Favorite J pickups?

[madbassplaya]

Hey JMJ,

I know your primarily a P bass kinda guy, but I was curious as to what types of J pickups you like and what you look for in a set?

Single coil or Humcancelling? Vintage sounding or Hotter sounding? etc...

[Hizzoner]

JMJ recently posted his love for the new aggies and he used dimarzios J's on his Geddy Lees before methinks...this is all from memory and I may be wrong..

[jmjbassplayer]

Exactly! Both very different, yet both are essential for me to have - seriously.

[Hizzoner]

a little birdie told me that Aggie may be unleashing a 70's style J soon too

[madbassplaya]

Originally Posted by jmjbassplayer

Exactly! Both very different, yet both are essential for me to have - seriously.

jmj, i'm thinking about adding some model J's to one of my basses. i understand they aren't single coils at all. do you think they are more Jish in sound or more Pish?

A P bass doesn't work very well for what I do and am wanting a "muscular" jazz rather than a P.

[jmjbassplayer]

They're more J'ish for sure. And they are DEF a more muscular J sound. I definitely recommend.

J

[madbassplaya]

Originally Posted by jmjbassplayer

They're more J'ish for sure. And they are DEF a more muscular J sound. I definitely recommend.

J

Just wanted to let you know that I just ordered a set of these.

It took me a while to do the research to make sure that I wanted them over every other pickup option out there, but I have decided that I want a more muscular J sound rather than a zingy J sound

They are gonna go in my G&L:

[3tsb]

What about Lindy Fralin's? They came stock on my Lakland J-bass. Any opinion on these?

[BoomingBass]

Do you have experience with flatwounds with the Model J's?

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by BoomingBass

Do you have experience with flatwounds with the Model J's?

i do. absolutely brutal! in a good way, of course!

speaking of which, i used my pj with dimarzios model pj's strung with rounds for the first time in a long time, and i never had a set of pickups accentuate the good characteristics of distortion like those. most of my basses don't trigger it anywhere near the degree that these pickups do. i'm seriously thinking about switching all my fenders out to them. probably won't, though...i'm too cheap and lazy

[BoomingBass]

1. Which flatwounds?
2. Does it sound muddy at all? My jazz already sounds kinda muddy with flats especially with both pickups.
3. Did you use series/parallel wiring?

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by BoomingBass

1. Which flatwounds?
2. Does it sound muddy at all? My jazz already sounds kinda muddy with flats especially with both pickups.
3. Did you use series/parallel wiring?

1. an old set of fenders

2. sure, a little boomy...i don't know about muddy but a big fat low end is kind of the point of flats imho.

3. i have no idea how it's wired

[BoomingBass]

Also, some people say it sounds ugly on its own. Is this true?

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by BoomingBass

Also, some people say it sounds ugly on its own. Is this true?

ugly is in the ear of the beholder. i hear nothing ugly about it myself, but i guess if you're used to ringy roundwounds, you might consider it an ugly sound. i don't, though.

[BoomingBass]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

if you're used to ringy roundwounds

Nope, just dead rounds and Chromes

[Ray man]

I like the '75 ri pickups.
I like em better than the Aero type 1 or the 60's custom shop.

[sikamikanico]

Originally Posted by jmjbassplayer

They're more J'ish for sure. And they are DEF a more muscular J sound. I definitely recommend.

J

well, a precision pickup wired in parallel will sound more J'ish too

me, i like how open singlecoils sound... never got that from any split-coil or humbucker (and I love them all, especially P's)...

since my collection is limited, I like my Jazz to have true singlecoils (I have Aero's in my Lakland and they are some fat singlecoils) and my P to have that massive split-coil

[the low one]

Hi Justin,

When you play a jazz style bass are you a neck pickup, bridge pickup or blend of pickups kind of guy ?

[jmjbassplayer]

blend...I never really find one of those pickups on its own very useful for me with what I do.