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Nordstrand Big J-Blade Pickups
- Thread starter Frenchy-Lefty
- Start date
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- Tags
- big jazzbass nordstrand pickups
- Aug 21, 2003
- 11,593
- 18,612
- Disclosures
- A-Designs Mike Lull GK Tsunami Cables GHS Strings RMI Basswitch Nordstrand Pickups Darkglass
That video is great. I like both versions, and the "Warm and Wooly" set reminds me of the Lace Man O' War pickups in my G&L JB. The Laces might have a little less treble, but my strings might also be more played out than Carey's.
Hah! I ordered a Warm & Wooly set to replace my Man O' Wars, so hopefully they don't sound too similar!
I actually really like the Lace Man O Wars, but I am hoping to improve the string-to-string balance with the J Blades.
Hah! I ordered a Warm & Wooly set to replace my Man O' Wars, so hopefully they don't sound too similar!
I actually really like the Lace Man O Wars, but I am hoping to improve the string-to-string balance with the J Blades.
Interesting. I'm really curious how you think they compare. I haven't had string-to-string balance issues with the Man O' War set, but my G&L has a 12" fretboard radius which probably helps.
Do you find the Man O' Wars to be on the darker side for J-bass pickups? I really like them, especially at high volume, but wouldn't mind a little more traditional J-bass "sparkle." With most J-bass pickups I roll off the treble to about 50%, but with the Laces I usually don't cut treble at all.
I think the Man O' Wars have enough clarity, I'm just wanting to try something different. I find myself rolling off the tone a bit sometimes, depending on the song, but I have no hard and fast rule.
I only notice the string balance when I'm practicing at home with DI/headphones. Live it's fine, especially with all the compression I get from my pedal board. But I was curious about the radiused blades, and Best Bass Gear had a deal for Black Friday, so here we go...
I can write up a little blurb when I make the switch, but I have no way to record clips right now.
Actually I've been finding the Man O Wars a little lacking in the mids lately, but I know that's part of the Jazz Bass sound, too.
Last edited:
- Aug 21, 2003
- 11,593
- 18,612
- Disclosures
- A-Designs Mike Lull GK Tsunami Cables GHS Strings RMI Basswitch Nordstrand Pickups Darkglass
Just a FYI on these pickups...
Due to how I play (on the harder side) and the radius of the blade I put a little piece of electrial tape on the E-A-D on the blades on the neck pickup just to avoid the click from strings hitting.
Due to how I play (on the harder side) and the radius of the blade I put a little piece of electrial tape on the E-A-D on the blades on the neck pickup just to avoid the click from strings hitting.
I played my Jazz bass a bit last night, and thought the Man O Wars actually sounded pretty good with the tone rolled back about half way. I definitely prefer it wide open for some songs, but I may try it at practice tonight and ride the tone knob a bit more than normal. I was working through my Top 40 country set list though, so I was wanting a bit of a fatter tone with less treble content anyway.
I also hooked up my dbx compressor and watched the input signal meter to make sure I'm not crazy, and the B and D strings (I'm tuned BEAD) were definitely coming in much hotter than the E and A strings. I just checked and the Geddy Lee Jazz has a 9.5" radius, so that would explain the difference VS your G&L.
My warm and woolies arrived a few days ago. Haven't installed them yet, but I'm hoping to get around to that sooner than later.
The J Blades are in. I just roughly set the pickup height using the "nickel method" last night, and so far the string balance issue I was complaining about with the Lace pickups seems to be much improved. I've only played them for about 5 minutes to make sure all the electrical connections were good, but so far everything sounds great. Considering these are single coils, I'm actually quite impressed with the amount (or lack there of) of hum I'm getting when soloing each pickup. Sitting on my couch they were actually dead quiet, and then they seemed to pick up a bit of noise as I moved around the room, but compared to the signal level when playing it's negligible.
I was a little worried about ordering the Warm & Wooly set because I was looking for a cleaner sound than what I was getting from the Lace pickups, but I'll say at this point these are definitely more clear than the Man-O-Wars.
I've got two band practices later this week with different bands, and I'll probably bring this bass to both of them to try and get a feel for the new pickups. I'll report back once I've had some more time to spend with them.
I was a little worried about ordering the Warm & Wooly set because I was looking for a cleaner sound than what I was getting from the Lace pickups, but I'll say at this point these are definitely more clear than the Man-O-Wars.
I've got two band practices later this week with different bands, and I'll probably bring this bass to both of them to try and get a feel for the new pickups. I'll report back once I've had some more time to spend with them.
Oops, forgot I'd had one practice right after I installed the new 'pups, and posted this quick review in the "J" Pickups Discussion thread.
Very happy with my tone at my country music gig on Friday! Aguilar Tonehammer (Bass and Treble boosted to about 2:00, mid-mids around 11:00, Gain at 9:00, Drive at 12:00), 2x Ampeg SVT210AV cabs, little bit of optical compression and various amounts of overdrive as needed per song.
On the cleaner songs the bass had a nice round, classic tone. Great for the older country tunes. I usually keep both pickups full up, and played with the tone control to take out some of the zing as needed.
With the overdrive(s) kicked on, the bass had a very nice growly tone to it, but still very polite and mix-friendly, as in it wasn't stomping all over everything and still left a lot of sonic space for the other instruments without itself being totally buried. I thought it sounded very smooth and polished, like what you'd expect from some of the highly (over)produced top 40 country on the radio these days. For the third set I cranked up the gain on my SGFX Beta, which I usually keep set pretty low, and thought it sounded even better!
On the cleaner songs the bass had a nice round, classic tone. Great for the older country tunes. I usually keep both pickups full up, and played with the tone control to take out some of the zing as needed.
With the overdrive(s) kicked on, the bass had a very nice growly tone to it, but still very polite and mix-friendly, as in it wasn't stomping all over everything and still left a lot of sonic space for the other instruments without itself being totally buried. I thought it sounded very smooth and polished, like what you'd expect from some of the highly (over)produced top 40 country on the radio these days. For the third set I cranked up the gain on my SGFX Beta, which I usually keep set pretty low, and thought it sounded even better!
