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"J" pickups discussion and comparisons.
- Thread starter SMASH
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Thanks for posting that. The noise difference, as you point out, is substantial. There is less bass in the Delano clip but the sound is more detailed to my ears whereas the MECs sound veiled. I think you'll be able to get a nice, full bottom with a little EQ more easily than you could make up for the lack of top end detail in the MECs. My quick take.
Thanks so much for these! Definitely hear a huge difference. Is there much of a difference in sound with the tone knobs turned down?
Aside from the high frequency content of the noise, it is still very dramatic how much the noise floor was lowered. 30 dB is gargantuan, tone knob down or not.
I just put together a Warmoth Pbass w. all Warmoth parts and a Duncan SPB-2. It's sposed to replace my 69 pbass, whose neck doesn't adjust any more, but has a Velvet Hammer from about 1970 in it, which I bought and installed myself. It lives up to it's name. The Warmoth is a dream to play, and played solo in my manly music cave, sounds like chocolate syrup. In a live setting it doesn't do so well for some reason, and I've pretty much sold myself on the idea of putting the Velvet Hammer in the Warmoth and reuniting the old pbass with its OEM pickups which I still have. This is a long standing setup, and I'm leery of upsetting the karma of my long-necked low note buddies, but I think I'm gonna do it anyway. The Hammer has outstanding clarity and attack, full thick legged tone. Before I venture on this road, I have one other card to play, and that is change the DR Marcus Miller strings on the Warmoth to a set of LoBeams that I have in my toolbox. Prob not the fix, but it'll take the least work.
Alright, so this weekend I installed DiMarzio Model Js into my Warwick Rockbass Corvette. I was having some major RF interference issues (probably because I live close to some heavy duty radio towers), and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. Here's some clips. Please excuse the a) crappy playing and b) clipping of my interface. I did these in a hurry yesterday.
Left Channel: Blend of bass with the song I used to demo. --You Met Your Match, by Tower of Power (Rocco Prestia).
Right Channel: Bass only
Clip 1: [SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/noisy/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] This is with both pickups equal and the tone at full. More than just your normal single coil noise.
Clip 2: [SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/mec-tone-off/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] These are the stock pups, equal blend, tone off.
Clip 3:
[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/mec-tone-full/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] These are the stock pups, equal blend, tone on.
Clip 4:
[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/model-j-tone-off/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] These are the Model Js, equal blend, tone off. Sorry for the distortion.
Clip 5:
[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/model-j-tone-full/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] These are the Model Js, equal blend, tone on.
I'm definitely happy with the sound of these, and they haven't taken away the things I like about this bass to begin with!
Left Channel: Blend of bass with the song I used to demo. --You Met Your Match, by Tower of Power (Rocco Prestia).
Right Channel: Bass only
Clip 1: [SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/noisy/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] This is with both pickups equal and the tone at full. More than just your normal single coil noise.
Clip 2: [SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/mec-tone-off/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] These are the stock pups, equal blend, tone off.
Clip 3:
[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/mec-tone-full/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] These are the stock pups, equal blend, tone on.
Clip 4:
[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/model-j-tone-off/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] These are the Model Js, equal blend, tone off. Sorry for the distortion.
Clip 5:
[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/a_to_the_ram/model-j-tone-full/s-gWmbV[/SOUNDCLOUD] These are the Model Js, equal blend, tone on.
I'm definitely happy with the sound of these, and they haven't taken away the things I like about this bass to begin with!
I have a Geddy Lee, like the punch but I want a bit more fatness. After reading the first page I like the Seymour Duncan Antiquity II reviews. Any issue with changing only one of my pickups? And if not, which one would you change?
Finally got my set of Lollars installed in my Hwy One Jazz. It turns out that the pick ups I had in it were stock, for some reason I thought I had swapped them out for Antiquity IIs at some point, but that was another bass in the dim past, apparently.
At any rate, the Lollars are WARM, the warmest pick ups I've ever played through. The bass is currently strung with light gauge Sadowsky flats and I now have to keep both volume knobs up at 100% and the tone knob wide open or I'm in dub land. I used to have to roll everything off to control the grindy-ness/crispiness of the bass and to thicken up the tone, but that is completely unnecessary now. With the Lollars I'm getting big, fat, dry, old-school tone with the flats. Perfect for my alt-country band. I suspect that if I switched back to my preferred rounds, DR Sunbeams, the bass would absolutely sing with a clear but smooth top and a big, fat, bottom end.
Two enthusiastic thumbs up for Lollars.
At any rate, the Lollars are WARM, the warmest pick ups I've ever played through. The bass is currently strung with light gauge Sadowsky flats and I now have to keep both volume knobs up at 100% and the tone knob wide open or I'm in dub land. I used to have to roll everything off to control the grindy-ness/crispiness of the bass and to thicken up the tone, but that is completely unnecessary now. With the Lollars I'm getting big, fat, dry, old-school tone with the flats. Perfect for my alt-country band. I suspect that if I switched back to my preferred rounds, DR Sunbeams, the bass would absolutely sing with a clear but smooth top and a big, fat, bottom end.
Two enthusiastic thumbs up for Lollars.
I have a anniversary Warwick Thumb bass it has Meg pickups and I love the range of sound. They have a very warm low end that is unbelievably clear plus a great crawling high end.
Its a keeper
Bob
Its a keeper
Bob
I finally settled on DiMarzio Ultra Jazz pickups after the Delano's just didn't have the low end I wanted. The Ultra Jazz pickups are very very close to the MEC Passives but are completely silent. I am very happy with them.
Did you put those in a 4 or 5 string? I want to make my thumb all passive but want drop in replacements
I put them in a 4 string, but they offer 5 string models as well. I assume they would be very comparable.
If you're only going to change one I would recommend a more robust neck pickup & laying off the bridge pickup.
Recently picked a great MIM Jazz4, but the pups on it are a little strange, at least to me. The pole pieces on the A and D string are way higher than the E and G which are level with the cover, resulting in a noticeable drop in volume, especially on the E string. The A and D really jump out at you, which is driving me nuts. What's a good replacement set to get where the pole pieces are at even height across ? I compared it to my '95 MIA jazz, and the pole pieces are dead even across the pickup. Like to use single coils and keep it close the the Jazz tone. The ones on the bass now are direct replacement MIM pups from Fender. 
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