Noisy SD single coils. Dohh

[bubinga5]

Hey people. Just a quick one..Are all J bass style pups single coil. I have very noisy seymore duncans, and understand that all single coils have this problem, until you blend two pups together. What could i replace these with to cut noise??

[Arthur U. Poon]

Originally Posted by bubinga5

Hey people. Just a quick one..Are all J bass style pups single coil. I have very noisy seymore duncans, and understand that all single coils have this problem, until you blend two pups together. What could i replace these with to cut noise??

You're 100% right, the noise problems you're getting from your single coils is normal, -unless you're running both pickups at equal volumes. It sounds to me like you'd like a set of J-style humcancellers. Are you wanting a Fender-type sound? If so, I personally like Duncan's and Nordstrand's Fender-style pickups. I also really like Bartolini's, and I've read a lot of great reviews of Lindy Fralin's Fender-style pickups.


There are many other manufacturers out there making great direct replacement pickups. I'm sure you'll get some pretty good advice from our fellow TBer's once you post what type of sound that you're after.

[Arthur U. Poon]

By the way, you can get some good info from reading Smash's "J-style pickups and comparisons" sticky at the top of this forum's page.

[Liko]

Yup yup, you want humbucking pickups.

Seymour Duncan Classic Stacks will more than likely give you the tone closest to what your current SDs are outputting, just without the noise. If you need to go a little cheaper, the DiMarzio Ultra Jazz set is great, but a little more modern-sounding (almost like a humbucking SD QP, but not quite as fat). I have the UJs in my Mexi Jazz project bass (I've done a lot to it) and they're great for just about any sound except the Geddy Lee mid-heavy growl; You can do it, but it takes just the right amp settings.