Fender sound needs a kick up the butt!

[Rockin John]

The original Suhr designed pickups in those were very punchy. I had a 1997 four string, and wish I still did! The only problem I had with the preamp was that I thought the mid control was voiced a little too high.

If it were mine, I would put in DeMarzio Ultra-Jazz pickups with the Dimarzio plate and just lose the preamp.

Thomastik Jazz Rounds seemed to be made exactly for that bass, but I also like Jazz Flats.

Hmmm. The name, Suhr, is new to me. So the original pickups were not by Bill Lawrence? I wonder why I thought that….

 

[Rockin John]

NJ5F Vintage Single Coil Fender

The NJ5F will leave you breathless with the splintering snap and grind of its hardwired midrange that can only be tamed by its euphoric high end.

nordstrandaudio.com

I would buy a set of these and convert the bass to passive vol/vol/tone. Simple circuit, simple bass. Easy to dial in. Less knobs to futz around with.


Edit, sorry misread how you said you’re not into “vintage tone”. Usually with modern pickups, “vintage wind” is generally a good “all purpose” sound.

My error, really. “Vintage” to me means the typical single coil sound that every pickup maker seems to aim for. Yes, the plan is to make it a passive bass.

 

[Rockin John]

Greetings, John!

Rather than saying what you should buy blindly, what I'm wondering is if these DiMarzio Ultra Jazz 5's land anywhere close to the sound you're hoping to achieve? (If nothing else, they're fun, short vids. Now, if only I could play that well! )

Yes, thanks. Lovely sound. However I cannot slap! I’m a pretty nimble finger style player but I’m never likely to get the tones you do … unless it’s by accident? Ha ha.

 

[Rockin John]

Based on personal experience, I second @ragetoca relative to pickups.
Delanos Delano JMVC5 FE/M2-AS 5 String Hum Cancelling Jazz Bass® Pickup Set for Fender® American Standard® | Reverb
plus a Sadowsky or Audere preamp.

I’m going to look into that. Tks.

 

[Rockin John]

I’ve been using fender basses for a long time. And primarily a round wound kind of guy. IMO, unless you have dead pickups, Fender JBs sound best with both volume and tone controls wide open, then EQ ( boosting 165hz to 250hz) using tone controls on your amp to taste. A lack of low mids is the probably reason it didn’t cut through the mix,

Why? The sound you are looking for requires maximum gain out of your bass into the slightly overdriven preamp stage of your amp. Hence the knobs on your bass wide open. Hope this helps.

Yes. Tks. I’ve thought for a while that the active preamp is the limiting factor, which is why the bass will be converted to passive!

 

[Rockin John]

I would start with removing that stick of bubble gum from under your BEA strings, that could solve your problem right there!

Yes. That was an experiment for another reason from about 10 years ago … the last time the bass saw the light of day! It’s gone now. LoL

 

[Rockin John]

With you being in the UK my first thought was The Creamery. He makes SUPERB pickups at reasonable prices (if you're willing to wait a couple of months for delivery...). I haven't tried his J-bass pickups though. I think they are more vintage-oriented so probably not what you want. You could try sending him an email and explain what you're looking for. He builds all his pickups to order, so you might get one made to your desired specs (if he bothers checking his email... communication isn't always the best IME).

But it sounds to me like you might like some kind of split coil. The Seymour D Apollos are great for a fatter, kinda P-bass'ish tone. Some DiMarzios are also great for "J-bass on steroids". Maybe Nordstrand too, although for MY taste their pickups are generally TOO extreme, with a sort of "more of everything" philosophy that I've personally never liked much. With every Nordstrand pickup I've ever played I always feel like my bass is constantly "shouting". I always feel like I need to hold back a bit when playing Nordstrands. You might like them though. Lots of people do.

FWIW my personal favorite J-bass pickups are the standard Fralins, but I'm more into vintage voiced J-bass pickups (although Fralins take on the J-bass is slightly more "hi-fi" than most vintage J-basses to my ears). Fralin also have split coils for J-bass, but I've never tried those.

