I just bought the e2 for both neck and bridge on my 2008 Squire VM Fretless bass. It replaced the JB101 Duncan Design pups. The first thing I noticed was the weight and thickness of the amount of wire around the pickups. Second, they installed quite easy since my leads were pretinned (nice touch ).
Now, the DD JB101 were nice but with a more bottom end focused sound. They sounded good with roundwonds and ok with EB cobolt flatwounds. They were not to bright or clean on the midtones. They sounded like they always had some time of tone rollback on them.
The Epic Custom Shop's E2 were recommended by Reeche. I was more for a growling sound from my fretless and the E1 would have not sounded right has he explained. We also discussed if he could make a dual coil humbucking as the DiMarzio's are. He would have done it if I asked but we decided not to because they will sound more like P bass splitcoils instead of the jazz sound. He will work with you on customizing what pickups you want.
Now I have them installed and they sound brighter and cleaner than the DD JP101. The lows are not boomy but well defined. The mids are clear and the highs are crisp. I would rather have that so I can cut instead of trying to boost them to get the sound I need. I have not run it through my Le Bass preamp yet because I am on vacation on the Cape and only brought my bass, couple of pedals and my Zoom.
The work he did on the pups are clean and neat. My dad's business back in the 80's made transformers and I used to help make the them on the weekends (child slave labor). But I learned how they made the foundation of the transformer, the hand winding, installing the metallic core and the wiring involved. I he paid attention to the small details such as pretinning the leads, and soldered the wire on the inside of the pickup and theaded them through a small hole on the bottom. The only thing I could give him as a small tip is to cover the exposed solder point on the bottom of the pup so if you have copper shielding in the pickup cavity you do not accidentally create a short. I fixed that with some electrical tape but a dab of wax on that end would have sealed it. One other thing I wished he did was placed his name on the outside of it.
I have kept this bass as passive intentionally. My other is a fretted PJ with EMG and the BQC preamp system running at 18v. I just wanted to keep with a whole different tone.
For the price under $80, cannot complain about it. I am happy with my purchase.
Now, the DD JB101 were nice but with a more bottom end focused sound. They sounded good with roundwonds and ok with EB cobolt flatwounds. They were not to bright or clean on the midtones. They sounded like they always had some time of tone rollback on them.
The Epic Custom Shop's E2 were recommended by Reeche. I was more for a growling sound from my fretless and the E1 would have not sounded right has he explained. We also discussed if he could make a dual coil humbucking as the DiMarzio's are. He would have done it if I asked but we decided not to because they will sound more like P bass splitcoils instead of the jazz sound. He will work with you on customizing what pickups you want.
Now I have them installed and they sound brighter and cleaner than the DD JP101. The lows are not boomy but well defined. The mids are clear and the highs are crisp. I would rather have that so I can cut instead of trying to boost them to get the sound I need. I have not run it through my Le Bass preamp yet because I am on vacation on the Cape and only brought my bass, couple of pedals and my Zoom.
The work he did on the pups are clean and neat. My dad's business back in the 80's made transformers and I used to help make the them on the weekends (child slave labor). But I learned how they made the foundation of the transformer, the hand winding, installing the metallic core and the wiring involved. I he paid attention to the small details such as pretinning the leads, and soldered the wire on the inside of the pickup and theaded them through a small hole on the bottom. The only thing I could give him as a small tip is to cover the exposed solder point on the bottom of the pup so if you have copper shielding in the pickup cavity you do not accidentally create a short. I fixed that with some electrical tape but a dab of wax on that end would have sealed it. One other thing I wished he did was placed his name on the outside of it.
I have kept this bass as passive intentionally. My other is a fretted PJ with EMG and the BQC preamp system running at 18v. I just wanted to keep with a whole different tone.
For the price under $80, cannot complain about it. I am happy with my purchase.
