I have a mexican Jazz bass...

[felch182]

But i hate the sound it produces. I am pulling it apart in the next couple of weeks to respray it and i was wondering if there is any pick up on the market with a p-bass tone that could fit onto a Jazz without mods? Cheers fellas

[dougjwray]

Rewire the pickups in series, or better yet, use a push-pull pot so that you can switch between parallel and series. A Jazz Bass in series mode sounds louder and fatter, more like a Precision.
There are diagrams to show you how, if you search for them. (Or, if you pay someone to do it, it's cheap-- should be around $25 or so.)

[felch182]

Sorry Im not very good on the technical terms? Should i get it done professionally?

[dougjwray]

Yeah, it's a pretty common thing to do. I had it done by a guitar repair guy. As I said, it cost about $25 for the labor, plus a couple of dollars for the push-pull pot, which is something a repair shop would probably have around.
When it's done properly, in series mode both pickups work together (only one volume knob will be active); the tone knob still works the same as ever, though.
I think you'd like the tone, if you're thinking "Precision"; also, if you don't like it, you can have it restored to normal (no structural change to the instrument is required), sell it and get a P-Bass!
Good luck...

[Philbiker]

I'd suggest buying an SX P-bass clone from www.rondomusic.net instead of spending money on pickups to make your Jazz bass something it's not. If you want the fat P-bass tone (which is great, BTW and a lot of people love) you don't want a Jazz bass.

[4Mal]

What is is about the sound you don't like ? Who are some of basssists who have sounds you do like ? What is your rig ?

There are plenty of options for upgrading J pickups and J's are plenty flexible. The switch thing mentioned above would be OK, if you already liked the sound of your pickups. Adding the pickups in series will make two kinda dulll pickups sound like a louder dull kinda pickup...

[felch182]

Ok, well I have a Mark bass sa450 head and Im running it through an ashdown 810. I like clean punchy tone with a bit of growl. I also own an American p-bass and a musicman sterling. Im using this bass as a project bass, Im getting it sprayed a bright orange with a purple pearl. Like i said, it's going to be more of a project bass. And btw, don't think Im loaded because i have decent gear, im in a signed band and i still work 7 days a week at a crap job lol

[4Mal]

I have a G&L JB-2 loaded with Rio Grande Muy Grandes. They are a quite thick, punchy J pickup. Hotter and Darker than the normal J. (Those two attributes tend to go hand in hand IME.)

That might be a nice compliment to the Music Man & the P. The other thought I have is going vintage. The Duncan Antiquity is nice. Or an old set of SJB-1's if you can find 'em. Generally punchy and a little more mid present than a P. The bridge pickup in particular really sings on these. You should be able to score a set of the Rio's for say $125 to $140, the Duncan's show up in the used market a lot.

For something completely different, the Bill Lawrence J45 is transparent and quite. Punch out the wazoo. They tend towards brite as they are quite full range. The Mexi body isn't likely to be really brite, so this might not be very noticible to you mounted there. You might use a different cap on the tone pot to darken them up a bit. Kind of a modern J tone. Nice pickup.

[BillyB_from_LZ]

How about just trying some different strings?

[PilbaraBass]

for more of a P-bass like tone from a jazz-sized pickup, you could go for a side-by-side split-coil type jazz pickup...I know that nordstrand makes them...probably some others, too...