60's Jazz Pickups: Klein J-Bass 60s, Lollar JBs, Seymour Duncan Antiquity II

[ac3320]

I've narrowed it down to those three options for my alder/rosewood AVRI jazz.

History-->

I have previously tried:

1. Fender Original 60s: (stock on AVRI jazz's and a plethora of other Fender offerings). Felt they were the stock/standard that everything got compared to. Tone was sort of plastic. I know that's a stupid way to describe it, but it just sounded, well, stock. Not uber characterized/vintaged at all. Just a good set of jazz PUs. Looking for some mojo!

2. Sadowsky's Single Coils: supposedly SD Antiquity II's w/o the aging. (?) Have heard different things about whether it is just a cosmetic thing or if they are custom versions of the Antiquity II's based on Rogers specs. I felt they were decent in my ash/maple parts bass back in the day, but it would be impossible to generalize any tones to the alder/rosewood wood combo I have going on now..

3. Nordstrand NJ4: really pretty sounding single coils. Probably the smoothest (yet present) top end out there. Would absolutely put these in say a Sadowsky (or Nordstrand VJ4) for that 'modern take on vintage tone' type of thing.

4. Lollar JB's: these were the shiz. I liked them a lot for what I was looking for. Sold them with a bass a few months back. Tempted to just go with them again in this current bass, but figured I'd maybe try something new now that I have the chance again.

5. Seymour Duncan SJB-1: these kind of disappointed me. I was expecting them to be more vintage sounding. They seem close to the Fender Original 60s that were stock. Def. less bark on the bridge solo'd than any other pickup I've tried, but overall decent, esp. for the price

Considering-->

1. Klein J-Bass 60s: They have some of the sweetest strat PU offerings out there, esp. a JM ripoff 'scooped' set that is just the beez neez for JM tones. Specs on their's: 8.4K for neck, 8.8K for bridge. $180 new.

2. Lollar JBs: has 7.9K neck and 8.4K bridge. Again, I've tried these and loved them. They have clips on the sight that sound really good too, so that helped me by them way back when. $180 new.

3. Seymour Duncan Antiquity II's: Wound to 8.67K and 8.97K, but TBer narud has found them to vary quite a bit in these windings... So in his opinion, it is hard to generalize this particular set of PUs from this manufacturer. I have heard they are too boomy, and I have heard they are perfect. : / $160 to $180 new.


Thoughts-->

??

What do you guys think? Anyone tried the Klein offerings in particular?

Are any of these closer to vintage 60s Fender stuff than the others?

I'd really appreciate your help all you TB Jazz PU guru's

Let me know why you voted for ____. That will help the discussion and my decision
Thanks!

[narud]

curious if this is what youd say the sjb's sounded like in your bass?
i thought they hefted up a pretty acoustically thin fernandes jazz bass i had
red fern.mp3 - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download

[ac3320]

Originally Posted by narud

curious if this is what youd say the sjb's sounded like in your bass?
i thought they hefted up a pretty acoustically thin fernandes jazz bass i had
red fern.mp3 - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download

I feel that's pretty close. Not a super guru of tone, but I'd say that clip has a decent amount of mid-mids and high mids, but not much low mids. Do you concur?

[narud]

Originally Posted by ac3320

I feel that's pretty close. Not a super guru of tone, but I'd say that clip has a decent amount of mid-mids and high mids, but not much low mids. Do you concur?

that bass acoustically was super thin. i had nords in there and it was even thinner.

my 62 jazz has super fat low mids. when ive put other pickups in there, its gotten leaner. a while back i put a different neck on while i was getting the original neck re-decaled. it became super thin and sounded like a completely different bass so even the bassiest pickups are going to be dependent on what theyre being put in. not all alder and maple is created equal

[Baconator]

I voted for the Antiquities since I have a pair and really like them. Unfortunately, since I haven't tried the others I can't really compare them to the other options, however, I can say they're a fat but nicely balanced (IMO) pickup that does the vintage thing fairly well - i.e. I like them as much as the pickups from my buddy's '63 Jazz.

[depalm]

This is my CAR JB with Lollar J set and Duncans SJB-1

http://soundcloud.com/depalmeira/jb-lollar

http://soundcloud.com/depalmeira/jb-sjb-1

[Mike M.]

If time allows this weekend I'll try to give you my take on the Antiquity II's I had installed in my Jazz bass. The tech who did the work called yesterday and said it's ready but I won't have time to pick it up until Saturday.

I'm looking forward to it. Wanted to try something differant (and passive) so I did some reading, heard some clips, liked what I heard and thought why not?

