PBass Chameleon

I would love to share my impressions of the P-Bass Rhythm pickup with you.

I kept the instrument and amp settings consistent with the original Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Pickup. I did a very fare comparison: Same Strings ( Elixir NANOWEB 4-String Medium, Long Scale .050 - .105), Same Amp Settings and Song Test.

It's insane! Moving from the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound to this was like lifting a blanket off the tone. It retains all the punch and thickness the Duncan had but added all this extra harmonic content and organic feeling to the sound I had never heard in a bass pickup before.

For once I did not feel like I needed to rely on an EQ to make the bass cut through a mix. It literally sounded like a blanket had been lifted off of the sound. It responded better to my playing dynamics and reacted exactly as a pickup should and then some. My musical project relies on bass as it's main melodic instrument and without any adjustment at all, this pickup gave me the most incredible and satisfying result - it truly is exactly as described on your website.

Now any good test needs to have as little variables as possible hence my want to keep the EQ identical for the initial test. After I tested it in that format and the Kinman blew the Duncan out of the park I went on to mould the EQ to my taste with the Kinman.

Starting flat (in turn reducing the Treble from the Duncan's EQ settings) the Kinman STILL cut through the mix perfectly. The pickup allows the bass to sit exactly where it should and never needs to be made to fit with any compression or extra EQ. It cuts through but never sounds shrill or tinny, it NEVER gets lost in a mix and the low end NEVER sounds muddy or undefined. I found the first impression when matching the Duncan's EQ didn't make the Kinman sound shrill or tinny despite it's extra clarity and presence - it just added this sonically pleasing top end growl that could work amazingly in a metal context but for me this was unnecessary as the treble on flat proved to have amazing presence and clarity and for my taste this is all I needed and it worked a charm.

It is amazing to know that despite the increase in any EQ (I tried boosting them all for fun) it never sounded bad; it only enhanced that frequency but never allowed it to overpower or sound too extreme, it's like you have only focused on including the nice frequencies while being able to rid of the troublesome ones without sacrificing and only capturing tone. I ended up reducing the Midrange on my amp only slightly due to it being quite a mid heavy amp and I felt that the Midrange in the pickup complimented my sound more than the amp - having said that, if it was to be used in a different musical context it could be very valuable to experiment with EQ. I feel the Kinman produces a perfect canvas tone so it can respond well to any genre or EQ setting desired by the artist. The pickup was hot and agressive when it needed to be but was clean and concise when it needed to be - all reacting perfectly to how I attacked the strings.

I should also mention that I tune my instruments to D Standard (D G C F) and use the heaviest strings possible and where the Duncan used to get muddy in the lower end strings and amplify some annoying resonant frequencies, I found that the Kinman only made the low end clearer and thicker and more defined. When headed toward the higher strings and even up the fretboard it had this beautiful, clear and descriptive tone that I had never heard before - the perfect compliment to the extremely accurate representation to the lower strings (even with such low tuning).

You have struck gold and I appreciate your hard work and dedication to the cause of tonal excellence incredibly. I can not stress enough how satisfied I am with your products and I feel you are definitely keeping the Kinman name true and strong with this pickup.

Your truly loyal and faithful customer, Adriano