One more thing: Does that bass have a CTS mini-pot for the mid control? I've seen more than a few of these pots go bad in recent years, on basses from around that era. The pots disintegrate, with the chassis more or less falling apart. Fender must have gotten a HUGE batch of bad quality pots from CTS at some point. I honestly don't remember if this is only happening with the MIM Deluxe basses, or if it affects the American Deluxe basses too, but if that mid pots starts to feel a bit wobbly you might want to replace it when you're doing these upgrades, because once it starts to feel loose/wobbly it WILL fail. Finding the right type of mini-pot can be a bit difficult. But of course, if you're gonna replace the preamp altogether this won't matter.

Thanks. I have a set of SD Apollo ‘under the microscope’, and my research so far points in that direction. Funnily enough, it does seem as though the Mid pot doesn’t work. The preamp will be removed in favour of a fully passive system.

 

[Rockin John]

I have a 2006 American Deluxe 5 with the same preamp and pickups, and I have a very similar set of issues. I have basically stopped playing it, which is a shame, as it is a lovely bass. I will be watching this thread very closely....

Blimey! I honestly thought it was just me not coping with the sound.

 

[Rockin John]

This is an approach I took to a MIM Player Deluxe Active Jazz Bass V. It wasn't that the tone wasn't good or didn't cut. It was simply a volume problem that despite two 9 volt batteries, it was less output than the two passive Jazz Basses I had. So instead of trying to figure out which pickups would physically fit that had more output, or trying to figure out if a different preamp might add more output, I simply bought an el-cheapo boost pedal that very easily put the Basses output on parity not only with the passive Jazz Basses, but also if I needed, could match the output of my Stingrays.

So a $35.00 mini-boost pedal I've gigged with for years with ZERO issues.

Normally, I'm not as much in favor of a pedal "bandaid" approach, but honestly the bass sounded FINE. I just needed it LOUDER and with more output, and any other approach was potentially changing any of the TONE which I never had any problem with.

Yes. That idea has been posted elsewhere on the thread.

 

[Rockin John]

For my purposes, those mid 00’s Jazz Deluxe 5’s are perfect; except the Fender preamp. Here is my 07:

View attachment 7285762

ATM, this bass has the Sadowsky onboard preamp and Ulyate single coil pickups. I recently switched back to single coil pickups, because 60 Hz interference from stage lighting has become MUCH less common. the Sadowsky preamp is absolute sauce for the range of Fender sounds.

Best of luck. Probably looking into pickup / electronics options is a good idea for you.

You make a V interesting point about 60Hz. It’s an idea I’ve held for some time. Things are V different on stage nowadays and, whilst there’s still plenty of mains AC about, much stage gear is digital so reducing the hum fields.

 

[Rockin John]

Been down that same road many times with the Fender American Deluxe V / Elite V. Matter of fact had the same bass as yours. Every time I went with Nordstrand NJ5F single coils that bass came alive. With or without the stock pre. With a Nordstrand 3 band preamp it was a winner. Good luck with your project.

Thanks. I’m starting to get surprised how many folks think the same as me about these basses.

 

[Jaygetsreal]

Another Deluxe V with too-thin sound here (2005 Mexico model). Watching thread with interest. Thanks for all the interesting comments

 

[wysiwyg248]

I've used the 4-string version of these pickups in a few basses and I think they are a great recommendation for what the OP is looking for- very ballsy/growly, and not a hint of noise (not sure if the 5-string set is as noise-free given 5-string split-coils often have imbalanced humcancelling, but they may have used some sort of clever scheme to work that out)

I installed the 4-string version in a Custom Shop Jazz and was impressed. Because of that bass sound, I did the same on a 5-string which is not noisy -for me-.

 

[wysiwyg248]

I wasn't going to make a specific recommendation before hearing back from the OP, nor do I like the look of "jumping on the bandwagon", but everyone here does make a great point; the Delano JMVC's are modern sounding, very bold and not for the faint of heart.

Interestingly, and I'm only speaking for myself, running them passively is just fine. No slam on those who prefer active systems, but for those particular pickups, pumping them through a couple of different preamps...a John East and an Audere JZ3...just felt like I was gilding the lily. So, I decided to go passive and paired them with some of the brightest strings I have in my collection as an experiment...a set of D'Addario FlexSteels. Suffice it to say, they're still incredibly thumpy and mean sounding!

