PJ bridge pickup selection

[Winston Wolf]

I'm trying to decide which humbucking jazz bridge pickup would be best suited to go with my Duncan Quarter Pounder P bass pickup in my passive PJ bass. I've searched and read most of the related posts already. I'm looking at the Duncan Hot Stack for Jazz Bass STK-J2 and the Dimarzio Ultra Jazz DP148. I would like the outputs of the P and bridge pickup to be balanced in strength if possible. It's hard to compare the outputs between the two brands because Duncan describes output as "High Output" and Dimarzio uses values such as "250" . I've been told that DC resistance values are only measurements of the amount of resistance in the coil of wire and is not an accurate indicator of output or tone. Both companies stated that the bridge pickup should be hotter than the neck pickup in order for the outputs to be balanced. This bass will be used for 70's, 80's, 90's rock covers. Has anyone compared the Ultra J's and the Hot Stack for JB to see which one was louder?

P bass Quarter Pounder 12.5K ohms
Duncan Hot Stack for JB neck 17.8K ohms, bridge 25.2K ohms
Dimarzio Ultra Jazz 12.3K ohms

[Double Agent]

I think your going to have problems getting a balanced output between any normal Jazz pickup and the QP P-bass pickup. The QP P-bass pickup is one the highest output passive pickups on the market. The general consensus, as far as I've seen, for balanced output on a P/J is a low-to-moderate output P-bass pickup, like the Fender Original P-bass or the Duncan SPB-1, paired with a high-output, hum-cancelling Jazz pickup, like the Duncan Hot Stack or Dimarzio Ultra Jazz.

I actually have two pickups to install in my P/J, the Fender Original P and the Dimarzio Ultra Jazz, but have been too lazy to get around to installing them, so I can't speak from personal experience on how well that combo works. On another P/J I used to own, I replaced the stock Jazz p/u with a QP Jazz pickup and the outputs were definitely more even, but the bass hummed whenever I used the Jazz p/u, which prevented me from recording with the Jazz p/u turned on.

Bottom line is, passive Jazz and P-bass pickups are inherently mis-matched and getting them to work together requires a compromise at some point. I chose to use a hum-cancelling Jazz pickup, which never sound like a real single-coil, because I want to able to use the sound of both pickups in the studio if the need should arise. If you want really ballsy P-bass tone, you are going to have to live with an output mis-match with the Jazz pickup. You could go active, but that presents other issues. Best advice I can give is....just pick the combo that you think will make you most happy and run with it.

[Winston Wolf]

Thanks for the reply, DA. I 'm realizing that the Quarter Pounder P pickup is the problem here (since it is so hot). I'm going to try either a Duncan Hot Stack for Jazz or a Dimarzio Ultra Jazz in the bridge positions. If I'm not happy with those combinations I may take the Quarter Pounder out of this PJ Jazz and install it in my stock P bass where I know it will be fine. At that point, I will have to decide which P pickup will go with the Hot Stack or Ultra Jazz. These are fun decisions to be faced with. Playing with this stuff makes me happy.

[ibnzneksrul]

Originally Posted by Double Agent

the Duncan SPB-1, paired with a high-output, hum-cancelling Jazz pickup, like the Duncan Hot Stack

+1, That is a good combo.

As far as being "balanced" -- unfortunately even with a hot bridge pickup the smaller range of string motion nearer the bridge is not going to generate as much signal output in the bridge pickup as what occurs in the neck pickup.