Looking for opinions

I'm of the opinion that there is no reason to put up with any noise of any kind if it's not necessary. Not everybody shares that opinion. Many people believe the purity of the single coil sound is compromised by any kind of hum canceling design. I don't buy it, because single coils have hundreds of different winding options resulting in a variety of tones, and I believe there is a lot of overlap between single coil sound and hum canceling J-pickup sound.

There are three basic types of hum canceling J pickups:

Split-coil or dual inline coil


Stacked coils


Parallel coils


I personally like the split-coils. A lot of companies make them, including DiMarzio. Given the options you mentioned, that's what I'd recommend. DiMarzio Area J or Ultra Jazz pickups.

 

Hey Tim, like Blue Talon, I prefer humbuckers as well and agree with what he said about them. Unfortunately, I no longer have a Jazz Bass and am very much out of the loop when it comes to replacement J pickups.

 

To my ears, the Nordstrand NJ5Ss sound like single-coils (although at 56 and leaving a pro sound career to play again, my ears do have some miles on them). I've been very happy with the NJ5FSs I've put in a fretless Jazz V and I'm about to order a set for an AM STD Jazz 5 I just bought.

I believe the model number is NJ4S or NJ5S. The NJ5FS is for Fenders.

 

I'm 53 and right behind you, bro.

 

I have the Ultra Jazz pups in one of my Jazz basses and really like them. They're not really designed to mimic single-coils, however... they're a bit more mid-scooped. They are closer however to single-coil traditional J pups than the Model J's, which I have in a fretless bass. The Area J pups are theoretically supposed to be closer to single-coil sound, so more like a traditional Fender Jazz tone, but noiseless. Haven't tried those yet.

One thing to double-check is the size of your bridge pickup relative to your neck pickup. The pickup sets sold by Dimarzio and others expect the Fender sizing, where the bridge pup is just a tiny bit wider than the neck pup. Pre-2002 or so Mexican Fenders and some Squiers I believe used identical-sized pups, which makes the upgrade more challenging. Not sure what Peavey uses. If it turns out that they're identical, you can order two neck pups separately. Others use a router or other tool to widen the pickup cavity, at the risk of chipping the finish...

 

I had to widen the route for the jack on my one of my pre-painted Warmoth bass bodies. Before doing it, I put some blue painters tape over the area. I opened the route up, and the edge of the paint was intact, free of any chipping. Did it actually help? I don't really know, but it seemed to. It certainly won't stop any damage from a mis-handled router, but I think it helps the chances of the paint staying intact if everything else is done right.

Regarding a bass with two J pickups of the same size, there are companies that make J sets for such basses. So rather than having two neck pickups, you'd have an neck pickup and a bridge pickup of the same length. That's especially important if the OP decides to use single coils.

 

Totally agree. Just to add to what BlueTalon said, there are at least two valid reasons why buying two standard neck pickups (which is easy) isn't ideal. How important they are, I can't really say.

• In most pickup sets, the bridge pup is typically wound a little "hotter" (originally just by virtue of the fact that the wider coil used more wire), and the additional output helps to compensate for the reduced string vibration amplitude at the bridge position. With two neck pups, you could therefore have slightly weaker bridge output than normal.
  
• Most modern single-coil pickup sets feature one pickup that's constructed differently (windings out of phase and reversed magnets) to achieve noise reduction. With two identical neck pickups, you wouldn't get this same noise reduction effect... which is how most single coil instruments existed pre-1980s.

Edit: And of course, none of this even matters if you have standard (different) sized pickups, which makes me wonder why I bothered typing it all up...

 

If they fit, try the Model J's in the Millenium- it's a much different bass than the fretless probably, so the only real way to know if they will sound like what you want is to try them.