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Fender "Pure Vintage" Pickups

#62
Just installed '58 Pure Vintage P pickup and my bass and WHOA! Well, I was impressed with stock pickup in my Road Worn Precision(I believe it might be '62 RI) but this '58 just kills it! It's just a touch hotter, perfect string balance, very musical, very definitive tone, not as woody as the old one or the real 60's P I had a chance to play, has a lot of air; nice crisp highs, though they're not jumping out right in your face, but sit nicely in the mix. This pickup is so organic, it probably came from Whole Foods :laugh:! Will try to upload small comparison clip sometime this weekend.
 
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#63
lawrence2 said:
Oh yeah ... for the video, I wanted to say, that I already saw it and forget about it, so thanks that you remember me :) (that there is no misunderstanding)
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No prob man, I do my best :bassist:

_godspeed_ said:
Just installed '58 Pure Vintage P pickup and my bass and WHOA! Well, I was impressed with stock pickup in my Road Worn Precision(I believe it might be '62 RI) but this '58 just kills it! It's just a touch hotter, perfect string balance, very musical, very definitive tone, not as woody as the old one or the real 60's P I had a chance to play, has a lot of air; nice crisp highs, though they're not jumping out right in your face, but sit nicely in the mix. This pickup is so organic, it probably came from Whole Foods :laugh:! Will try to upload small comparison clip sometime this weekend.
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Nice, thanx for letting us know.

It seems these pure vintage pickups are still unknown to most, so a comparison clip would be more than helpfull.
 
#64
Ray man said:
A guy around here(not me) did a video comparing the 75's vs the 60's CS.

As you can hear the difference is small, but it's the best comparison I found.



Sure, the bass itself will resonate in it's own unique way.
My Fender fsr antigua has a monster neck, combined with the 70's spacing
it has a wide midrange. My Warmouth build(60's spacing) has a warmer rounder sound.
In the end, the antigua got the 74's, while the Warmouth got the 60's CS for the sake of contrast.
It took a long period of trial and error.
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The real lesson here is that in the hands of good player like this guy both sets of these pickups sound great and the differences become pretty insignificant in the band/recording context. The CS have a little fuller sound and the 70s a little more bite. The 70s spacing makes a slight difference with both PU's, a bit more with bridge and no difference with neck PU only. Not better or worse, just different. I'd be happy with either sound.
Agree with the neck comments BTW. Had a 74 AVRI with a big fat neck that sounded great.
 
#65
Britbonic said:
The real lesson here is that in the hands of good player like this guy both sets of these pickups sound great and the differences become pretty insignificant in the band/recording context. The CS have a little fuller sound and the 70s a little more bite. The 70s spacing makes a slight difference with both PU's, a bit more with bridge and no difference with neck PU only. Not better or worse, just different. I'd be happy with either sound.
Agree with the neck comments BTW. Had a 74 AVRI with a big fat neck that sounded great.
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Well said.
I wouldn't expect a night and day difference, unless were talking about a different design with active eq ect...
But for hair splitters(like me:smug:), the difference is more significant.
 
#66
Bump or something, me again :).
I also wouldn't expect a big difference between two 70's style pickups, but like you said, I am also a hair splitter, I think :).
So, "pure vintages" are new models, so I am sure, that by now there are some more people, who tried them out there, to share their opinions.
And one more thing: I am planing to put 74's (or maybe 75's) in american standard Jazz bass, 98's - so in 60's position; how would that effect the sound if you put bridge pick up, which is 70's style in 60's position; wood is adler, maple neck.

Groove on people :)
 
#67
lawrence2 said:
Bump or something, me again :).
I also wouldn't expect a big difference between two 70's style pickups, but like you said, I am also a hair splitter, I think :).
So, "pure vintages" are new models, so I am sure, that by now there are some more people, who tried them out there, to share their opinions.
And one more thing: I am planing to put 74's (or maybe 75's) in american standard Jazz bass, 98's - so in 60's position; how would that effect the sound if you put bridge pick up, which is 70's style in 60's position; wood is adler, maple neck.

Groove on people :)
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Well, I had 75's in the 60's position on my beat up old Warmouth.
The pickups will still retain there own tonal characteristics no matter what position.
IOW the sound of 60's vs 70's position is realy a seperate issue apart from the pickups.
 
#68
I have a set of Pure Vintage '74 pickups on order to put in my 1974 Jazz (see this thread for why) - I'll let you know how they stack up against the much-loved originals! Conveniently, I recorded an album just before the old ones gave out on me, so I should have a nice set of isolated tracks recorded with the old pickups to use for comparison.
 
