Jaguar Bass

Bassscholar · #1 11-14-2007, 03:43 AM

Hello there fellow players...I have had a fender jaguar bass for some time now and I am ready to upgrade my pickups. I was wondering If you guys could tell me if I can just install any J-bass type pickups or not. Because it has special electronics, I am not sure what pickups i can use...It has an active/passive switch...would i need active pickups to use the electronics? It also has a 9-volt..but I am sure that is used only when the bass is using it's preamp. Thanks for any advice you guys can give me...I am not very experienced in wiring...and it seems there are many in this bass.

JamesC · #2 11-14-2007, 07:34 PM

Bump: Interested in this as well.

DavidRavenMoon · #3 11-14-2007, 08:09 PM

The bass comes with passive pickups. You can use anything really, passive or active.

Wouldn't be a bad idea to have a pro do it if it looks to complicated. A lot of the problems I see here are from inexperienced people messing up their wiring.

lug · #4 11-15-2007, 11:14 AM

The Jag has the same pups as found in the Geddy Lee model only with an added preamp.

Bassscholar · #5 11-15-2007, 11:43 AM

Yea? Thanks for the reply guys... I needed to know this. The sound of my bass is extremely bad right now....Ive been using it for a while due to School..and I have to get my practice in everyday but it really sounds horrible. I loved it at first it was fantastic, But after some time I noticed there were sounds buzzing whenever I did not have my hand hand on any metal due to a bad ground, Something happend and now the pickups hardly Even sound my E string. It makes this wavey, dull sound that just makes me mad but it seems to hear all my other strings perfect..and it makes the sound only when I play open E....Weird bass. I love it though, Back when it sounded good. So I guess I will invest in some nice pickups....Alot of my bass teachers and M. Tobias told me the jags have pretty bad craftsmanship, Many of them have issues from what I hear. Well thanks for the post people! Oh yea actually...What type of pickups do yall think would be good? I was thinking some bartolini.... But I am not experienced in pickup sounds....Someone told me Dimarzio, S. Duncan and Vintage fender Jazz also has good sounding ones. I play all types of music, Jazz, Funk, Reggae,Rocksteady,blues etc. so I really want my sound to be flexible. At the moment even with her issues with some Flatwounds she can hold her own in the Reggae, Blues, jazz realms but without the flats, does not sound to good lol ..Thanks again for any advice!

lug · #6 11-15-2007, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bassscholar

....Alot of my bass teachers and M. Tobias told me the jags have pretty bad craftsmanship, Many of them have issues from what I hear.

Um...they would be very incorrect from my experience. Some Jags do have a slight noise problem due the pickguard shielding not contacting the rest of the shielding and it's a VERY simple mod to fix. It is still shielded far better than the average Fender. The fit and finish is on par with all the Japanese Fenders, i.e. excellent. Use the search for the simple noise fix, it's been posted several times here.

smurfco · #7 11-15-2007, 01:41 PM

Did you check the battery?

ishouldbeking · #8 11-15-2007, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smurfco

Did you check the battery?

+10

I recall the first time the battery in my stingray died... I was 19 and had totally forgotten there was a battery, but I sure wondered why my bass sounded like a dying giraffe. I now carry a $6 radio shack battery tester and a supply of 9-volts whenever I play.

Bassscholar · #9 11-15-2007, 05:07 PM

I agree Lug! They all had the really expensive basses...I was in the corner with my Jag thinking STFU!! I did not say it but i was thinking it. I did check the battery and it's fine, the only things i could think of is the sheilding/bad ground... it's one or the other..but I want to upgrade my pickups anyway. Something Is Extremely wrong with it...