J Bass Pickup Thoughts

[ezweave]

I didn't find exactly what I was looking for via search, so... My favorite bass right now is my 2000 American Standard Jazz, but I've never tried any pickups other than the stock Fender ones (which Googling tells me are pretty much the same as the ones on more recent models, Alnico, nothing fancy). I don't have a huge complaint with regards to tone, but I wouldn't mind something with higher output and maybe more mid range.

 

The tired axiom, "the grass is always greener..." certainly applies, but I'm curious about DiMarzios, Fralins, and any others I might not be aware of. I have watched/listened to a few video clips (this series in particular), but the finger style more traditional sound isn't helping me.

 

I play a pretty treble heavy, grindy style of bass. Sort of something between a full on clangy roar and warm and fuzzy. My current rig of choice is a 72 Silverface Bassman into a variety of cabs, with nothing more than a Rat for a wee bit of grind. I kind of go for something between David Wm Sims (who used a Rat in front of GKs for TJL), Lemmy, Clint Conley (Mission of Burma), and Greg Norton. As one might guess, this is not a particularly popular style of bass tone in the larger world, so finding a good pickup for that isn't exactly easy.

 

In my brain, the name "Quarter Pound" from SD makes them sound like big, burly, loud pickups, but all the demos I find make them sound duller than the stock ones (I've never loved SD pickups on any kind of guitar).

 

Now, I've also {censored}ed up a few instruments by doing this (I have a relatively rare Epi Elitist Japanese Built LP that I ripped all the wiring out of and put EMGs in, which I regret having done, especially as I traded the US Gibson pickups for a stupid Digitech Wah pedal I never use), so I'm in no hurry to do something stupid.

[WRGKMC]

I put a Seymour in one of my basses and I really wasn't that impressed with its output in the bridge position. It was a short scale bass and not a Jazz bass and I suppose it was better then no bridge pickup at all.

 

I recently swapped it with another Wilkerson Humbucking pickup. http://www.guitar-warehouse.ie/prodimgs/internet/MWJF5.jpg Its got the same dimples for the screws so routing one side of the hole to widen it wasn't so bad. The sound improved dramatically and its stronger output balances much better with the guitars existing Humbucker

 

 

If I had known the J bass pickup would be so weak in comparison to the Gretch Neck Humbucker, I would have chosen a different pickup for the bridge.

 

If you don't plan on routing the body ( something I advise against) You do have some pickup options you can try thay are completely reversabe if you ever plan on selling the bass. Bartolini makes some good pickups and so does EMG.

 

You might want to just install and active EQ/Preamp. Not sure how much room you have in the control cavity but these little two band EQ's work like a champ. http://artecsound.com/pickups/electronics/se2.html Thay make several different versions. http://artecsound.com/pickups/electronics/index.html I put the multi purpose in an electric Sitar of mine and it had amazing results.

[HoobaStunk]

 

I like the Fender Noiseless J Bass pickups (the N3 models). The DiMarzio noiseless DP123 models are pretty much the same pickup as the Fender.

[JPBass]

DiMarzio work great. put em in a 62 re issue J....sound sweet with plenty of bite...slightly different timbre than the Fenders.

[Systolic]

Delano JMVC 4 FE. Big pole pieces tend to be very aggressive and trebley.....kinda MM like.

[WRGKMC]

You can get allot more tonal variety with a pedal then you can with pickup changes. I bought one of those Vox bass pedals recently and the tonal ranges from any pickups is quite amazing.