New Pups for P-J Bass

You probably don't want to go to all the expense and work involved if that's one of the low priced Ibanez PJ basses. They are excellent instruments for the money but sinking a lot of money into one is usually not worth it unless you plan to keep the bass as a player for a long time.

Just dropping new pickups in isn't likely to make a major improvement to get you to the sound you want. First off, it's almost certainly got an active preamp in it with passive pickups, which are actually not bad at all. But that active pre will make anything you put in there a lot cleaner and more modern than you probably want.

What I'
d do if I planned on really playing that bass would be to first yank out all the electronics including the preamp and pickups. Wire it up as a simple PJ setup with volume control, a passive tone control and a blend pot to blend the 2 pickups. Then pick a set of good Basslines pickups like the Basslines hot P pickup and one of their hum cancelling J pickups. I like Duncan pickups more than others but you'll get lots of different opinions about who makes the best pickups. You'll have to decide in the end.

What you'll wind up with, after you do a good setup and put on the same strings that Duff uses is a bass that will play very nicely and sound as good as any passive Fender out there. Others will disagree with me but I'm much older and and wiser.

Anyhow, weigh the cost and see if it's worth it to you.