I play in a hardcore/alt. rock band and I am trying to decide on a new set of pickups for my Fender J-Bass. My bass is passive and I want something that will give me an "active" sound. I need something that is high output with a LOT of low-end. I want to be able to feel the difference. I have looked at the Seymour Duncan Bassline pickups - does anyone have any advice?... Thanks in advance!
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Best Seymour Duncan J-Bass Pickups?...
- Thread starter frederikolafsen
- Start date
What you mean by "make a passive bass sound active"?
Quarter Pounds are famous for its high output, huge bottom and great highs. For the kind of sound you want they are just fabulous.
They are passive and if you want EQ features on your bass I'd suggest you to install a preamp. However I don't feel that's absolutely necessary.
I use QP ON MY 77 Pbass and L-O-V-E it.
In spite of what many people use to say they are quite versatile in my opinion.
Best
Quarter Pounds are famous for its high output, huge bottom and great highs. For the kind of sound you want they are just fabulous.
They are passive and if you want EQ features on your bass I'd suggest you to install a preamp. However I don't feel that's absolutely necessary.
I use QP ON MY 77 Pbass and L-O-V-E it.
In spite of what many people use to say they are quite versatile in my opinion.
Best
+1 on the Quarter Pounders.
I have them in my MIA Jazz 5. The low end is tight and well defined. Good low mids and smooth top end. I love the sound of these pickups. They are great for rock.
Output of these pickups is massive. My MIA Deluxe Jazz 5 cant match the output of these pickups. I think they definitely have an "active" quality to them. I don't have an active bass with single coils in for direct comparison. Comparing the Jazz 5 with the SD's to when it had the stock pickups in, it is a lot closer to the Deluxe Jazz 5 in terms of "activeness".
I would say that this is because of just how good the low and low mids of the SD QP's is, the massive output and smooth tops. They do sound like single coils though and I definitely wanted to keep that "bite" in the sound of the bass.
I would highly recommend these pickups. For me, they have lived up to every expectation I had of them.
I have them in my MIA Jazz 5. The low end is tight and well defined. Good low mids and smooth top end. I love the sound of these pickups. They are great for rock.
Output of these pickups is massive. My MIA Deluxe Jazz 5 cant match the output of these pickups. I think they definitely have an "active" quality to them. I don't have an active bass with single coils in for direct comparison. Comparing the Jazz 5 with the SD's to when it had the stock pickups in, it is a lot closer to the Deluxe Jazz 5 in terms of "activeness".
I would say that this is because of just how good the low and low mids of the SD QP's is, the massive output and smooth tops. They do sound like single coils though and I definitely wanted to keep that "bite" in the sound of the bass.
I would highly recommend these pickups. For me, they have lived up to every expectation I had of them.
I found the upper mid's lacking in the QP's and the overall character to be boomy with relatively little detail. I dug SJB-1's way more - but those are a passive, meant to be punchy and detailed - very vintage sounding - I'm a little unclear about the whole needs to be passive but loud active thing. You want it to sound active ? Put in a pre or get a stomp pre...
I couldn't disagree more. In my Fender MIA Standard Jazz 5 it has made all the difference. Low end is clear tight and detailed. Not boomy at all. I've got plenty of mids, though it is less than the "vintage tone" mids.
If you play Alt/Rock/Metal and use overdrive/distortion you get a lot of mids injected into your sound. QP's are designed for this kind of music so when you drive the signal hard the scoop disappears without making the tone muddy. The QP's perform exactly the way the SD say that they should, and work very well for the genres that they mention in the description for these pickups.
frederikolafsen, you will feel the difference between the stock p/ups and SD QP Jazz p/ups. They really have brought my J5 to life. I was thinking of selling the bass but decided to put in the QP's instead. Wouldn't part with it now.
My setup is:
Fender MIA Jazz5 SD QP's - Fender TB-600 - Acme Low B 4
