best suited pickups for series wiring in a jazz style bass

The comb filtering that occurs when you have two pickups operating - what gives you the "scoop" depends on the pickups' physical positions - wiring them in series or parallel, or changing the brand or model of pickup, does not change that at all. 2 pickups operating on a J=scoop. No way around that.

Changing pickups (or putting them in series or parallel) changes the amount of high mids and treble - it's the interaction of their impedance with the cable capacitance that determines that. In general, hotter pickups in series might take you further down the more mids/less treble road than you want to go - I'd stick with more normal output pickups for that.

 

Yup, I don't see hot/middy pickups working well for this. With Model Js, however, you can wire them in parallel individually, then series together, so that might work. Otherwise, I'd go with a more vintage set, like Duncan vintage J, or DiMarzio Area (which I think are humcancelling, which is nice). I'd also seriously consider Wilde J-45, though they're slightly more than those above ($160 for a set, I believe).

But frankly, I'm not sure if series wiring will work for reggae that well. I consider that more of a rock tone, with higher output and beefy mids. I think for reggae, solo neck pickup would work better, then shape that with the tone control (maybe try a .68 or .1 uF cap) and EQ. In this case, I'd strongly advise not using single coils, to avoid hum. Wilde or DiMarzio Area J should work well for that, I think.

 

To OP,

From what you mention above, I suggest you buy an Ibanez SR300E instead.
Built in Series and parralle switch along with 3 band EQ and pretty nice sounding Powerspan Pickup.
I own one in past. But sold.
Because banama neck problem.
Suggest you try it at your local GC if possible.

 

For series, I would consider only vintage-output pickups. It gets really muddy very fast if the pickups have a higher output.

 

They have a switch for series, coil-splitting, & coil-splitting with a perceived bass boost.
Yeah I know, they call it "Tap" & "Power Tap", but that's a misnomer.

The PowerSpan pickups are great, but they only have 3 wires, which makes it impossible to wire them in parallel.
The necks on Standard Ibanez can be flimsy, so just look out for that.

A good trick is to try down-tuning them & see if it remains playable or if the strings just go flat against the fret-board.
All my instruments can be down-tuned to C Standard from E & remain playable, but one has Titanium bars in the neck & the other is a roasted neck.

However, I did recently pick up a RGA that also has a really stiff neck, but it was made in 2009.

Also, the Series on the SR300E is intrapickup series, not interpickup series like the OP is after.

 

I have a Peavey Foundation with the Super Ferrites and did a series mod to it. Those pickups sound great in parallel and series as they aren't hot nor dark.

 

Seymour Duncan quarter pounds in parallel (standard jazz bass wiring) with steel rounds. The bass is actually quite bright, but with some eq you can get that reggae tone. The old school reggae tones are mostly passive jazz basses with flats or dead rounds. For more modern tones, I would go to an active preamp and passive soapbar pickup setup. That said, it is doable with a passive jazz, just learn how to control your high end with your right hand technique.

 

You understand most of what’s going on. The place where you need a bit more info is that the “scoop” isn’t one dip in the frequency response, it’s a series of dips (and peaks) that start in the low mids and continue upwards. One more thing....

The comb filter is a wavelength filter - as the velocity of wave propagation on a string depends on its tuning, there are actually 4 filters - each string has its dips and peaks at different frequencies. So, there is not a single answer for where the “scoop” is - on the G string, for example, the first dip is about 2.5 times the frequency that it is on the E string. If you detune a string, the dips move. I have a bass tuned in D standard - because of all this, it sounds different than an E tuned bass.

One final point to ponder - as each string has its own comb filter, there is literally no way to undo these filters via eq, without having a pickup (and eq) for every string, and combining the string’s signals AFTER the 4 eq’s. So, if someone tells you they can make a P sound like a J with both pickups on, or the other way 'round, they may think they can, but the Physics says otherwise.

 

Bartolini, Aguilar.

 

This.

 

^^^all these things. Plus roll tone down. I did series on a Peavey Jazz style bass, and found to to be to muddy, switched to a P bass- but I'm not playing Reggae. I would think get a jazz bass you like the sound of as is. Series wiring is cheap enough to test out, it wont be a loss if it doesn't work out.

 

I’m using model J’s with a series/parallel switch. Ballsy deep sound in series. Love it.

 

I happen to have the Area Js wired so I can switch between series and parallel.

First of all, the Area Js sound amazing. They sound believably close to single coils, but without the hum.

Honestly, I very rarely use the pickups in series. I pretty much have the switch because I already drilled the hole for the switch. As some people have already mentioned, the pickups in series are definitely more beefy, but things also get pretty muddy, which I don't like very much. I tend to just solo the neck pickup with the tone rolled off most of the time as oppose to using the pickups in series.

 

If you replace one volume knob (assuming VVT on a Jazz) with a push/pull to do series, the capability is always there and you didn't irreversibly drill or modify the instrument to do so.

 

if you are going to wire in series then you want to start out with a weaker pickup … 2 11k ohm pickups wired in series will make a 22k ohm output. Get 2 7 or 8 k ohm pickups and wire them in series for a 14 or 16k ohm output.

try wiring the existing pickups in series

 

Output isn't measured in Ohms. It should be measured in Volts or milliVolts.
The DC Resistance measurements just give us a general idea of how many loops are in the coil.