What type of Jazz Pickups?

[Southside Mike]

I recently bought a Fender Jazz bass (60's reissue). I love the bass itself but I find the pickups that came with it a little dead. I'd like to get something that is a little hotter. I don't want to go active but I definitly need something a little hotter. Not sure what type of pickups to get, any advice on this is welcome.

[Surprise Panda!]

HAS-Sound Hot J (has-sound.com), Fender SCN, etc.

[Funk Factor]

Got a set of Custom Shop 60's in my Classic Jazz and also in my Marcus Miller...They Rule

[kasbrey]

If you replace your pickups with hotter ones you will either end up with a less vintage or darker sounding bass.

I replaced all of my Fender type pickups in 3 basses with handwound Wizard pickups. They are such an improvement on the 2 dimensional and 'flat' sounding mass produced originals without being any higher output and providing a perfect Jazz or Precision tone. Ultra responsive and dynamic.
As they are made in the UK you may find the equivalent to be Lollars from reading other TBers accounts.

To anyone in Europe though, I can't recommend Wizard highly enough.

[badboy1984]

I have the exactly same bass as yours, but i had 3 choices when i replacing them.

Either Delano, Bassline or Dimarzio.

I change them to dimarzio sp123 set at the end. Much better and hotter output but it does not sound vintage anymore. Overall is quality pickup.

The delano probably will give you better vintage sound if you not changing them to a big pole piece version.

[checkeverything]

I would recommend the seymour duncan's antiquity ll's for jazz basses. Go to the websit and it would mentioned about them being slighlty overwound, emphasises mids and some bottom. I have tried emg's, antiquities 1, hot stacks and dimarzios. I like them the best. It keeps the vintage zing on my 78 jazz!

[Baker69]

How about some Lindy Fralin's?

[Baker69]

Originally Posted by badboy1984

The delano probably will give you better vintage sound if you not changing them to a big pole piece version.

I might be wrong, but I thought Delano's would give you anything but a Vintage tone?

[fullrangebass]

I suggest looking at Villex pickups

www.villex.com

[BuffaloBass]

www.aeroinstrument.com

Not "overwound" but hot magnets. Vintage AND hot. The Alnico5s are. I use them strictly passive. Big output. Pickup height is key, too hot, lower them to the "vintage" zone.

[badboy1984]

Depend which delano you put in. Of course not those big pole piece pickups.

It sound vintage on my warwick, but not fender type of vintage tone.

[joeyl]

Originally Posted by BuffaloBass

www.aeroinstrument.com

Not "overwound" but hot magnets. Vintage AND hot. The Alnico5s are. I use them strictly passive. Big output. Pickup height is key, too hot, lower them to the "vintage" zone.

I have them also, I have just discovered the world of Aeros

[Rapisme]

APC custom ickups from Tiverton Rhode island,.

the guitardr.com

Ask for Adam..

[BuffaloBass]

Not an issue for the OP, but myl ow B never sounded so beautifully full and articulate. Aeros..... ahhhhhhh.... nirvana.....

[Kubs]

L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N
L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N
L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N

or Suhr, or Antiquity....

[Surprise Panda!]

Originally Posted by Kubs

L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N
L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N
L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N L I N D Y F R A L I N

or Suhr, or Antiquity....

[D.Don]

This thread lead to absolutely nothing,

Lindy? Wizard? Nordstrand? Lundgren? etc. etc.

What to choose to get hot passive vintage jazz pups?

Anyone familiar with these?

"Nordstrand NJ5FS, split coil 5 string jazz-type bass pickups"


Thanks!


D.Don

[4Mal]

hot and vintage - in Jazz bass pickup terms is a contradiction in terms. In general hot Jazz Bass pickups tend to have less low end and less hi end. It's a matter of squeezing all that wire and the appropriate magnets into that small space as I understand it.

What is the fascination with hot pickups anyway ? You've got a gain control on your amp right ? It's not like a hot pickup is going to give your rig more absolute volume ? well unless the input gain structure is screwed I guess ... never seen that though ... so other than masking the low's & hi's with excessive mids - what does the extra output actually buy you in real terms ?

In guitar pickups - I'll bite that some high output pickups sound appealing - more mid's for some players is a real desireable thing. In bass though I find that our EQ sections are for the most part much more versatile.

I just installed a set of Alnico 5 based pickups from www.vintagevibeguitars.com so far - I'm knocked out. A good vintage sounding pickup. Quite similar to the Aero - but with a shielding scheme that makes them very quiet. Quietest pickup I've heard of it's type. That would include Aero, Duncan (sjb1, 2 &3) and Fralin. For quietness - it's on par with the Dimarzio Model J. Pretty reasonable at $148 including shipping for the set. Particularlly when you realizze it's a hand built to order, fully custom pickup. Want ceramic instead of Alnico ? ALnico 3 instead of 5 ? a little over wind ? underwind ? no worries ...

The set I'm playing with are the 'stock' no customization - off the shelf ones. They are what I consider *normal* output and retain that nice broad frequency response and big time punch.

I've got one of their P-Bass pickups as well. That one I had customized with Alnico 3 mag's and a slight overwind. SUper warm and punchy - still full range response. No mid-masking of the low's or hi's. I have a sample of that one at http://w3.gorge.net/mfbrown/vvwater.mp3 I'll be putting a sample of the J's up some time shortly - I need to pull out the Audere and put in the standard controls for the first set and then swap back for another. The samples by the way are through a Radial J48 DI, Phantom powered by a Bellari MP-103 - that's a low end mic pre kinda like the little ART MP series. The gain and output are set for unity. That straight into Protools. No eq, no compression - and for the Watermelon Man lick - not good time keeping either ;~) Maybe I'll get a click track going on the next set ...

[D.Don]

Just kinda quoting OP here...

Thread made me interested since I am about to experiment with the jazz-shape pups on my carvin, and eventually swap them out.



D.Don

[DavidRavenMoon]

The original poster never said he wanted vintage. Just a little hotter.