Fender Jazz Bass Special - Circa 1984-87

[hbabels]

Just drove 8 hours round trip for this bad boy yesterday to round out my trifecta.
View attachment 4411307
I now have a fretless, fretted P-width neck (the natural finish one) and the recent reissue.
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Electronics on the pewter fretless are crackly and the TBX is gone, so I’m gonna get that back and replace the pots and pickups. Any suggestions on PJ sets? I’m leaning Fender Yosemite or maybe Dimarzio Model series.

I think the EMG GEEZER p/j set would sound excellent in that bass or the Aguilar p/j. Those are the 2 best passive p/j sets I’ve used. Or you could go full Duff and get a fender p and a Seymour Duncan hot jazz stack which I have in one of my jazz bass specials that’s sounds fantastic.

 

[gtlover]

Just drove 8 hours round trip for this bad boy yesterday to round out my trifecta.
View attachment 4411307
I now have a fretless, fretted P-width neck (the natural finish one) and the recent reissue.
View attachment 4411308View attachment 4411309
Electronics on the pewter fretless are crackly and the TBX is gone, so I’m gonna get that back and replace the pots and pickups. Any suggestions on PJ sets? I’m leaning Fender Yosemite or maybe Dimarzio Model series.

Nice score! I’ve got Model P/J in mine with the TBX and really like it.

 

[Beef_Wallington]

I think the EMG GEEZER p/j set would sound excellent in that bass or the Aguilar p/j. Those are the 2 best passive p/j sets I’ve used. Or you could go full Duff and get a fender p and a Seymour Duncan hot jazz stack which I have in one of my jazz bass specials that’s sounds fantastic.

I’ve not been a big fan of any SD I’ve played but those have all been P pickups… maybe this is something to look at with that juicy Custom Shop ‘62 pickup I’ve been eyeing over the years.

 

[Beef_Wallington]

Nice score! I’ve got Model P/J in mine with the TBX and really like it.

Thanks! Glad to hear you’re liking it. Unfortunately my only experience with PJ sets are the really old DiMarzios in my original fretted one and the unavailable boxer pickups in the reissue.

If I could find the pickups out of the reissue I would buy them in a heartbeat.

 

[stefancaunter]

hmm not much original on that… are the emgs okay? tbx is fixable. it’s a fretless so it might just work…

 

[Beef_Wallington]

hmm not much original on that… are the emgs okay? tbx is fixable. it’s a fretless so it might just work…

Not quite sure what you mean by that, but the control layout is the same (plus all OG knobs are there so bonus) and the neck/body of these is the most important part IMO. My other one didn’t have original pickups when I bought it either so my fandom is all feel.

I haven’t ever found other basses that play as well as these.

Unfortunately I really don’t like the EMGs (plus they are active) so they gotta go.

 

[hbabels]

I’ve not been a big fan of any SD I’ve played but those have all been P pickups… maybe this is something to look at with that juicy Custom Shop ‘62 pickup I’ve been eyeing over the years.

I haven’t tried a lot of Seymour Bass pickups other than the hot jazz stack which I really dig & the Quarter Pounders which I hated. The hot jazz stack has a punchy growl that works well with the Fender P (whichever ones comes in the Duff McKagan signature pass )
It depends what your after for a fretless I think the EMG geezers with their mids might be ticket to really bring out the mwah sound.

 

[Beef_Wallington]

I haven’t tried a lot of Seymour Bass pickups other than the hot jazz stack which I really dig & the Quarter Pounders which I hated. The hot jazz stack has a punchy growl that works well with the Fender P (whichever ones comes in the Duff McKagan signature pass )
It depends what your after for a fretless I think the EMG geezers with their mids might be ticket to really bring out the mwah sound.

I’ll have to give those a serious look then I think. I’ll try and find some samples of them in a fret less if I can. They may be one of the only sets particularly available right now too.

 

[stefancaunter]

the tbx was likely screwed up when the emgs were put in. wiring schematic is in this thread 86 Fender Special Jazz-wiring
they are excellent fender basses. i’m a fan of the OG pickups but you have lots of options these days.

