Suggestions for LOUD Jazz pickups

[SwamiRob]

On my ATK I have a really hot replacement pickup for my humbucker, however the Jazz pickup I have in it currently is nowhere near as thick and loud as it was made out to be before I bought it so I'm after something that has a bit more volume going for it. Just after something nice and deep without being muddy that doesn't give out that awful compressed midrangey messy sound that you get with some pickups when you attack the strings a bit. The humbucker I have stays really clean and deep when you dig in, just need something that can hack it in the neck position too that can give a bit of low mid warmth and depth.

One thing I was wondering about the S/HH setup in general was whether it makes for less cluttered sound to have the humbucker in series to give out a bit less low end and let the neck pickup take care of it (dunno whether bass coming from both pickup causes any bad phasing that reduces the low end sometimes), or whether it can sound better if your after a deep kinda sound for there to be plenty of it coming from both pickups.

[Arthur U. Poon]

For a meaty tone with increased output from a J-style pickup, my favorite is DiMarzio's Model J.

Please note that it's not a tradtional single coil J-style pickup; It's a split coil humbucker housed in a J-pickup housing.

To my ears, it's kind of a "J-Bass meets a P-Bass" type of tone.

I'm sorry, I can't answer your series wiring question.

[RBX4]

Emg jvx

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by SwamiRob

One thing I was wondering about the S/HH setup in general was whether it makes for less cluttered sound to have the humbucker in series to give out a bit less low end and let the neck pickup take care of it (dunno whether bass coming from both pickup causes any bad phasing that reduces the low end sometimes), or whether it can sound better if your after a deep kinda sound for there to be plenty of it coming from both pickups.

Series is always louder and fuller sounding with more low end. Parallel is brighter with less mids and a little less output.

Both pickups are reproducing the low end, but the neck pickups gets more because of its position under the strings.

While you might like the tone with the bridge in parallel when they are both on together, you might also like it better in series solo.

Phase problems are not the way things are supposed to work, and just require one of the pickup's leads to be reversed.

[SwamiRob]

Ah, I meant I have it in series currently if that's the case, I know with speaker mismatching you can get issues with phasing and didn't know whether that might be the case with pickups too, with it been better to get your low end out of 1 pickup. If that's not the case I imagine I'd probably want as much depth from both.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by SwamiRob

Ah, I meant I have it in series currently if that's the case, I know with speaker mismatching you can get issues with phasing and didn't know whether that might be the case with pickups too, with it been better to get your low end out of 1 pickup. If that's not the case I imagine I'd probably want as much depth from both.

If the polarity is reversed on one pickup you will indeed have phase issues, resulting in a loss of low end, just as with speakers.

Any time you use two pickups, even in phase, you have some phase cancelation, which is why you sometimes get that scooped mids when you have two pickups on. If the pickups sound different from each other, that affect is minimized.

[groove pump]

Another vote for DiMarzio here. I've got their Ultra Jazz set in my passive J and it's just... bold! From what I've read, there's perhaps more of a scooped aspect to their sound in comparison with the Model J's, which I haven't tried myself (yet!), but I'm convinced that there's a whole lotta bang for yer buck in the gear that comes from these folks.

Very much agree with the "J-bass meets P-bass" observation above from Arthur. I'll occasionally solo my neck pickup when I want a fat, rounder sound without that extra cutting tone I get with the bridge pickup, maybe for when we play "Gimme All Your Lovin" from ZZ Top, but I usually just get a nice big sound with both running wide open. With the tone control backed off, it's generally great for me, but if I need the higher freq. stuff for slapping or something else, I can open it up a bit.

I originally figured that I should expect a sort of "you get what you paid for" sound with these pickups, but I've only been happy with them. If I built another parts bass tomorrow, I'd be able to drop in a set of Model J's with total confidence.

[Arthur U. Poon]

Originally Posted by groove pump

Another vote for DiMarzio here....I'm convinced that there's a whole lotta bang for yer buck in the gear that comes from these folks.....I originally figured that I should expect a sort of "you get what you paid for" sound with these pickups, but I've only been happy with them. If I built another parts bass tomorrow, I'd be able to drop in a set of Model J's with total confidence.

Great points, groove pump.+1 on your observations on DiMarzio's pricing; the really do offer a lot for a relatively low price, and IMO the quality of their pickups are fantastic. I haven't tried DiMarzio's Ultra Jazz pickups, but I remember BP Mag did a nice review on them when they were first released.

I tried the Model J's first in my fretless J-style Warmoth, and I wasn't really thrilled with them. I then tried them in my fretted Jazz and was amazed with them.

[walterw]

Originally Posted by SwamiRob

...I know with speaker mismatching you can get issues with phasing and didn't know whether that might be the case with pickups too, with it been better to get your low end out of 1 pickup.

the analogy doesn't quite translate.

you get some phasing of the mids, due to the shorter string vibrations going up on one pickup when they're going down on the other, but the lows are mostly going up or down on both pickups the same way.

you also get an electronic difference with two pickups, as they become connected together when you turn them both on, and each one interacts the other, literally changing their frequency response; you're not getting "two sounds mixed together", you're getting a third sound created by both pickups wired together (series or parallel.)

Originally Posted by SwamiRob

If that's not the case I imagine I'd probably want as much depth from both.

in normal parallel, the bottom end doesn't really "add" from both pickups.

usually the idea is to get each pickup to sound as good as it can, and to balance with the others, and let the combined sound take care of itself (if they're balanced, it'll usually be at least OK).

[fhm555]

Originally Posted by Arthur U. Poon

...For a meaty tone with increased output from a J-style pickup, my favorite is DiMarzio's Model J...

This...I've got a set of model j's in an mim j, and as an old friend used to say about himself..it's got a syrup bucket full of balls.