Fender Jazz 60s Custom Shop vs Vintage Pups

[matti777]

I was wondering what the tonal difference is between the Fender Vintage jazz bass pickups vs their Custom Shop 60s pickups (why wouldn't the CS 60s pickups come in a '62RI anyway?) IIRC one TB'er said the CS pups were very close to the original '64 sound. I've also heard that there is very little difference. The other option is of course NJ4s, Lollars or Fralins to name a few. Just thinking out loud.

ps To me this is the '64 sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zb7MfyESjQ

[Frenchy-Lefty]

I tried the '62 RI, the custom shops and the Frailins for which I settled. IMO The '62 RI Jazz' don't have enough low end to be supportive enough in the mix. To bad, I loved their crunchy highs. The Fender Custom shops are great but there was a quality issue with the neck pickup on my set, I just know the neck pick up gave you exaclty Jaco's sound on a fretted bass. The Frailins are real vintage sounding pickups with more low end. I barely use any Eq, a tad of bass maybe and it sounds just perfect. It's how you recognize good pickups.

[invalidprotocol]

The CS 60's sound fuller more lows. Elements of that recording remind me of the stock pickups that were in my 2008 ASJ before I put in the CS60's. Hard to compare because of not knowing how it was EQ'd and the rotten technique in that recording. The decay on the E string is something awful.

[narud]

nj4's, lollars, fralins, etc are going to sound much more different when compared to the fender pickups than the two sets of fender pickups compared to themselves. the cs60's can be somewhat thin and bright as depending on the set can sometimes be only in the high 6k range. nowhere near as much wire as any of the boutique guys use.

[matti777]

Thanks guys. Maybe I'll pass on the CS 60s then and try one of the boutique pups. The Fralin's seem to be very popular. I see there are tons of them out there from the big names and little ones including Mojo, Tonerider, etc. Some of them are scatterwound and are up in the high 7 or 8k range. I'm experimenting here. Something a little more vintage/wooly sounding would be what I am shooting for. The '62RI pups w/flat wounds sound fairly tame with everything full on.

[Frenchy-Lefty]

Originally Posted by matti777

Thanks guys. Maybe I'll pass on the CS 60s then and try one of the boutique pups. The Fralin's seem to be very popular. I see there are tons of them out there from the big names and little ones including Mojo, Tonerider, etc. Some of them are scatterwound and are up in the high 7 or 8k range. I'm experimenting here. Something a little more vintage/wooly sounding would be what I am shooting for. The '62RI pups w/flat wounds sound fairly tame with everything full on.

You'll be happy with them. I tried 8 pickup sets and the '62RI were the ones I had before getting the Frailins. I agree, the '62RI were kinda weak with the flats. The Frailins are very wooly/vintage indeed

[matti777]

Originally Posted by Frenchy-Lefty

You'll be happy with them. I tried 8 pickup sets and the '62RI were the ones I had before getting the Frailins. I agree, the '62RI were kinda weak with the flats. The Frailins are very wooly/vintage indeed

Thanks! It was the single coils you used and not the splits right?

[narud]

Originally Posted by matti777

Thanks guys. Maybe I'll pass on the CS 60s then and try one of the boutique pups. The Fralin's seem to be very popular. I see there are tons of them out there from the big names and little ones including Mojo, Tonerider, etc. Some of them are scatterwound and are up in the high 7 or 8k range. I'm experimenting here. Something a little more vintage/wooly sounding would be what I am shooting for. The '62RI pups w/flat wounds sound fairly tame with everything full on.

keep in mind, the majority of old fender pickups werent wound as hot as this boutique stuff and the "vintage/wooly" sound is coming from a combination of yesteryear's recordings and amplification.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by narud

keep in mind, the majority of old fender pickups werent wound as hot as this boutique stuff and the "vintage/wooly" sound is coming from a combination of yesteryear's recordings and amplification.

+100

[Frenchy-Lefty]

Yes I have the single coil Lindy's. And yes it is true they have more wire than real vintage pickups but you don't need an old SVT to sound good. It sounds fat even in my Markbass LMII.

[matti777]

Well I bought some used Fralin's from a fellow TBer. We'll see how this little experiment goes .

[PJRL]

I want to hear what you think.

I have a mid 90's 62RI with stock P-up, they are OK but I want to try the CS60's or maybe something else. I want them to be in the "vintage" winding / DC range though.

[matti777]

Originally Posted by PJRL

I want to hear what you think.

I have a mid 90's 62RI with stock P-up, they are OK but I want to try the CS60's or maybe something else. I want them to be in the "vintage" winding / DC range though.

Will do. Someone here said the newer '62RI pups were similar to the CS60's but I have no idea.

[narud]

Originally Posted by PJRL

I want to hear what you think.

I have a mid 90's 62RI with stock P-up, they are OK but I want to try the CS60's or maybe something else. I want them to be in the "vintage" winding / DC range though.

if you your bass' pickups has the non beveled pole pieces, and copper colored wire when you take the covers off then you have a a better pickups than the cs 60's imo. a touch fuller and louder. still no where near as hot as something like a fralin though.

[matti777]

Well I've got Fralins in there now. They are a definite improvement over the stock pups. The bass is much more responsive now. The new pups really woke it up. I wouldn't say the tone on the neck pickup is much different but the bridge pup sounds much more Jaco'ish solo'd with the tone turned down. I really like them.

ps I'm running Chromes if that matters. I also did a little shielding work which helped a bit on the hum.

[Toptube]

I've tried posting in the Jaguar club thread a couple of times regarding various Jaguar things and got no response. to include Custom shop 60's.

So I'm resurrecting this thread:

I bought Fender Custom Shop 60's and put them in my MIJ Fender Jaguar. I find them to be flat sounding, low output, and their overall sound is more of the clunk clunk rather than a nice continuous tone. You know, sounds like someone is plucking dull metal on dull metal, rather than a sweet bass guitar sound. I wouldn't say they are "dark" sounding, but they definitely are not "open" or "sweet" sounding (wasn't expecting that, just saying it). They also do not sound like they emphasize lows or low mids. Just flat and unremarkable. Reminds me a lot of an SX Jag I had for a couple of months.

So I'm finding these to be super lame. Especially after they only came with JUST enough wire to fit a standard Jazz (see: not nearly enough for a Jaguar). They came with some shielding plates with ground wires soldered to them. Its the same wire as the pickups, so I removed that from the plates and twisted/soldered it to extend the pickups wire to fit the Jaguar. Pretty dumb.

I know the pickups aren't wired out of phase because I made the mistake of copying the wiring job of the stock jaguar pickups and found that the custom shop 60's were backwards color coded and that made them out of phase and they sounded awful. So the wiring was reversed and they are wired correctly.

I get it that these pickups just may not be for this bass. But this bass un-amplified sounds fantastic. I seriously enjoy listening to this bass unplugged. and the Jaguar pickups sound pretty darn great in it, just not my ultimate dream sound. My favorite bassist plays a 60's jazz bass (she has an amazing idling chainsaw growl tone of the best low mids I've ever heard), so I thought (all differences in amp and cabs aside) these might bump me a little closer in her tone direction. Completely wrong, I was. The stock ceramic Jag pickups were actually much closer.