 

[bassgod76]

Not quite sure what you mean by that, but the control layout is the same (plus all OG knobs are there so bonus) and the neck/body of these is the most important part IMO. My other one didn’t have original pickups when I bought it either so my fandom is all feel.

I haven’t ever found other basses that play as well as these.

Unfortunately I really don’t like the EMGs (plus they are active) so they gotta go.

See, I think those big pole piece factory pickups are huge to that 80’s JBS tone

 

[LostJohnny]

Just drove 8 hours round trip for this bad boy yesterday to round out my trifecta.
Any suggestions on PJ sets? I’m leaning Fender Yosemite or maybe Dimarzio Model series.

I've got an Epic Custom Shop PJ1 set that I like a lot; it sounds good, it looks like the originals with the large pole pieces, and the price is hard to beat. I've also heard some good things about the EMG GZR set. I thought reviews of the Yosemite pickups were a bit more mixed, but I have no personal experience with them; there's been plenty of talk about them here on TB.

Whatever you get, be aware that the pickup routs seem to run very small on these JBSs - I had to shave down the pickup covers on both replacement sets I tried, but I'd be curious to hear if that's been others' experience too.

 

[stefancaunter]

See, I think those big pole piece factory pickups are huge to that 80’s JBS tone

i’m with you they’re great, but you never see them on the market in my experience

 

[Beef_Wallington]

Okay I got y’all. Just a little thrown by the ‘not much original’ comment when really it was just pickups and a tone pot swapped.

 

[bassgod76]

i’m with you they’re great, but you never see them on the market in my experience

I thought they were the same exact pick up that fender is now using it in those boxer re-issues?

 

[Beef_Wallington]

I thought they were the same exact pick up that fender is now using it in those boxer re-issues?

Sadly there doesn’t seem to be anywhere you can buy them without buying the bass. If that’s what the original large pole pickups sounds like then dayum I want me some.

 

[Shirobon]

I thought they were the same exact pick up that fender is now using it in those boxer re-issues?

Nope.


As for the pick ups mentioned above, I can confirm that the SD Hot Stack Jazz is a pretty good pickup, I also had the Quater-Pounders in my now-sold Duff siggy, and they weren't fantastic. Not bad, but not great either.

Now that I have an actual JBS with the fat pole pieces to compare them to, the original japanese pickups blow all of these clean out of the water.

I will never believe anyone who says that Japanese electronics are cheap and the weak point of their basses.

 

[LostJohnny]

I thought they were the same exact pick up that fender is now using it in those boxer re-issues?

The current boxer reissue doesn't have large pole pieces, so definitely not the same pickups as the old JBSes. Whether they sound the same, I dunno.

 

[bassgod76]

Okay I got y’all. Just a little thrown by the ‘not much original’ comment when really it was just pickups and a tone pot swapped.

Nope.




As for the pick ups mentioned above, I can confirm that the SD Hot Stack Jazz is a pretty good pickup, I also had the Quater-Pounders in my now-sold Duff siggy, and they weren't fantastic. Not bad, but not great either.

Now that I have an actual JBS with the fat pole pieces to compare them to, the original japanese pickups blow all of these clean out of the water.

I will never believe anyone who says that Japanese electronics are cheap and the weak point their basses.

Yeah, I wasn’t positive on that.
The stock pickups are a huge, almost the most important and recognizable tone component of a JBS.

Me personally, unless I got a JBS real cheap, I would probably not purchase a JBS without its original pickups. That’s just me, though.

 

[Original Bobby Bouche']

LOL FWIW
I did put back the original pick-up back in mine that had the EMGs.

 

[Beef_Wallington]

Yeah, I wasn’t positive on that.
The stock pickups are a huge, almost the most important and recognizable tone component of a JBS.

Me personally, unless I got a JBS real cheap, I would probably not purchase a JBS without its original pickups. That’s just me, though.

I would love to play an all original one some day, but I’ve literally never had a bass for me like these. I’ve had Mexican and American Ps, Mexi Js, Squiers, Sterling Rays, Ibanez, etc. so the physical is well worth it for me.

If anyone has a sample of the original pickup sounds I’d be very interested to hear it.