Because I can't seem to leave things well enough alone, I picked up from GuitarMadness seller on the bay a set of Jazz Bass Hot Rails Humbucking pickups. It appears these are actually made by JHR in Korea. I was able to find them on a couple other web sites as well.
Not sure I like them TBH.
They are a dual-blade type pickup, similar to the DiMarzio Split P pickups, albeit in a jazz format. The pickups most remind me of the Telecaster bridge pickup--an exposed fiber bobbin with black cloth tape over the windings, and no covers. On the bottom can be seen the long strip of ceramic magnet with the blades stuck to either side of it. The 3 conductor leads are red/white/bare with the bare wire soldered to a patch of copper tape on the magnet and touching the blades. The screw ears are thin and located at the very bottom of the pickups, similar to the Dimarzio Relentless or Sixties pickups. The Dimarzio pickups warn to use special shorter screws to mount without poking a hole out the back of the body. I would think that would also be an issue with these, but normal pickup mounting screws were what was provided. (#4x1-1/4 inch) I went to a local hardware store and obtained #4x3/4 inch for mounting. Hopefully no-one finds out the shipped screws are too long the hard way!
Installation and mounting (with the shorter screws) went fine. The rails seem to have a high magnet pull.
Sound-wise these are very full-sounding with emphasized bass. I would not describe these as either muddy or bright. Very clean wide range sound. They sound like humbuckers, really. The output is a touch low at the level where I have them set, may go back for 1 inch screws and raise them a bit with additional foam. I think they overall have high output--with the VBT control wiring this bass has using a 250K blend pot, the non-selected pickup still has some audible noise when tapped with a screwdriver. I would probably go up to 500K pots in a new build. They truly are humbucking--even holding the bass right up against the laptop no noise is evident, which is not true for any noiseless J pickup I have tried before.
My main fear is that the coil plus wrapping tape stick out just a bit from the bobbin, and I feel like the pickguard will rub on the pickup long term.
Tested on a Squier CV70s with D'Addario Chromes.
Price paid $52+tax for the set. Package included the too-long mounting screws and some mounting foam.
Not sure I like them TBH.
They are a dual-blade type pickup, similar to the DiMarzio Split P pickups, albeit in a jazz format. The pickups most remind me of the Telecaster bridge pickup--an exposed fiber bobbin with black cloth tape over the windings, and no covers. On the bottom can be seen the long strip of ceramic magnet with the blades stuck to either side of it. The 3 conductor leads are red/white/bare with the bare wire soldered to a patch of copper tape on the magnet and touching the blades. The screw ears are thin and located at the very bottom of the pickups, similar to the Dimarzio Relentless or Sixties pickups. The Dimarzio pickups warn to use special shorter screws to mount without poking a hole out the back of the body. I would think that would also be an issue with these, but normal pickup mounting screws were what was provided. (#4x1-1/4 inch) I went to a local hardware store and obtained #4x3/4 inch for mounting. Hopefully no-one finds out the shipped screws are too long the hard way!
Installation and mounting (with the shorter screws) went fine. The rails seem to have a high magnet pull.
Sound-wise these are very full-sounding with emphasized bass. I would not describe these as either muddy or bright. Very clean wide range sound. They sound like humbuckers, really. The output is a touch low at the level where I have them set, may go back for 1 inch screws and raise them a bit with additional foam. I think they overall have high output--with the VBT control wiring this bass has using a 250K blend pot, the non-selected pickup still has some audible noise when tapped with a screwdriver. I would probably go up to 500K pots in a new build. They truly are humbucking--even holding the bass right up against the laptop no noise is evident, which is not true for any noiseless J pickup I have tried before.
My main fear is that the coil plus wrapping tape stick out just a bit from the bobbin, and I feel like the pickguard will rub on the pickup long term.
Tested on a Squier CV70s with D'Addario Chromes.
Price paid $52+tax for the set. Package included the too-long mounting screws and some mounting foam.
