Jay Turser Pup Swap

[obviousmrfuller]

I may be inviting trouble, here, but the idea was too good for me to pass up. I bought a Jay Turser JTB-401 '57 P-bass copy and I love it. Big, fat tone and good playablility. When running direct, though, I was unhappy with the sound. I decided to drop in a Gibson mudbucker-type pick up. I have never attempted anything like this, but I have a dremmel tool for the routing and figured, how hard could it be? There's just the 2 wires and I figured I could make it fit pretty easy. What don't I know about this? Will I need to change the pots? Help!

[optikhog]

I don't know that you're inviting trouble, but I tried changing pickups a few times on a JTB-401 when I owned it and never found anything which was better than the stock pickup for that thing. I dunno if it's the soft wood or what, but that stock single-coil brings that bass to life.

[Pilgrim]

I've read a lot of posts about the Turser 401, and I also own one. I read a number of reports from owners who swapped pickups - even to Fender antiquity style pickups - and who went back to the Turser pickup. It seems to be a good one.

If I were going to do a pickup swap, I would get one that's a drop-in to the existing route. That pickup has no ring or other trim around it, so if you enlarge the route, you'll need to do some very careful wood sealing and touchup to match the existing finish. You could very easily end up needing to put a trim ring around that pickup ($40 to $60) if your hand slips.

I suggest putting some effects boxes (maybe a SAABDI or Behringer BDI-21) after the bass to tweak the sound, and just leaving it as is.

[obviousmrfuller]

The mudbucker is larger than the previous routing, so cosmetically, I'm not too worried. I somehow knew the two of you would try to talk me out of it as your previous posts were the ones I looked at before buying the 401. I am worried about getting the pup in there and then not liking the change as it would most likely be effed for putting original back in. I have other basses for going direct. I was hoping for an all-in-1. But, I guess that's what GAS is for. Thanks for the advice, guys.

[Pilgrim]

Another option: try Labella Deep Talkin' flatwound strings. You might get the sound you're looking for.