Re: foreign made pickups...I'm not sure that G&L or Fender have ever said that every single piece of hardware on their basses were made and manufactured in the USA. As a matter of fact, I don't know of any bass company who have ever said this. I could be wrong, though.
I could see where this could be important for some folks as the country of origin thing is important to some people and that's fine.
Personally, I'm not really in this group. And I've never even thought of asking this question. I guess I see that there is a current trend towards globalisation of a lot of things...it would be hard to garantee that anything is made entirely in the USA, by parts made in the USA, by USA citizens.
I guess what I am trying to say is that if we dig around enough, we will see that all or most of our "USA" basses are not 100% USA.
Certainly, a lot of USA boutique basses are made from wood from...Africa, South America, etc. That's pretty clear. Yet they are still considered American made basses, although the major component comes from somewhere else.
Just wanted to add my 2 cents worth.
John
I think that the fact that the PUs in the JBs are made in Japan does not imply an issue with quality at all...as I stated in my post. More...I have tried also some PU swap and finally returned back to the stock G&L 'cause they simply sound better to my ear (tried Nordstrand NJ4, Di Marzio).
Now I'm able to distinguish some specific features in the gagon spec'd PUs compared at least with Nordtrand (that remained on the bass for a while).
The stock G&L Pus are certainly less bassy and have less lower mids but they have also a great, burpy, clear, open response in the midrange with sweeter highs. They seem to sound a lot more woody (you know that particular "colour" that reminds of a piece of wood that is speaking). they have also that kind of a "rotted" or "distorted" quality to the wonderful midrange that I sometimes noted on very old pickups coming form the 60-70' in vintage basses. A sort of a mixture between transparency and warmth that is very difficult to explain and share but that is clearly evident even to non-musicians.
For example, when I change things and try to find a variation in tone for my instruments I perform two tests: the first is a recording of a bass line before and after trying to play with absolute consistence from a take to the other one. After a "sound holiday" of the duration of a night, usually, I listen to the two results in an A/B test.
The second test, that I use sparingly, is even more empirical: I ask my wife, who does not have a clue about what is a good bass tone, she does not play an instrument, and I ask her to comment.
This time we had the same exact feelings and perceptions about changes in tone and I have to confess that after having done the mods, I hugely prefer the stock made in Japan PUs in terms of pure tone.
This was not a surprise for me, I know that made in japan has been frequently associated with great quality, in the past just as these days.
But nonetheless I'm happy I have done those comparisons, I think I have discovered a true fine pickup, very old'ish sounding and in this regard, quite rare...
...
Looks like I have to go with a American Fender Jazz and throw Augilar pickups in it instead. 
