Different brand PU in one bass.

[owjeej]

Hi all,

I’m considering a Jazz Bass pickup setup using two different brands (because; they don’t come cheap and I can get both for good prices) and I’d like to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Specifically, I’m thinking about:

• Lollar Jazz Bass pickup in the neck position
• Lindy Fralin Jazz Bass pickup in the bridge position

I’m aware both are high-quality, vintage-style, passive J pickups, but before pulling the trigger I’d like to know:

• Are there any compatibility issues to watch out for (output balance, impedance, phase, hum-cancelling, etc.)?
• Anything specific regarding pickup size / routing or pole piece alignment on a standard Fender Jazz Bass?
• Would mixing these two brands likely cause volume or tonal imbalance, especially when blending both pickups?
• Any wiring or setup considerations I should keep in mind?

I’m aiming for a classic Jazz Bass tone. If anyone has tried mixing brands (or even this exact combo), I’d really appreciate hearing your experience.

Thanks in advance!

 

[brianrost]

Anything specific regarding pickup size / routing or pole piece alignment on a standard Fender Jazz Bass?

The neck and bridge pickups aren’t the same size. The bridge pickup is wider.

Check to see if you can even buy the pickups individually, because they are usually sold as a set

I have no idea what you hope to gain by mixing brands, but that’s your call. I once had a G&L L1000 where the previous owner had pulled out the original pickup and put in a Duncan Quarter Pounder P pickup and then added a Bartolini J at the bridge. Not a good match, so I popped in an EMG active PJ set and that worked just fine.

 

[HowieD72]

Hi all,

I’m considering a Jazz Bass pickup setup using two different brands (because; they don’t come cheap and I can get both for good prices) and I’d like to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Specifically, I’m thinking about:

• Lollar Jazz Bass pickup in the neck position
• Lindy Fralin Jazz Bass pickup in the bridge position

I’m aware both are high-quality, vintage-style, passive J pickups, but before pulling the trigger I’d like to know:

• Are there any compatibility issues to watch out for (output balance, impedance, phase, hum-cancelling, etc.)?
• Anything specific regarding pickup size / routing or pole piece alignment on a standard Fender Jazz Bass?
• Would mixing these two brands likely cause volume or tonal imbalance, especially when blending both pickups?
• Any wiring or setup considerations I should keep in mind?

I’m aiming for a classic Jazz Bass tone. If anyone has tried mixing brands (or even this exact combo), I’d really appreciate hearing your experience.

Thanks in advance!

I'm no expert, but why not give it a shot! But I'd probably recommend sticking with two of the same i.e. single coil neck (1 brand), single coil bridge (another brand. etc. If it sounds good to you, you've struck gold! If not, back to the drawing board.

The main problem would be finding the pickups you mentioned as a single. There's a few that pop up in the classifieds, but I can't recall ever seeing a single Lindy Fralin or single Lollar.

 

[owjeej]

Thanks so far.

Maybe I wasn’t clear about this in my initial post, but the point is that I’m currently able to purchase two individual pickups (a Lollar neck and a Fralin bridge).

At the moment in Europe, the Lollar set retails for €259 and the Fralin set for €229.

I can get a second hand Lollar neck and a Fralin bridge for around €150.

I'm no expert, but why not give it a shot! But I'd probably recommend sticking with two of the same i.e. single coil neck (1 brand), single coil bridge (another brand. etc. If it sounds good to you, you've struck gold! If not, back to the drawing board.

The main problem would be finding the pickups you mentioned as a single. There's a few that pop up in the classifieds, but I can't recall ever seeing a single Lindy Fralin or single Lollar.

Yes, maybe for this price I just give it a shot! Only thing is that single pickups are harder to sell again I suppose.

 

[HowieD72]

Thanks so far.

Maybe I wasn’t clear about this in my initial post, but the point is that I’m currently able to purchase two individual pickups (a Lollar neck and a Fralin bridge).

At the moment in Europe, the Lollar set retails for €259 and the Fralin set for €229.

I can get a second hand Lollar neck and a Fralin bridge for around €150.


Yes, maybe for this price I just give it a shot! Only thing is that single pickups are harder to sell again I suppose.

Sorry, i misread your post.

I know they are both great pickups, so I'm sure the sound won't be bad.

But it's just that unknown. What if?

The good thing about it IMO is, at least you will have the option of combining the pickups to play together or solo them for different flavours or slightly blend to get a combination of both that sounds good to you.

I reckon it might be worth a shot!

If you go ahead, please post your final result and let us know how it sounds

 

[owjeej]

I will update about the outcome!

I just purchased the Fralin pickup. It has a bridge pickup width, but measures 7.12k, so it’s probably underwound.

That’s oke for me, since it might be exactly what I want from it in bridge position.

 

[sikamikanico]

the main concern I’d have is whether they’re RWRP (ie, humcancelling). I think the rest you can deal with. But at the worst, you can play each pickup by itself

Report back once you have installed both!

 

[stevensivak]

I have a EMG Geezer on the P and a Fralin on the bridge.... sounds good to me...

 

[2saddleslab]

Nope, one & done.

 

[bassdude51]

IMHO, different J pickups should work..........if................both pickup are pretty close in ohms. (Kind of normally for an example, many Fender J pickups are like 7k for the neck and 7.4k for the bridge.)

