old seymore duncan J bass pickups with dip switches

[Indiana Mike]

Can anyone identify what exactly the seymour pickups would be that had the dip switches on the pickups itself. I saw a pair of these on a fairly priced MIM jazz and have no idea what they are and or what they do . I have been unable to find any info on them . Thanks.

Any input , good , bad????

[gfab333]

A friend of mine had a Jazz with these PUs back in the mid '80s. I used the bass on a few gigs. The PUs were cool, but having the dip switches right on the face of the PU bugged me for some reason. So, I never went out and bought them.

I can't recall the model name. They had three mini rocker type dip switches on each PU. I think the switches changed preset EQ curves which were built-in to the PUs. So, you had a variety of tones to choose from depending on the switch settings. I recall being able to get a warm vintage style tone, a super clean '80s EMG tone, and even a near-decent P bass tone with the neck PU soloed. I don't think this gadget really caught on with the masses.

[Indiana Mike]

thanks, I found a nice mim jazz at GC for $249 that has these. The battery always goes dead as it is active and it has no volume controls as the 3 pots are used up for EQ.

I feel that someone did not install a stereo jack to disconnect the batt and no volume or blend sucks A**

I tried talking them down ( a lot ) as I would "gut" the electronics and start over but they only offered some parts , cheap ones at that, I feel they will have this for a long time or someone will get took. They were putting a new batt in it after I showed them it was dead. They said they just changed it last week.

I think a $100 would be more than fair for a butchered bass, they didn't see it that way. Beautiful chrome red sparkly finish in great shape.

Oh well , I may keep working on them as it sits for awhile.

[mimaz]

Years ago, I replaced the stock elctronics in my Fender Power Z Jazz Bass Special with the pickups you are talking about. I used this bass for years in a variety of applications, and got great versatile sound. The short answer about what the switches do is......they change the sound! Here is some info on these PUP's from www.seymourduncan.com :

Functions of switches on old-style "Active EQ" bass pickups
We stopped making the switch pickups ("Active EQ") in the mid-'90s. We replaced them with the Pro-Active? series.
The little rocker switches on the Active EQ pickups change the sound. Switch #1 shifts the coil resonance. On a Jazz Bass? neck pickup and a P Bass? pickup, the resonance moves downward from 22 KHz to 6.4 KHz. On a Jazz Bass bridge pickup, it move downwards from 17 KHz to 4.9 KHz. The effect is to give a more focused sound with a harder attack. Switch #2 gives a broad band bass boost of 4 dB for the Jazz Bass neck and P Bass pickups, and 5 dB for the Jazz Bass bridge. The switches can be a very effective tool for changing the tonal "character" of your instrument.