ID These Jazz Pickups?

I'd suggest you sell all of them and get a decent set. All of those will sound thin and be uninspiring. I'd look for something in the 7-8K range (the closer to 8K the better) with alnico rods for a good traditional sound. There are also plenty of very good pickups made with other magnets, but not the ones you have.

 

I am willing to bet that the set with the red bobbins are Aero pickups - not cheap.

The large poles may be from the older Fender Deluxe Jazz basses from the mid-90's

 

It's really hard to generalize about the DCR specs, but from what little I almost know about JB pickups I'd consider 7.3-8K a safe target range. I think Fender Custom Shop pickups are at the lower end of that. There are pickups lower and higher, but the good sounding ones are the exception rather than the norm. Those and the 8K Marcus Miller versions are my Favorite Fender JB pickups. I've also seen Marcus Miller pickups close to 7.1K...Fender is notoriously inconsistant regarding just about all of their pickups. I would avoid MIJ and MIM Fender pickups; they just don't sound very good. The USA Originals aka Geddy Lees aren't bad either.

I'm unfamiliar with most of the good non-Fender brands, so I can't comment on them. Used pickups on ebay would be a good place to try different things.

Since you're into P-basses, you might also consider a series/parallel switch to make you feel more at home.

I can't comment on the volume snafus either. I see people asking about it all the time, but I usually don't use pots in basses, just pickup and cap selector switches.

 

First set is probably from a Mexican Fender Jazz.

 

You could also buy Stan's handcrafted pickups. They sound wonderful as well! Hi Stan!

 

What's up Joel...how's stuff?

Oh, thanks for the kind words!

 

Are the set with the large pole pieces single or dual coil? They look a lot like Suhr designed Fender humbucking, but the leads are not the same and the pole pieced are protruding, slightly. I have a set of the Fender pups out of a Deluxe Jazz. The leads on them are black and white(mid), and black and yellow(bridge). The pole pieces are flush with the covers.

 

I'd try those in the bass, before the other sets. In my experience, I've never seen cheap pickups that are sealed like that. It's an extra step in the manufacturing process that suggests a higher quality pickup.

 

Epoxy, EMG does that too...so you can't see the preamp circuitry

 

Foxy 'Poxy

 

+1. Many high-end pickups are sealed like this (and many are not conversely) and few cheap pickups have this feature. The cheapest pickups I've ever seen that are sealed like this are the originals from my Peavey Millenium USA, and they are pretty darn good pickups on that bass (as with most USA Peaveys).

 

This is not always the case, but typically ceramic magnets are used in budget guitars (and basses?) because they are inexpensive.
I have seen ceramic P-bass pups, but i dont believe i have ever seen ceramic Jazz pickups before.

As GlennW suggested, i would sell them all and buy a set of "good" pickups.

 

I've seen someone else ask about those 4-pole pickups recently and I think they might be a shortlived Fender run, but have no idea what...don't remember. They might bring a few bucks if you sell them. I'd find out what they are before listing them.

Edit: They might be Suhr pcikups from about 1997
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=478350&highlight=poles

 

They aren't the Suhr designed Fender pickups. There are differences.

Read my last post:

Also, the Fender/Suhr's aren't sealed with epoxy.