PJ Special Pick-up Replacement

[pgbassman]

I recently bought a MIM P-bass special which plays great but I'd like to explore upgrading the pick-ups and maybe the bridge. Anyone have any stories or recommendations to help me through this process?

[Nedmundo]

For pickups, it depends what you're after tone-wise, but IMO you can't go wrong with a Lindy Fralin set, which you should get with the noiseless Split Jazz. I have his P pickup, and the Split Jazz set in my J, and they're great.

They're expensive, and for a non-boutique option I'd probably get Seymour Duncans. Maybe an SPB-1 P pickup and Hot Stack noiseless J. For an aggressive hard rock set, DiMarzio Model P and Model J would work, but IMO those lack some vintage warmth. They do sound great in a hard rock band mix though.

Bridge-wise, I really like the Gotoh 201, which was a nice upgrade on my MIM Fender project.

[lowdown3]

I bought a Jazz Bass DELUXE with the active PUPS and I am thinking aboutdoing the same thing.....Maybe a BadAss Bridge II

[pandathe3]

Pop a graphtech trem nut in it. Only costs 5£/$ and you wouldn't believe the difference it makes......

As for the pick-ups. Leave you jazz one as it is and replace the split-coil with a quarter-pounder. I've seen alot of P-specials with this and they sound powerful. You'll need to compensate with the height of the pick-up due too the output.

Bridge, well, I've never been too keen on a badass2, but they are a very popular replacent. I'd go for the gotoh, or if you can find one, a Badass3 bridge

[pgbassman]

pandathe3...Isn't the quarter pounder a passive PU. How would I be able to marry that to the exsisting active J-bass PU?

[Craig_S]

DiMarzio markets a P/J set, with a dual coil Jazz pup. That's the set for me. Great sounding pups, passive and silent.