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Aguilar HC vs Duncan Apollo for 5-string Fender Jazz

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stealth94rt

Jul 8, 2012
54
14
#1
I have just purchased and installed a set of Aguilar AG 5J-HC pickups into a 2003 MIM Fender Jazz Bass V with an active preamp. While they are much, much better hum-wise than the stock single coils, I’m still hearing 60-cycle hum when not playing. This is with the bass run directly into a Focusrite Saffire 24 and listening through the headphones --- i.e., no effects or signal processing in the chain.

Please note:
  • The internals of the bass are fully shielded with 3 coats of shielding paint and copper tape under the pickguard. Verified by sampling various points with an ohm meter.
  • The Focusrite Saffire 24 by itself makes no noticeable hum.
  • The preamp by itself (with no pickups attached) makes no noticeable hum.
  • An Aguilar AG 5J-HC pickup by itself (i.e., conductor attached directly to the guitar cable) makes a very faint hum.
  • When the pickups are connected to the preamp, there is a discernible hum if the mid and/or treble are boosted and the balance is set off center detent (dialed toward the neck or the bridge pickup).
  • When the balance is set to the center detent, then there is zero hum, even with all tone, volume, etc., cranked to the max.
I purchased these pickup because I wanted some that were truly hum-free, like my other basses that have humbucking-style pickups. Is the reason these don’t completely cancel the hum, see my 3rd bullet above, because one coil is around two poles and the other is around three poles (so one is larger than the other)? Or, is there some other reason?

BTW – aside from the hum, the tone of these pickups is amazing and they sound very close to the Fender single coils, but maybe even better.

I also looked at Seymour Duncan Apollos. Now I'm wondering if those would have internal shielding or something else in the design to make them more hum-free than the Aguilar's?

Any advise on all of this would be appreciated. If I should post this in a different topic, please let me know.

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
#2
Well, the Apollos are side-by-side coils, so they are dead silent. They are my favorite 'sound like true vintage single coils but aren't' pickups, but hey, I am a little biased. But they do get excellent independent reviews.
 
#5
Since I have a 5-string, it would be a 3-2 split, so one coil would be slightly larger than the other. Therefore, a slight amount of hum would get through. You wouldn't have that problem on a 4 or 6 string because both of the split coils would be the same size and all hum would be cancelled .
 
#6
stealth94rt said:
Since I have a 5-string, it would be a 3-2 split, so one coil would be slightly larger than the other. Therefore, a slight amount of hum would get through. You wouldn't have that problem on a 4 or 6 string because both of the split coils would be the same size and all hum would be cancelled .
Click to expand...
I don't know specifically about Aguilar, but the usual approach to this is to over-wind the "2" half a bit and under-wind the "3" half a bit so that they are as close as possible to the same in terms of how much hum they pick up. Often the wire and/or magnets and/or coil height & width are just slightly different between the two halves in order to get the tone consistent. Over-winding means darker and louder tone, so the "2" half is usually put under the higher strings and slightly weaker magnets used to get consistent volume.

I've got humcancelling Bartolini's (59Js) in a Modulus, and they're dead silent regardless of neck/bridge balance.
 

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