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Essex SX Pickups---amazing!

#45
JimmyM said:
I have no clue why so many people buy these basses and the first thing they do is replace the pickups.
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I am no expert, but I have 1 EX bass (fretless P) and two SX guitars (strat and tele) My experience has been that the electronics really stink. The P and the Strat were completely unusable. Noisy pots and cruddy thin sounding pickups. The tele has a terrible neck pick up but the bridge sounded pretty darn good and the electronics were not the least bit noisy. Their was a bit of an over all hum when the neck pick up was engaged.

I think one of the things you have to be ready for if you buy an SX instrument is some variance. I have had people tell me about the terrible neck pocket fit but all three of mine are great fits. Others have talked about the finish. I have two maple necks and one is beautiful and the other is... eh, OK from 10 feet back.

I love the guitars (even though I have internal problems with buying chinese product).

I think they are more than a good value. I think they are a damn good value. I do not see a time where I would dump one, but I also do not seem myself buying any more.

Glad your pick ups are to your liking.
 
#46
I think SX has been upgrading their electronics over the years. My 07 SJB 62 has decent pots and the wiring seems to be a heavier gauge than the 05 Jazz 5 string I had and sold.
I think the Jazz Pups in my 07 SJB62 sound very good. No hum, fairly hot , lots of burpy tone from bridge pup. Compared to my 71 jazz they are hotter and maybe a bit more aggresive sounding. But still very nice.
 
#48
JimmyM said:
I got my second SX bass a couple days ago. My first is a sunburst 57 P copy. This one is a white PJ I bought for $90 because it was a blem. Had some scratches on the pickguard and two tiny dings on the upper bout that you can barely see. I would put more damage on it after two gigs, so yeah, I'll save $30.

I was pretty blown away by the pickup in my P, and this new bass is no exception. I couldn't believe how good the pickups sound, even the J. I was actually expecting to have to replace the J since it's single coil (I'm assuming) and I hate that single coil hum, but it was dead quiet. Even when it was soloed, there was no hum whatsoever. Haven't played it in a lot of places, of course, but the place I played it today is prone to single coil hum.

I have no clue why so many people buy these basses and the first thing they do is replace the pickups. The pickups are the best thing about them. And even the fretwork was good on this one. The only mods I'm going to do are Straploks and string tree. Everything else is staying as is. It's really unbelievable what $90 can get you these days...when I was a kid, $90 got you a heap of crap with a pickup. And now it gets you a totally usable Fender copy! Won't make you forget the feel of a vintage Fender, but it's not really supposed to, is it?
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Hey Jimmy, whats up my brother?

I know this is an older thread, but after I read this, I had to post. As you know, I have a Peavey Millenium BXP4-BXP meaning bass, import. It was $199.00 off the rack at the local music store.

While it's not an SX, it does fall into what some (but not I) would consider to be a "budget bass." That is why I consider it relevant.

IMO, the pickups sound very good in this bass!! Maybe they're not a boutique pickup, but they never claimed to be either. Two pro players actually thought it was a custom built bass from Peavey-they couldn't believe that it was 199.00 off the rack, built in Indonesia bass.

I thought about changing the pickups-My Fenders have either DiMarzio's, or Nordstrands. Then I realized-why??I think this bass sounds better stock than my Fenders did, and they were a lot more money. Add to that a really nice feeling neck, and most of all-light weight-and I feel it's a winner. The only changes I made were some Hipshot tuners, and vintage Fender jazz bass knobs-those actually made it even lighter! Very nice when you have physical ailments! I also like having the white lines on the knobs, so I can see quickly how I have my pickups blended.

So bottom line-I agree with your original post 100 percent. :hyper:
 
#50
troyus said:
My turn to resurrect this puppy. :)

I just ordered the last (?) SJB-62 LPB from Rondo and I will do a full on TB comparo-review of this stock SX vs. my brand new Michael Dolan Jazz bass... Made of the finest Hand selected (by yours truly) woods and with the finest pickups... Who will win??? Stay tuned! :ninja:
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Who will win!? LOL. :D

If the SX wins, I'll gladly take that Dolen bass off your hands. ;)
 
#57
troyus said:
My turn to resurrect this puppy. :)

I just ordered the last (?) SJB-62 LPB from Rondo and I will do a full on TB comparo-review of this stock SX vs. my brand new Michael Dolan Jazz bass... Made of the finest Hand selected (by yours truly) woods and with the finest pickups... Who will win??? Stay tuned! :ninja:
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WHERE ARE THE FREAKING PICTURES FO THE BUGUNDY MIST JAZZ!! NO PICS - NO BASS :D

If you like the SX - send me the Dolan - I will be sure it gets all the love it needs :eek:
 
#58
The quality control must be improving. I've had this bass: Link Removed since early 2006 have really loved the amount of bass I got for $135 shipped.

The pickups were finally upgraded Friday as I was looking to take it from "great for the money" to just "great". The stock pickups sounded fine, but had some buzz when soloed and did sound a bit dull compared to my other basses. I don't mean passive, I mean that I wouldn't really slap this bass on a gig much. I dropped in a set of split coil Barts and noticed an immediate improvement in tone and a drop in volume.

The Barts sound deeper and have a smoother and more detailed top end but the stock SX pickups were hot, hot, hot by comparison. I could A/B the SX pickups with my active bass guitars (a 9v and an 18v) or my EUB (9v) and had no major issue with volume discrepancies. The Barts sound better tonally but are definitely quieter. I've had to get them much closer to the strings to get the right amount of output. The slap sound has real bite now, too.

The upshot is I'll be keeping the Barts. The unsolicited feedback from people who knew the instrument before the upgrade is that it sounds much better now. I'm thinking of either upgrading the pots and drop cap to stay passive or dropping in an Audere to bring signal and tone shaping more inline with my other basses while keeping the basic tone it now has. Either way, this SX is now much closer to being an all around great bass.

It's not about "needing" to "fix" anything. The bass was perfectly gig worthy out of the box for straight ahead jazz, classic rock or blues. I just wanted to dial it in for what I want out of a funk, heavy rock or fusion axe.
 
#60
12bass said:
Just curious, bad_andy... which Bartolinis did you use in your SX?
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I got a set of Bartolini 9J1 L/S split coil pickups from TBer "The Diaper Genie". The same set is for sale at the top of this page: http://bestbassgear.com/bartolini-4-string-j-pickups.htm

I've got Barts in my Curbow and had them in a Warwick Streamer that sounded nice and growly. He was selling for $70, so it seemed like a safe bet. So far, so good.
 

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