#69
Fun Size Nick said:
I have a set of Pure Vintage '74 pickups on order to put in my 1974 Jazz (see this thread for why) - I'll let you know how they stack up against the much-loved originals! Conveniently, I recorded an album just before the old ones gave out on me, so I should have a nice set of isolated tracks recorded with the old pickups to use for comparison.
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Yeah man, most of us don't have the originals to compare to, so whatever you can tell us is much appreciated.

Take a look at what this guy said.

Audere said:
The 74's have less capacitance and more inductance in the coil winding - they almost exactly match my vintage early 70s pickups with only a very slight increase in capacitance from the vintage pickup - they are the closest match I have measured to date.
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#71
I (supposedly) have the Custom Shop 60s in a 2012 American Standard Jazz. Fender's published resistance specs for the CS 60s are Neck: 9.0k ohms Bridge: 8.8k ohms. Mine measure Neck 7.14k ohms Bridge 7.42k ohms. Who knows? They sound good.[/QUOTE said:
I personally think lower value resistance readings and Alnico II magnets sound the closest to the vintage pickup sound.
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#74
GattsYAC said:
anyone have compared the pure vintage 74 jazz bass pickups vs the fender original jazz bass pickups (that comes with the japanese fender geddy lee jazz bass)?
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I forget the exact model that is in the Geddy bass, but I did have them at one point.
I am certain I would have remembered them if they made any impression on me. I
I always thought the Geddy should have either the 75's or the 74's, for sure.
 
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#75
The model is the Fender Original Jazz Bass Pickups. The main bass that Geddy uses is a '72.
Im looking for a pickup that sounds better with overdrives. Im using an EBS Billy Sheehan Drive.

these are some samples of the pickups that Geddy is using on his main bass (examples 3 and 4):
 
#76
I just got the Pure Vintage '58 P pickup. Silly name yes I agree. It sounds very even and well tempered, with a good balance of frequencies where nothing is overly prominent. It's in the fender custom shop school of sound for sure, based on my guitar pickup experience. Maybe I'm hallucinating, but the tone I'm getting is reminiscent of an actual vintage '58 Precision I saw on Youtube. It's not fat and dirty or whatever, like a Quarter Pounder or other overwound pickup, but I didn't want that anyway. The E string still has that certain authority to it. Clean but warm? It's so hard to verbalize a tonality. I think this will prove to be a good all-around sound as I start working this bass into my music. I'm probably not going to go on a wild search to try everything that's out there, since these sound good. I think I only paid $78 new for mine, so it's a bargain, too. I think I will look to preamps and various DI's to provide tonal variety with my two basses.
 
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#77
I recently installed a Fender Pure Vintage '63 P-Bass pickup in a Warmoth parts Precision and it really sounds exceptional to my ear and easily competes, if not exceeds many of the titans of the old school Fender Precision sound that are readily available on the market these days such as Lindy Fralin, Nordstrand, Lollar as well as the venerable Fender '62 RI and Custom Shop offerings, IMHO. Highly recommended.
 
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#78
monkeyxx said:
It's in the fender custom shop school of sound for sure, based on my guitar pickup experience.
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pbassnut said:
exceeds many of the titans of the old school Fender Precision sound that are readily available on the market these days such as Lindy Fralin, Nordstrand, Lollar as well as the venerable Fender '62 RI and Custom Shop offerings, IMHO. Highly recommended.
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I wonder what the real difference is between the '64 Pure Vintage and the 60's Custom Shop.
 
#79
Ray man, it's generally difficult to quantify the differences in the many comparable to each other boutique pickup offerings. As an example, I installed that Fender Pure Vintage '63 Precision pickup in a lightweight Warmoth one piece swamp ash body with a Warmoth maple/maple Precision neck strung with roundwound strings so it's very bright, twangy and "rock" sounding. However, because I'm a primarily a blues player, most of my other basses (such as the heavy Northern ash/rosewood Franken50thAnniversary Precision that I'm pictured with in my avatar - which sports a Fender Custom Shop '59 Precision pickup) are strung with flatwound strings and so, sound quite a bit different from jump street. All I can say for sure is my Warmoth P with the Pure Vintage '63 Precision pickup sounds exceptional to my ear.
 
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#80
Re: post #3 above. Fender's published specs for the Custom Shop Custom 60's are now in line with what I measured.

I installed the Pure Vintage '64 Jazz Bass Pickup Set in my 2012 Am Std Jazz. The results are in line with the Fender spec:

Output Rating (Bass/Mid/Treble)
Neck: 7/4/6
Bridge: 5/7/7.

I may swap out the bridge pickup with the Custom 60's bridge pickup which is rated at

Bridge: 6/4/4.
 

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