So, while I found my particular "alchemy", a bit of magic that will vary from person to person, the root of it all was the Delano pups with those big, honkin' pole pieces!

BTW, great looking bass.

 

[Geri O]

Pretty sure someone on here recently got Fralin to make his first 5-string pickup (though I have a feeling it was a P).

If he's now open to making a 5-string Jazz set, you can't do much better than that (he ships internationally).

Yes, guilty as charged….

Except that Lindy had just made that first P5 pup when I called and asked him about rewinding my V-Mod II pups out of my P5.

So that’s how that came about.

I have Fralin 5-string single-coil Jazz pups in my Jazz-style Lull (and Fralin has made those for a good while now), so I most highly recommend them if the OP can get them shipped to his locale….

 

[DrBnz]

I had the same bass..... same problem. I installed Fralin +5 pups and it helped considerably. I still didn't like the B string and sold it. Not the fault of the bass. I've never liked a B string on a Fender.

 

[Thunderthumbs73]

Yes. That idea has been posted elsewhere on the thread.

I tend to read only the original post, and usually don't have time to read all the responses before responding. By the time I see the original post for the first time, there usually have been at least 2-3 pages of responses. Or more.

 

[Paul New]

Hmmm. The name, Suhr, is new to me. So the original pickups were not by Bill Lawrence? I wonder why I thought that….

Thread 'Fender Suhr-era 90's (1996) American Deluxe Basses'

Aug 8, 2021

Any Fender Jazz aficionados out there that can tell me a good bit on my bass?

Had it since I was a teen, was my second bass and will always stay with me - so definitely not for sale! Nowadays I realize how lucky I was that my local music store had this in second-hand! Hard to come by in my neck of the woods.
At the time I knew I wanted a Jazz and I also wanted 22 frets so this was perfect. Saved up for weeks then managed to get it. All throughout schools and gigs people commented positively on the sound.

I've been away from it for some time now and soon I will be getting my hands on it...

• The Water
• american deluxe fender jazz suhr
• Replies: 53
• Forum: Basses [BG]

• 

 

[Tim Schnautz]

Here’s my story…

This is my 2004 American Deluxe 5 String Jazz Bass. I bought it new, so have owned it 21 years. It’s a great playing bass but has a pretty awful and weak sound in as much as it doesn’t cut through a mix. Unfortunately I fell out of love with it pretty soon after purchase so have, on a few occasions, decided to part with it. Consequently it’s spent virtually all its life in its case, doing absolutely sweet nothing: I doubt it’s been out more than 20 times in 21 years! However…

… in that time the noiseless pickups (by Bill Lawrence?) and / or the active preamp have come in for criticism, and bassists’ press have had articles where players replaced the pickups.

So, coming forward to last week.

I decided to give it one last try / chance. If I could find suitable pickups I might decide to keep it. But which pickups? Here in UK we don’t have the selection available over the pond - esp. for Jazz 5, - so the following makes are almost all I can buy: Sey. Duncan, Dimazio, Aguilar, Norstrand, EMG. There might be a couple of ‘hand winders’, too. In addition I propose to convert the bass to full passive.

My preferred sound is some growl and drive; the sort of thing a hum bucket might deliver. A “vintage” Jazz Bass, single coil sound is definitely not for me. Admittedly I’m a flatwound sort-a bloke (D’Addario Chromes shown on the pic, but Fender rounds were on originally) but may switch to rounds for this bass.

Guys, wisdom, experience, suggestions ALL very welcome.

Tks for reading…

John.

England.

Dimarzios have never failed to deliver what Ive needed . Norstrand gets great reviews. I know an excellent luthier that will use nothing but them.

 

[Jaygetsreal]

More on the thin American Deluxe Jazz V sound problem. I was about to order some new pickups and electronics but this morning I pulled my old Tech21 VTBass pedal out of the cupboard. And man this old classic can really fatten up the sound and I find I have complete control now.
Its output is pretty hot so I can actually just feed it into the Effects Return power amp section of my amp.
Very happy now.