what pickups for a fender marcus miller jazz bass???

[murmurador]

I really want to replace the pickups to my fender marcus miller jazz bass, the originals sound so bright, so, can i use a BARTOLLINI picks with out have to use another 9v battery????..... some body can help me?????/, thanks guys!!!!

[luknfur]

Originally Posted by murmurador

I really want to replace the pickups to my fender marcus miller jazz bass, the originals sound so bright, so, can i use a BARTOLLINI picks with out have to use another 9v battery????..... some body can help me?????/, thanks guys!!!!

FWIW:

Could be wrong but my guess is the issue is the preamp or elsewhere - unless that MM doesn't have Vintage Fender pups in it. It's one of the few basses I know they come in and they're not for sale otherwise to my knowledge. Those are my preferred J pups, are very balanced, and don't get bright beyond choice like some of the Fenders do. If it's like the two sets I've experienced anyway.

Bartolini's are passive and require no battery (unless you buy active Barts like 9E's). The battery's are for the preamps guys install with them not for the pups.

Given both the above, I would be cautious about swapping stuff around that I couldn't change back - unless you just want to change stuff. Go to harmonycentral.com reviews and read MM reviews and see what they've done. There's info about simply altering a little wiring on the preamp that made a major difference - could work for you. I never hooked up the preamp but sold it. I just play the pups straight to the jack with no onboard controls - I don't like bright pups and the MM's aren't what I'd call bright, more like a little more refined lower output model J.

[XavidmanX]

I replaced the pups in my MM jazz with Bartolini Classic Bass pups and a Bartolini NTCT preamp and it sounds huge now! Also, the cavity is shielded with copper tape and that helped the noise. I like the slap tone and big low end that the bartolini gives. If you're looking for a good classic J tone, I would try the Nordstrand Vintage, maybe with an Aguilar preamp. I wanted to try those on this jazz bass, but decided to go for the Bartolini tone.

[tplyons]

The MM pickups are no brighter than any other jazz pickup I've ever played.

However, they come across this way because you lack a passive tone control... a tech should be able to do that for you to take some of that high end zing off.

[Lewis7789]

I also have a MM Jazz and would like to swap out the pups with some EMG's. I'm basiclly getting the pups for free so I'd like to try some of them out. But I have no idea which ones would fit, if they even make ones that will work...

www.emginc.com

Help?

[tplyons]

Originally Posted by Lewis7789

I also have a MM Jazz and would like to swap out the pups with some EMG's. I'm basiclly getting the pups for free so I'd like to try some of them out. But I have no idea which ones would fit, if they even make ones that will work...

www.emginc.com

Help?

Any standard sized Jazz pickup set will work.

[Lewis7789]

Hmm, but they seem to be all wired for volume-volume-tone whereas the MM Jazz has volume-volume-treble-bass and an active-passive toggle. Will the standard ones still work?

[Basssonu]

The question I have with my Marcus bass is whether a set of Basslines APJ-2 Lightnin Rods Pickups will make the difference; this thread hasn't given me an idea of the various kinds of pickup configurations that will still retain a jazz bass sound but with some power and fat end of the precision; so if anyone can help me out with this, I'd be indebted.

I'm thinking of the APJ and to be really frank, I'm not really very happy with the passive tone on the Marcus; seems it would be better for me if I could control the deep end in more ways; the active part is fine except as Murmurador mentioned is tooooo bright. I like the bright end but the zing drives me nuts especially in a fingerstyle groove situation where you don't need that zing really; you need a fat sound like James Genus...

Now I know buying a Tech 21 Sansamp (like Marcus) helps fatten things up but right now it's out of my budget and I'm trying to get as far away from the slapped Marcus sound now...
The sound that I'm hearing in my head is a fat, thick one that retains its flavor slapped or fingerstyle without having to make any major adjustments to the eq once its set (I hope you get what I mean, it's not that I don't want to dial the sound; its just the simplicity I'm looking for). I'm saying this because I don't see any problems in the high end for the Marcus Miller bass.

Any comments on this and suggestions for active jazz pickups that give me a Pino Palladino like depth would be appreciated :O The names are just for a reference...

[Uziel]

the main thing is that the 2 pickup are wired in phase oposition... reverse one of the pickups wires and all will be OK (and rewire the switch in true bypass)