My SPJ-62 arrived last week, and after fiddling around with the setup over the weekend, I must say that I think the pickups sound great! I was planning to swap them out for some SDs, but that won't be happening now.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Essex SX Pickups---amazing!
- Thread starter JimmyM
- Start date
I bought a SX J-57 about a year ago after almost buying a Squier jazz bass. My intentions were to change everything out on the bass and have something similar to a Geddy bass but on a poor family man's budget. I was going to do this in steps. with the pickups being next to last on the list. (Last was going to be the tuners.) The bass surpassed my expectations right out of the box.
First I did a couple tweaks concerning things such as redrilling the neck bolt holes in the body (which I read about on this website.) Then I bought a vintage wiring kit with 250 k pots, and shielding tape from Link Removed and installed all of that stuff, adjusted the action, intonation, and pickup height. All of this made a noticable difference. A whole new world opened up when I switched the bridge out with a BaddassII. To me the tone sounded awesome. I still wanted to change my pickups out, just because I knew they were cheap pickups, and that is what you are suppossed to do with cheap pickups, but for the life of me I could not think of any other reason. I recently had a friend play the bass (a friend whose music experience I greatly respect.) He had never heard of SX and when I told him how much I had payed for the original bass his exact words were "I would have guessed at least $600 or $700." When I told him I was considering trading out the pickups. He strongly suggested not too, Saying that they were incredibly quiet for single coils and had good tone. I too have decided to stay with the SX stock pups.
In the past I have owned a late 70's Fender p-bass MIA, and Ricky 4001. I am not saying that my sx jazz is better then either of these, but I love this bass and the stock pickups are nothing to sneeze at. Instead of droping $125 on new pups, I might buy me an SX 5-string jazz.
It's like wine... more you pay for pickups the better it sounds... I have a certain story to tell about a certain line of basses that are using the exact same electronics system... right down to the capacitor part number... as the SX and costs 10 times more...
His point?! You are stumped about a fellow-bassist's comment regarding how US-based companies exploit Asian employees? Haven't you read the news? It's been around for many years, the "news."
So Let Me S-p-e-l-l it out for you: I think his point is that someone in China (many someones) was paid far less than your $3 p/hr to assemble SX et al. and is probably far older than once-18 you. People work sweatshop hours and days, yet live in abject poverty. That's wrong: So what if it allows us to get decent basses for pennies? Do some research on this matter: You'll be appalled...people working for near-nothing, with no benefits, no promotion opps. It's sad. That's the point, part of it.
I disagree: There's plenty we can do about China. But we'll have to be "generous" enough to absorb a bit more cost in buying product built there and sold here.
So you care about human rights. That's great! But it's not some gift you're giving to the broke Chinese worker who "might have the best job he ever had...." It would be very sad if you didn't care, given that many out there care about human rights only when it's convenient for them. And there are those who plain don't care.
BTW, your comment about "rice fields" does smack of significant cultural insensitivity. There's a lot that goes on in China beyond the cultivation of rice. Come to think about it, dismissing the bass-worker as having only rice-field gigs to look forward to in lieu of bass-construction is disturbingly patronising and flat-out offensive.
Spill the beans man!
Wages are rising in China as that's the way of things. An economy in that stage of development isn't going to feature high wages for that kind of work.
Personally, I couldn't care any less about how much the guy(s) who built my SX are earning. I've no idea whether the amount they're earning (of which I have no clue and neither do you) is a reasonable wage to survive on, nor do I know what the cost of living is in China. And I don't see China busting a gut to help the impoverished people of other countries. A housing area in my city has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK, and the unemployment rate in the whole city is higher than the national average, yet I don't see delegations of Chinese politicians or citizens heading round to help those people, and I don't see guys like you fighting their corner for them. Perhaps it's not fashionable enough, eh?...
The Chinese government should care more about their own denial of human rights toward their own people, and then I wouldn't have to read internet activists spouting off about something that is completely unrelated to the discussion!!!
hey jimmyM,
1. i really like putting some gaffer tape (like what engineers use on the board) over exposed pole pups. it doesn't really darken it as much as you'd think, and it really makes a difference as far as "clackiness" goes.
2. i've been looking at getting the pj with the maple neck. i already own a duncan quarter pounder P pup, which i was expecting to drop in there. now i'm thinking i might not. do you think it would be a lot hotter than the stock J pup?
1. i really like putting some gaffer tape (like what engineers use on the board) over exposed pole pups. it doesn't really darken it as much as you'd think, and it really makes a difference as far as "clackiness" goes.
2. i've been looking at getting the pj with the maple neck. i already own a duncan quarter pounder P pup, which i was expecting to drop in there. now i'm thinking i might not. do you think it would be a lot hotter than the stock J pup?
