J pickup to pair with EMG Geezer P?

I think the geezer j is a very good pickup and would be looking for a p pickup to pair with it. The geezer p was just a run of the mill decent p. Nothing special. I thought the j matched up well enough in volume and honestly don’t remember how they working together though.

 

Well, with any PJ bass, you set the split where you want it (its what you'll be playing 90% of the time) and you set the single almost touching the strings. That's the only way you'll even the volumes out. Just like on a standard Jazz. When they're both on, just like every instrument with more than one pickup, you'll scoop the mids. That's the point. If you bought them as a set from the manufacturer, chances are that those two pickups have the best working relationship you will find.

 

The Yosemite might just be the ticket.
This may be of no use, but I’ve found that not running the P wide open helps get a better blend. I crank my amp up louder than necessary and then bring up the P volume to a good level, then I blend in the J. Or J first, then P. The volumes on the bass are never above 3/4. If I need louder (never) I’d turn the amp up.

 

Yep. It’s crossed my mind to swap out the Jazz pickup in my fretless for a model J many times. It would be especially nice to not have the hum of the single coil in some of the venues we play.

 

A note:

You always want to add a 'higher' output (if not a stack or side x side humbucker in a Jazz shell) if you're not buying a PJ set matched by the manufacturer (though that may not suit always, as the OP found for his ears).

There's 2 things at work:

A Precision split pickup is humbucking, and will always sound thicker and fuller than a Jazz single coil.

Plus, it's sitting at a spot along the string length where the string is moving in a far bigger arc (which induces more output on top of the humbucking aspect) than what a pickup installed closer to the bridge is going to sense, where the string's vibration is smaller in movement. You need to make up that difference to get a solid speaking voice from back there to go with the Precision pickup, and if you go with a humbucker Jazz, you're suddenly out of the hum/buzzing business as well.

A lot of times, guys think, 'I can just put a Jazz pickup back there', and while it may have been fine in a Jazz Bass with its twin brother, it may sound way thin in this installation, and then we get the 'PJ tone, I just don't get it, don't like it, sounds thin' posts here on TB. So at least a good, higher output Jazz bridge pickup, and a stack or side x side, even better, to get a good match and more choices tone and output wise.

 

I put the Geezer PJ set on and found a weird phasing issue. If it run them 50/50 the J sucks all the bottom out of the E and A strings. I thought the J was a low noise split coil so maybe it got wired wrong. IDK. Thinking about maybe doing a DiMarzio Ultra Jazz...? Not playing much with the 'Rona going around anyway but plenty of time to set and question my tone.

BTW this is in a Squier Affinity P, modded Vol, Blend, Push/Pull tone w/2 caps. The phasing issue was the same when Vol/Vol/Tone

 

IIRC, ultra jazz is a very scooped pickup, so, while it may be loud enough to compete with Geezer, it will definitely remove all the mids people like about Geezer. If you wanna go the Dimarzio route, I'd recommend the good old Model J. I think a Spector club member has this combination on his bass and loves it.

 

If that's the case then EMG did it wrong. I definitely put the connector on right side up. I think I did try flipping it but it's been a while.

https://www.emgpickups.com/pub/media/Mageants/g/z/gzr_pjhz_instructions_0230-0281rf.pdf

 

I have tried adding a Yosemite J pickup and it sounds great...But I keep getting the same phasing...grounding problems

Do I have to use a EMG pot for the J or can a regular CTS pot be used...I thought it could, but now think maybe I have to buy an EMG pot to work with the Geezer volume and tone pots?

Any thoughts ?
@JimmyM ?
I was also thinking of removing all the EMG pots and replacing with a full size VVT pots that I have prewired

I cut the connectors off and use white for hot...black for ground

 

Even though I like all the pickups mentioned above, and have used several of them, for the Geezer P, I'd use the Geezer J to go with it. I mean, after all, they were designed as a pair.

 

DiMarzio Model J does work very well, imo. It is definitely not mid-scooped, and it's got good output. Plus it has the adjustable pole pieces that help fine tune things. I and a couple of others I know have found that ours were indeed wired opposite of the Geezer P though, so you might have to swap hot and ground on the DiMarzio. If you solder it to an EMG connector, like I did, of course, you can just flip it over if it's thin sounding when the pickups are blended. I've switched to a full DiMarzio setup now by replacing the Geezer with the Model P, but the mixed set is a good pairing imo.

 

So if I switch the hot and ground wires of my Yosemite jazz it might blend with the Geezer P properly...I have wired a regular cts 250k pot spliced into the EMG volume and tone pots
or shall I just flip the Geezer P wires over with the connector to volume pot

 

I think you could try flipping the Geezer P wires around to see how it sounds.

 

Thank you so much for your help...off to solder

 

I took this connector on the P and flipped it and the it just didn't work....