[ac3320]

Decisions, decisions I'm inclined to go with the Antiquity II's, but Klein makes some DAMN fine strat pickups, so it's hard to decide for sure..

[paulrider]

I've ABed using 2 tenor players, 2 bass players, 2 piano players and 2 drummers and we used the

Fender Custom Shops
Nordstrand NJ4
Fralin Single coils,
Antiquity Is and IIs
Seymour Duncan SJB-2
DiMarzio "Model J" DP123
GFS (GuitarFetish.com)
Tonerider Jazz bass

All of us were initially shocked by how close they are, but we ended up agreeing that the Toneriders sounded as good, if not better than all the others and were less money than all of them after shipping. The GFS sell for less, but the place I found on Ebay that has the Toneriders has free shipping and they end up being less. We really went back and for with the Antiquity IIs and I think that most people get suckered into his claim that they were would like Jaco's were, but I think we all know that Jaco could have played a Vintage Fretless Squier and he still would have sounded like Jaco. My buddy replaced the pick ups in his new 62 Reissue and I replaced the Ant IIs with the Toneriders and love them. They also come packaged beautifully. It's just cool to see a product that sounds great that you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for!

[dany]

Originally Posted by ac3320

I've narrowed it down to those three options for my alder/rosewood AVRI jazz.

History-->

I have previously tried:

1. Fender Original 60s: (stock on AVRI jazz's and a plethora of other Fender offerings). Felt they were the stock/standard that everything got compared to. Tone was sort of plastic. I know that's a stupid way to describe it, but it just sounded, well, stock. Not uber characterized/vintaged at all. Just a good set of jazz PUs. Looking for some mojo!

2. Sadowsky's Single Coils: supposedly SD Antiquity II's w/o the aging. (?) Have heard different things about whether it is just a cosmetic thing or if they are custom versions of the Antiquity II's based on Rogers specs. I felt they were decent in my ash/maple parts bass back in the day, but it would be impossible to generalize any tones to the alder/rosewood wood combo I have going on now..

3. Nordstrand NJ4: really pretty sounding single coils. Probably the smoothest (yet present) top end out there. Would absolutely put these in say a Sadowsky (or Nordstrand VJ4) for that 'modern take on vintage tone' type of thing.

4. Lollar JB's: these were the shiz. I liked them a lot for what I was looking for. Sold them with a bass a few months back. Tempted to just go with them again in this current bass, but figured I'd maybe try something new now that I have the chance again.

5. Seymour Duncan SJB-1: these kind of disappointed me. I was expecting them to be more vintage sounding. They seem close to the Fender Original 60s that were stock. Def. less bark on the bridge solo'd than any other pickup I've tried, but overall decent, esp. for the price

Considering-->

1. Klein J-Bass 60s: They have some of the sweetest strat PU offerings out there, esp. a JM ripoff 'scooped' set that is just the beez neez for JM tones. Specs on their's: 8.4K for neck, 8.8K for bridge. $180 new.

2. Lollar JBs: has 7.9K neck and 8.4K bridge. Again, I've tried these and loved them. They have clips on the sight that sound really good too, so that helped me by them way back when. $180 new.

3. Seymour Duncan Antiquity II's: Wound to 8.67K and 8.97K, but TBer narud has found them to vary quite a bit in these windings... So in his opinion, it is hard to generalize this particular set of PUs from this manufacturer. I have heard they are too boomy, and I have heard they are perfect. : / $160 to $180 new.


Thoughts-->

??

What do you guys think? Anyone tried the Klein offerings in particular?

Are any of these closer to vintage 60s Fender stuff than the others?

I'd really appreciate your help all you TB Jazz PU guru's

Let me know why you voted for ____. That will help the discussion and my decision
Thanks!

Hi all,
Personnaly i Lollar, Lindy Fralin set
I prefer Lindy Fralin , i find they are most closer Fender sound in general..

Do you know and try Baccus pickups... i bought a set from a man who had them on his JB Baccus... They are very very close to the sound of 70's Fender pickups in my opinion... ASAP i will receive a set of 71 Fender i will tell you, if it's confirm or not
Keep on groovin'
Dany

[paulrider]

I'm telling you guys, you have to check out those Toneriders. As you saw in my previous post, I ABed them with about 6 other much pricier pick ups and had bass players, sax players piano players and drummers check them out and they all thought the Toneriders were as good, if not better than the pricier models. How can you lose for $70.00 for the pair?

[ShoeManiac]

I put a pair of the Lollar's into my Fender road worn Jazz bass. WOW, what tone!