There’s one thing you need to try with your Elite before you change the pickups.
The Elite needed better and more thorough shielding (I wonder if they treated the new Ultra any better). Fender’s idea of proper shielding is woefully inadequate. And the meanest, best humbucking pickups in the world don’t stand a chance if there are other noise-vulnerable parts of the electronics system.
I was dismayed with the noise I experienced from my Elite, but right off the bat, I could tell that the shielding wasn’t up to par, which was ridiculous on a bass this expensive. However, I liked the bass well enough to put in the effort to properly shield the bass. I used copper foil in the control compartment, wire tunnels, under the pickups (NO change in tone from this), under the pickguards, even the wire tunnel from the compartment to the bridge pup (I wrapped foil around a straw and inserted that into the tunnel). Then I tacked the edges of the foil together with solder.
This was a lot of trouble that should not have been necessary on this bass. However, once this was completed, the Elite was now very quiet and I actually liked the tone from the N4 pups, although I did later change them to Nord single coils, which was now okay to do since the bass is now properly shielded.
Just remember, the pickups aren’t the only components prone to picking up noise if the shielding is inadequate.
