Ok, I have a set of Barts in by 72 P-bass and they sound fantastic. I purchased a nice new MIA Standard Jazz bass last Dec. I wanted some of the same tecture and tone I have with the P-bass but in a J-bass. I get my new pickups, put them in, tweek the crap out of em, finally get it to sound really killer. The question is this:

When both pickups are full on, it is not as loud as with the front on full and the bridge a quarter rolled off. Also, they are not as hot as the P-bass.

What's up with this??!!!!

Andy
Howlersblues.com

Could you have hooked them up out of phase? That will make them cancel each other out when the volume is equal. Also, Bartolini makes a bunch of J pups, some of which aren't very loud. Could you have gotten some of the "quieter" ones?

it's the way a jazzbass is wired.. some pickups are very sensitive to it.

Yeah, it sounds like your pickups are out of phase. I had the same problem with my PJ. The pickups sounded great by themselves, but lost volume and depth when together. Check the Seymor Duncan web page for a Jazz bass schematic. They are easy to read, and it should clear up your problem.:)

Andy - Have you played around with your pickups' heights relative to the strings???

Rickbass - Yea, I tweek the hight of them all over the place. I hooked up both my P-bass and the J-bass to a 4 track recorder and use the VU meter to compare the signal. Then I tried to level out the J to match the db levels the P was producing. This really helps when swapping between bass during a gig. I got really close. I just noticed that there was a slight volume drop with both full open. With one full and the other at 80% full, it is loud and full. I gues it is just the nature of the beast.

Hey Flatwound, I never heard of Bartolini J pups. Explain this.

Ajbassking - I'll check the web site for the schematic.

Keep it coming guys!

Andy :p

Ok, so I get the schematic and check it out. Looks like I got it hooked up correctly. Remember now, I am getting good volume out of them, just that I noticed the drop at the top of the bridge pickup.

Hmmmmmmm...

Although most Barts will work OK passive, they are really intended to be running into a Bart preamp, so dont expect premium results from them.

1. "J pups" = J-bass pickups

2. Bartolinis should do just fine in passive. Not that a preamp won't "improve" the sound somehow, but they're not low-impedance or anything.