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A lot of favourite recordings feature Fender electric bass guitar. Anyone seeking to imitate those recordings will get a closer facsimile by using a bass guitar with the same Fender format pickup(s).
Reason 2 - Excessive midrange fatness.
Just as with guitar, side-by-side dual coil bass guitar pickups have plenty of midrange "fatness". In some musical contexts, the extra midrange frequency content can mess up the overall mix of a piece of music.
On many modern bass guitars with side-by-side format dual coil pickups, the control harness will include onboard active equalisation. Reducing the mid range frequency band can result in a more usable bass guitar sound overall.
Reason 3 - Unique pickup construction.
Some popular electric bass guitar pickups are constructed in unusual, nay unique, ways. Some times, it is beyond the capabilities of fancy electronics to reproduce the sounds of crude 1940s technology. This may be the only way to get a specific bass guitar tone.
Reason 4 - Positioning
As with guitars, where a pickup is positioned along the length of a bass guitar string has some effect on the tone produced. Certain designs lend themselves well to one position but sound terrible in another.
For instance, adding a Precision Bass pickup to a Jazz Bass. There is a way to extend the stock pickup cavity that removes as little body wood as possible and leaves the new pickup surrounded by a visually pleasing border of pickguard plastic. Unfortunately, this position is closer to the nut than where the pickup goes on a Precision Bass. The difference is sufficient to spoil the sound.
The EBMM Stingray pickup goes best in the position where we are accustomed to seeing it on Stingray and Sterling basses. The original Sabre Bass and the Stingray HH have a second pickup closer to the neck. IMO, this never sounds anything like as good as the exact same pickup in the "sweet spot".
Reason 5 - Combinations
Some bass guitar combinations seem to compliment each other. Others seem to tread on each other's toes, so to speak.
Stingray + short Jazz Bass combine nicely.
Stingray + Precision do not. I would govern this pairing with a selector switch rather than a blend pot.
The majority of Classic recordings were made with a Precision. That's probably the sound in your head.
The reason for this is that 50/60Hz hum is a more serious problem for basses than guitars because it's right in the frequency range of the instrument, as opposed to below it where it can largely be rolled off. (50Hz is just sharp of the low G.)
The exceptions are the '51-style Fender P-Bass - technically obsolete, as it was replaced by the '57-style split pickup version - and the Rickenbacker 4001/4003, which is just perverse!
In fact, a P/J configuration is also a slight problem because it has one hum-cancelling pickup and one not, so with both pickups on it's inherently noisier than a straight Jazz.
For what it's worth I have humbuckers in my Rick, exactly for this reason. Contrary to what you might expect, it doesn't stop it sounding like one at all - the unique sound of these basses is more in the construction, hardware and pickup positions than it is in the pickups themselves.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Have you tried a Sandberg VM? That's a P/Ray combo and I think it sounds pretty good. Granted the Ray style pickup is closer to the bridge, and the P position is reversed but that's my preference any time a P pickup is paired with a bridge pickup. I don't like the different mid scoops relative to the bottom and top two pairs of strings on a PJ with the traditional P layout, it is too scooped on the low strings for my tastes.
I have a HH stingray and while the neck pickup on its own isn't anything to write home about the position with the inner coils sounds great to me.
Re: excessive midrange fatness I agree, this is often an issue when humbuckers are wired in series. From what I understand Stingrays are wired in parallel, and on my L2K Tribute I pretty much always leave it in parallel as the series mode is too thick. The only bass pickups I've found I like in series are Precision type split pickups. Running two single coils together in series can work well but in general parallel seems to better suit what I'm looking for in a bass tone.
A lot of PJ basses have a hum-cancelling Jazz bass pickup for precisely this reason.
In the case of a PJ that makes most sense. On an actual Jazz bass I prefer real singles when it comes to the blended pickup tone, you seem to get a more pleasing scoop that way, but it depends how much you use the blend position vs the individual pickups and how much noise is an issue.
I find active pick ups on a bass quite interesting, bit of a mind f**k after guitar electrics. I know in the past I've compared them to the controls on hi fi - so they actually do something and full up isn't 'home' like it is with passive electronics. Just such a lot of control from the instrument itself.
I wonder why P type split coil pick ups never caught on for guitar ( I think G and L have used them?) as they seem such a good solution.
Johnny Winter used to use a XII as a six-string and that sounded pretty good. I would rather like a Jazzmaster with split coils on it.
Maybe it's something to do with the look - they do look a little out of place on a guitar for some reason.
My modified MIG Warwick Corvette Standard has active pickups running through simple 25k roll-off pots for volume, volume, tone. The EQ can be adjusted by two micro switches in the pickup cover.
On my old EBMM Stingray 2-band Baxandall EQ, full up is maximum boost. Fully down is a bit bland and lifeless. Hence, the typical working position for these controls is somewhere in the middle of their rotational range.
Much of what I would wish to do with cutting or boosting can be achieved with a sweepable, semi-parametric midrange control.
Enough about me, already.
Just looking at pictures of the XII and it does look a bit odd, but then so much about guitars is what we are used to. The Fender Wide Range humbucker is, I guess, a near relative.
Fender "reissue" WRHs aren't built like that though, they're basically cheap generic humbuckers under the covers.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
https://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk/custom-handwound-pickups-from-the-creamery/domino-split-coil-single-coil-voiced-humbuckers.html#CLASSICDOMINO:
which seems to be a wide range reissue but talks about having a single coil sound.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
None of this is helping the OP. But interesting.