Basslines SPB-3 Quarter pounder

This is a powerful split-coil Precision pickup with large, fixed pole pieces. The D-G segment has a Basslines logo, which helps you keep things straight while you're installing them. Similarly, the wiring between the two halves reduces the possibility of reversing one or the other. Electronics are passive.

It's identical in size to the Fender, so it drops right into the rout on a Precision body.

I have installed the Quarter Pound in two Fender Precision basses. One is a Classic '50s with a maple fingerboard, alder body, and aluminum pick guard. I string it with Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flat strings. The other is a new Fender Standard FSR with a rosewood fingerboard, ash body, and plastic pick guard. I currently have it strung with LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass nylon tape wound flats. This one will become a fretless, at which time it will get a set of TI JFs like the other.

the QPs replaced stock Fender pickups, and there are no other modifications.

I changed them because a trusted bass player told me that the combination of QP and TI Flats would result in the Voice of God (I'll remark here that the Classic '50s was my first Precision; I had been playing a Carvin LB20, a Tribute by G&L L2000 and a Fender '51 Precision Reissue, all very good basses).

These are hot pickups, easily much louder than the stock items. I plug the bass into two rigs: I perform at gigs with an Ampeg B100R combo, and practice through an early '70s Music Man HD130 head into a Hartke 410XL cabinet. At gigs I run a cord from the line out on the Ampeg into its own channel on the mixer, and use the amp essentially as a stage monitor.

Precisions are famous for midrange punch, and the SPB-3 exaggerates the natural tendencies of the P design: it's more and better. Louder, punchier, and better note definition. This pickup and the TIs are a marriage made in heaven; the LaBellas have a nasal tone (depending on where you pluck the string) and lack the definition. They impart a more 'bottomy' tone than the TIs, but don't cut through as well.

The current band I'm in plays contemporary country top 40, classic rock, blues rock, folk rock -- whatever people will dance to. I can imagine material where the sound would be too present or in-your-face, but that's not the case here.

In fact, the band is nuts about the Classic '50s P. I have a fretless Jazz which I took to a gig to play on some of the ballads we do, and tried it out on about six songs in the second set (we ordinarily do 4 45" sets a night). At the break, the rhythm player (and singer) came over to where I was sitting and said, "that new bass don't cut it." Then the lead player came over and said, "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it."

Undaunted, I took the FSR to the next gig. They noticed I didn't have the Classic '50s during the sound check, SO THEY SENT ME HOME TO GET IT!

If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is....

And yes, it is the Voice of God.

There's no better combination for me than the SPB-3 and the TI Jazz Flats.

I have been playing bass since 1981, although until we formed our current band a year and a half ago I had played lead much more than bass. I have a 1970 Les Paul Deluxe, just sold a 1963 Chet Atkins Country Gentleman, own a Dobro and a '30s Regal resonator, just traded off a pedal steel, and I have a couple of acoustic flat tops and 4 basses, all Fenders: the '51 Reissue, the Jazz fretless, the Classic '50s P and the FSR P.

I have been through a fair amount of gear, including a 1963 Ampeg B15N, and I have a computer-based project studio.

I love the sound of the SPB-3, which by now you should have guessed. It really killed my interest in other basses (except the FSR fretless project, but it's intended to sound as much as possible like the current favorite P) It cuts through the noise on stage, and it records very well. We recorded a demo at a local digital studio (yeah, I know, I could have done it, but it's SOOOO nice not to have to run the machinery AND play the material) and, even with a rough mix, the bass lines are right up front without being annoying or masking other elements in the mix. If you have a P, you can get the pickup and the TI strings for not much over $100, and that will provide an amazing bass sound.

As much as I rave about this pickup, note one caveat: getting them to sit at the right height in the bass is a challenge. The pickup covers on the factory pickups fit tightly enough that they grip the pickup itself, so that when you adjust the mounting screws up and down, the pickup goes up and down with it. The covers on the Quarter Pound don't fit that tightly, and on both installations I used pieces of the packing foam that came in the box to set the pickups where I wanted them. Without the foam under the pickup halves, the pickups just sunk into the rout in the body. I'd like to see Seymour Duncan fix this problem. Apparently this foam trick is normal among Precision players who install the SPB-3. That drops it from a 10 to a 9.

Nonethiess, if something happened to this bass, I'd do my best to duplicate it as soon as possible. If fact the rest of the band would make sure that I did!

P-Bass style pickups, split. Very large pole pieces steel.
"Basslines" name logo on the pickup visable.

Instaled on my Fender P-bass special in the neck position. The bass also has a Jazz Bass style single coil pickup in the bridge position which I did not replace so it's orginal. This is the same pick up which is standard equipment on one of the Fender signiture model Basses. The bass player from Blink 182 , Mark Hopkiss model I think?
I replaced it because I wanted a phater tone and a bit hotter pickup.

Output is fairly HOT. Tone is Awsome. Clean and clear, not muddy, it's got serious BALLS. There is no other way to discribe it. Great P-bass tone just a bit thicker than standard. I use this bass for Rock, classic Rock, and heavyer stuff. I really don't play loud metal but if I did this would be the pick up. Not braging this really is the best pick up I've ever heard and I've had many. Makes a Fender P-bass sound more like a Musicman bass.

This is the way to make an ok Bass sound fabulous. Buy a good P-bass with a nice neck and instal this pick up. You will never be sorry. I'm considering replacing all my basses with these.