| Lakland Hanson Vintage J Hum-Cancelling pickups and 44-AJ bass
I recently heard the Lakland 44-AJ bass and fell in love with the tone. On the USA model this bass has the hum-cancelling vintage J pickups and Lakland / Hanson LH3 preamp. The Skyline features the vintage J single coils and has the Bartolini MK1 preamp. I felt the hum-cancelling pickup really nailed the essence of the vintage Jazz sound to my ears and decided to remove the Seymour Duncan Vintage single coils SJB-1's from my Jazz and replace with the Hansons if they would sell them to me. After contacting Leo at Lakland he managed to get me a set and I installed them in my roadworn jazz which has a sadowsky preamp, rosewood fretboard and alder body.
I find them fuller in all frequencies tone-wise to the vintage single coils I was using. They still retain the essence of a vintage sound with ample growl and better mids (IMHO) than single coils like I was using. The response especially in the mids and lower end of the highs is clean and defined without being harsh - I don't really EQ for the ultra-high frequencies but did notice excellent response all the way up and down but the mids are truly the best I've ever heard and sound great through my Markbass amp or in the headphones through my Tascam Bass trainer. These pickups really nail the vintage Jazz sound too and I prefer them over the dual coils I've tried from Nordstrand and DiMarzio as well (model J and NJ4SV). When I first heard them in the 44-AJ I fell in love. That is still my goal to own, but until I can afford a USA 44-AJ (4300, ouch!) using the same pups has made a big difference to my sound and I really like the Duncan vintage for Jazz pickups too. It also seems like the deadspot on the 4th fret of my G string is better (C# note) than it was with the single coil. Just rings better. The pickups fit into my existing covers as well which was nice. Will try to put some clips up, but the passive sound on these was very clear and full as well as having great sustain and I seemed to EQ them pretty flat even with or without the preamp engaged. | 
