Best Stock Pickups

Carvin J99 jazz pickups are some of the best I have ever played. I currently don't own a Carvin but I miss those pickups.

They start at around $750.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/guitargallery/b40

 

Is there a particular platform you are interested in, P, PJ, soapbars?

 

G&L.

 

You are in Maryland, head over to Chuck Levins, Guitar Center, and Bills Music and you can hear them all for yourself!

 

I like the Fender CS60's, for both Precision, and Jazz.

 

I like the previous Fender American Standard Jazz pickups. They have more clarity and a more traditional scooped Jazz feel. The new CS60's are too muddy and undefined for my tastes. Luckily, you can still get the old (2008-2012) pickups in the American Special - It has the Grease Bucket tone control and the neck profile is ever so slightly thinner (fingers to thumb) too.

 

I'm with M.R. Ogle. G&L MFDs are the best stock pickups I've played.

 

G&L

 

Some of the pup sounds are going to be dictated by what amp you're running it through, and you strings. Not just a pup sound by itself.

 

Yamaha split p-bass pickups seem to be good. I had one on an RBX and have one on my BB.

 

Insert name of favorite bass here. You are essentially asking what the best bass is for $1000. What are you looking for? You should narrow it down a little or everyone will just name what bass they currently own or want. Actually, most people will probably do that anyway.

 

+1 vote for G&L

 

Have to disagree about the G&Ls. For me they have too much of it all. Esp. in combination with active preamps.
I prefer the soapbars in the Musicman basses (but hard to differenciate the pickups from the active preamps).
G&Ls have a special midrange frequency they pronounce and which is always there. If you like it everything is fine, but you can't get rid of it.
Musicman's have a very distinct sound, too. I love my Musicman Classic.
But if I could only have one bass it would be a Jazz Bass.

The question is hard to answer without knowing which sound you're after.
I have four jazz basses and the best pickups so far are the ones in the US '64 Vintages Series (but this might be due to the Fender Nickel strings). Most of the times, too many variables are involved.

There is a really very good comparison between Japanes, Mexican and U.S. Fenders on Youtube. Same player, same tunes, same strings, same interface.
Listen to it without watching.
They all sound good (IMO) and there are less differences between them than I would have expected.





Dirk

 

The PJ pickups in some of the better 1980s passive Yamaha BBs sounded great.

Also, some of the Fenders already mentioned.