinations for coil tapping and won't require the additional routing for a triple coil.

[Scott01]

Originally Posted by FunkMetalBass

My argument about pickup placement is due to the fact that the p-pups might get in the way of properly placing the MM-pup.

Why not grab an SX p-bass or some other knock-off brand and mod that? Then you can grab the pickup and EQ for $300-ish and it'll be a much cheaper route.

No one sells SX's around my area in Australia, and I cannot find anyone who is willing to ship to Australia... I tried contacting Rondo music, they referred me to another site which was non-responsive to my emails...

[Joseph Oberlander]

You might also consider other types of similar pickups. The Stingray is just a double-row Seymour Duncan alnico type pickup. You can get nearly the exact same thing Duncan directly, for less cost. Carvin also makes a pretty decent clone of the Duncan and I think they have an Australia distributor now.