Fender Super 55 and John East

Hello all,
I purchased a set of Fender Super 55 jazz bass pickups to throw in my MIJ Fender Marcus Miller jazz bass. I have the John East Marcus Retro installed with AVRI 75 Jazz bass pickups. This configuration sounds great, loud and proud. I wanted to try out some noiseless pickups and I have read great reviews about the Super 55s so I picked up a set.

Problem is the output volume is only 25% with the Super 55s installed with the Marcus Retro. I cranked the gain in the East preamp and the 55s still have only a small amount of output.

Is it possible that the Marcus Retro can't be paired with the Super 55s?

I have tried everything to get them to produce a strong output, installed one at a time and tested throughout installation, but have had no luck.

I threw back in the AVRI 75 pickups and my bass is at normal volumes again.

Any one have any ideas? Seems odd that a $350 preamp wouldn't take the Super 55s especially since I have read that they are hot pickups.

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

 

Yeah. I tried every type of wiring configuration even one pickup at a time with insufficient volume results. Thinking the pickups are no good. Thanks

 

Yes.
I have not seen or heard of this electronic combo before. I am guessing that it is the preamp at fault. I tried some other single coils I had lying around and the output is strong.

I tried installing the 55s once again just in case I missed something, but no luck. I could throw them in one of my other jazz basses but I like having them stock where as my Marcus is modded. I am going to email East and see what they say.

On a positive note I bought them from Amazon and they are going to be returned tommorow. $69 shipped was a real bargain though.

If I hear back from East I will post what they say.

Thanks for the replies and have a merry Christmas.

 

I thought of that but i didn't want to just in case something was really wrong with them.

 

Good idea. I will give that a try later today.

 

Yes. I tried everything. I even tried wiring them straight to the output jack of another bass and cable. They are definately bad.

Thing is I ordered and payed for new pickups, however the packaging was open and the "new" stickers on the packaging had a generic label over them. They had to be returns to begin with. I purchased the neck and bridge separately.

Sending them back now.

 

Well I had them wired to the East pre neck pickup screw down connection cold (black and green)/hot (white) for the neck and then to the bridge screw down connection cold (black and green) /hot (yellow) for the bridge.

I also soldered to ground (black and green) as well as reversed the push on connector to the back of the pickups.
Same result all the time.

Just for fun and the sake of me failing to install correctly I did try every possible wiring configuration just to be sure. I have installed many pickups in basses over the years. This is the first issue I ever came across.

I do have an electrical engineering background and do understand ground and shield. When I bypassed the pre to an output Jack only I had the same results; very low output.

Thanks for all the help and interest. I love TB for this kind of support.

I sent them back yesterday.

I know. I don't need them I just wanted to give them a try. My bass sounds fantastic with the East pre and AVRI 75 pickups anyways.

I sent the Super 55s back yesterday.

 

Here is the East pickup terminals. I also have my bass cavity shielded with conductive glue backing copper foil from stewmac.

 

I know right? When I recieved my East pre back in May the first one had a broken pickup terminal so I had to replace that.

Don't recall having bought bad bass gear to frequently. The super 55s were suppose to be new but they were both open box with generic labels placed over the original UPC sticker.

My guess is they were returned because they were bad or somebody mucked them up.

Shame since I wanted to really try them out. Oh well.