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Duncan passive jazz5 testy

jellymax

jellymax

Don't fry any wooden fish
Supporting Member
Nov 29, 2006
1,353
1,079
SF CA
#1
just installed a set of Duncan passive 67-70 in my MIM jazz5
(active DLX)

this bass was converted to passive electronics years ago, in
hopes of coaxing some tone out of it. no change--still very poor.
in the closet it went....

recently i did a setup job with strings on this bass & liked the results a lot. so after having this bass for 5 years, i finally
cracked open my wallet.

pre gig results are very impressive. low mid punch is
excellent. amazingly, no noise when soloing each pickup
at medium volume here in the house. great clarity.

i did a comparo with my main bass, a 2008 AM STD jazz5.
found the Duncans have a bit more output, plus a bit more low mids, with rich high end clarity for a passive jazz.
the 2008 had more character due to a different high end peak
which may also be related to different neck construction etc...

i will use it the weekend after next & report back after
3 sets at the gig.
 
#3
cheers!

playing here at the house, i found much less buzz when soloing each pickup, compared to my '08
more low mids & midrange. very punchy.

vintage style pickups seem to work better for me, as i play in somewhat bad sounding
rooms. plus lows are never a problem with the amp i use.
 
#4
i played 3 sets in SF last night with the new pickups. this is my new go-to bass!
more output & rich jazz bass tone with less off a midrange dip than my stock US2008.
i wont even compare to the orig mim active dlx pickup--they are lifeless beyond

the bass now sounds like a fat, focused, modern sounding jazz bass
 
#5
I have the same bass. Got it second hand and the pickups sucked big time. They had 1 big pole piece per string. The magnetic field wasn't uniform across the pup so that on the neck pick up, when you did exteme bends the output level would drop (down to no-output on the E string). Major design flaw.
I replaced them with Fender SCN's (I'm a big fan of Bill Lawrence) and the bass sounds great now. I also cut a new nut and set it up properly. It's still active, but I'm planning on an active/passive switch (when I can be bothered). I play metal so I like the fact that I can boost the mid range for more bite/distortion.
 
#6
i agree, the midrange knob for the preamp is good. i will eventually re-install the
preamp just to test it out, but i am in no hurry. sounds great passive, plus i am
no fan of using batteries after doing it for many years. simple is good no?
 

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