Different J pickups should be reverse wound, reverse polarity so that there is hum cancelling. (Unless if you go dual coil for both neck and bridge p/u.)

Are you going with single coil J pickups, AlNiCo magnets?

I have one J Bass with 2 different pickups. Gotoh bridge and an unknown J neck. The ohms are about equal and my bass works just fine.

A parts bass build, yours truly. (Two different pickups.)

 

[Boneless]

No problem at all, in theory. Pickups are pickups. They might have been wound so that they complement each other in a set, but it's never going to be a problem to mix and match. To be honest, I find the value of boutique pickups not that good. There isn't much difference between a boutique pickup and a "regular" one. The geometry is the same, the basic materials are the same. Some difference maybe in winding style (scatterwound vs, well, "regular" wound) and "period-correct" bobbin wire, but the differences are very minor (given a certain wind count) and swamped by the cable's capacitance anyway.

 

[micguy]

Fralins and Lollars are both pretty much clones of Fender pickups, following the Fender "recipe" for magnets, wire sizes, bobbing geometry and materials - usually varying only by the number of turns and perhaps winding techniques.

Changing pickups is always a crapshoot - you don't know whether you will like the new pickups more, less, or if they will be about the same. Here, same thing.

One note about mixing pickups - this applies no matter whether they are from the same supplier or not. A lot of times, the bridge pickup will be wound hotter (have more turns of wire on it). This helps balance the pickups when soloed. It unbalances them somewhat when mixed, though - the pickup with more turns has more output on it's own, but the inductance of a coil goes up with the turns ratio squared. OK, so what? That math (I was told there would not be math!!!) means that the "hotter" pickup (due to a higher impedance) actually ends up lower in the mix. This is not something that most folks will notice, unless it's a big enough difference - most winders don't wind that many more turns on the bridge pickup, but I often see people talking about how "the bridge is wound hotter to balance the pickups in the mix", which is wrong. I prefer having the pickups wound identically (other than one being rwrp) and balancing them via height differences, which gives you a more balanced mix.

Will your pickups "play nicely together"? Probably - those two manufacturers don't make anything revolutionary; functionally those are just two Fender pickups, likely with slightly different winds. Nothing will be "hurt" by the combination - nothing is going to break or catch fire. Will it be a great combo? Maybe, maybe not - no way to predict that.

 

[groooooove]

assuming proper fit in the instrument, the it's all magnets and wire regardless of who made it.

but....

idk man, this one feels too uneven for me. I'd avoid it at all costs. but that's totally not rational. or is it?

but yes, if you've got a nice bridge pickup and a different also-nice neck pickup, have at it.

 

[rolfplamperton]

Guitar players do this all the time. It’s fine.

 

[Wasnex]

The neck and bridge pickups aren’t the same size. The bridge pickup is wider.

Fralin makes bridge pickups in both sizes. I ordered the smaller size in a PJ set for my Daion PowerMark XB

Corrected to: You can order singles right off the webpage.

 

[owjeej]

Oke, thanks for all replies!

I purchased both pickups.

The Fralin measures 7.12k
The Lollar measures 8.34k

I felt comfortable enough to do the experiment, since I ended up paying €135 for the two pickups. If it turns into an failure, I think I can resell for a similar price.

 

[Tim Skaggs]

I don’t see any problem as long as the two pickups are reverse wound with the magnetic poles flipped so they will “humbuck”. There was already a post that indicated both makers copy Fender pickups, so sounds like they will be quiet when both are wide open.

I’ve run a Lace Sensor Bassbar in the bridge position with the stock pickup in the neck of a Gibson Thunderbird with fantastic results.

I also did a Lace Sensor in the bridge of a PJ Bass that had a stock MIM split coil and eventually had a Seymour Duncan Antiquity II split coil, with good results in both configurations.

I had a Seymour Duncan Antiquity II split coil in the neck position paired with a Schaller 4 wire / 2 coil (in series) Jazz style in a Peavey Foundation S that sounded fantastic.

Maybe I was just lucky, but more likely, pickups are wire & magnets, so as long as there’s not a huge imbalance or an out of phase situation, it can work as well, or maybe better, as two pickups made by the same company.

 

[bassbrad]

Those two particular pickups ought to work well.

If you like to solo each pickup it can be a highly versatile beast. I have a Seymour Duncan Jazz Stack V in the bridge and a Guyker JB11 in the neck. Both are wired in series for hum bucking. Neck split coil gives me a robust cross between a P and J. The Jazz Stack gives me noiseless punch and clarity. I generally run one full up and dial in a bit of the other as both full up does sound a bit odd as one might expect but it is still a workable sound.

FWIW as stated is is very common to mix pickup types and brands on guitar to tailor a guitar to a players or designers need/want.

 

[owjeej]

I can’t wait till the final result. It will take a while…

I’ve owned a fair amount of Jazz basses and found myself soling pickups more and more. Off course I like the scooped sound of both pickups mixed together. But in bandsituations (the once I end up in) it doesn’t always work for me.

So I bring a P bass, most of the times

I hope that this combination brings me what I am looking for in a Jazz Bass.

 

[CoughSyrup]

Two different brands of pickups? That's illegal!