Pickup ID on Lakin J Bass

[Father Gino]

I’ve got a Korean D Lakin J bass that I bought used. Today I opened up the control plate and the pickup leads are cloth covered. Do that necessarily mean that they’re Fralins? I’m pretty sure Fralins were an option on these. There was a Lakland J for sale here on TB and apparently early Skylines with Fralins have cloth covered leads. Whatever mine are, they sound great. I’m just curious.

 

[Iridescentone]

I’ve got a Korean D Lakin J bass that I bought used. Today I opened up the control plate and the pickup leads are cloth covered. Do that necessarily mean that they’re Fralins? I’m pretty sure Fralins were an option on these. There was a Lakland J for sale here on TB and apparently early Skylines with Fralins have cloth covered leads. Whatever mine are, they sound great. I’m just curious.

That's a good Q. I'll take a peek at mine, although I'm pretty sure mine are the stock ones that were developed by Dan L for his basses. Whatever I have in mine, I don't ever think of changing them out. They sound as good or "better" than anything I've had, including Fralins.

Same goes for the D Lakin Glaub P bass, the stock pickup is really something special to my ears. From what info is available, Lakin spent some time auditioning and tweaking his stock pickups, and I think it shows in the results. I've seen a couple D Lakin Glaubs for sale with an EMG Geezer pup, and another non-stock pickup. Pretty sure that alternate pups were available factory options, and I'm sure they all sound good.

 

[Iridescentone]

Mine are cloth. I didn't pull one out to see the bobbin for markings, though. But Fralins aren't the only pups with cloth wiring. That said, Lakin seemed to want to stick to an authentic vintage vibe, as evidenced by his choice of Hipshot reverse Kluson tuner clones, instead of Ultra-lites like on all his Laklands. When I get a chance I'll open up a Glaub and look at the wires (I'm curious, myself). Cheers.

 

[Father Gino]

That looks very similar to mine except yours has a big, fat orange cap instead of the smaller brownish one in mine. I have no reason to believe I have Fralins in this thing but after reading the post about the older Skyline, I became curious. I’m woefully ignorant about pickups compared to many here on TB. For some unknown reason I’m obsessed with Fralins, but I would never change anything on this Lakin. One of these days I’m going to get another Lakin J so I can play around with strings and leave this one alone as a bass line. I’ve had TI flats on it for several years now and I really like them a lot. But I’m always curious about what some other combo might sound like.
I’ve got a Lakin P as well but I know for sure that the previous owner had a Geezer put in and chucked the original PU. The P is nice, but I think I’m a confirmed J kinda guy. At least for now

 

[Johnny Alien]

I don't remember Dan offering any pickup options on these. The stock pickups are korean made and wound to Fralin specs. They have cloth wire so its most likely thats what you have. They are killer pickups. The new Ashdown basses have the exact same pickups as the Korean Lakins. I had an Ashdown Precision and I swapped to a Fralin....complete lateral move. Sounded pretty much the same.

 

[Iridescentone]

Uh oh, I did a thing today. Just can't resist the damn things!

D. Lakin basses Jazz bass - Joe Osborne- Sherwood Green Metallic | Reverb

 

[Father Gino]

I’ve got 3 of them now. But that’s it, I swear!

 

[ModuMan]

Is this the right time to sell mine then?

 

[Iridescentone]

Is this the right time to sell mine then?

Maybe, how much would you be asking for it?

 

[ModuMan]

Maybe, how much would you be asking for it?

PM me, we can chat

 

[Father Gino]

These are great, under appreciated basses IMHO. They’re a great value to buy, but not so much to sell.

 

[Iridescentone]

These are great, under appreciated basses IMHO. They’re a great value to buy, but not so much to sell.

Yeah, agree. It didn't help that Lakin got off to a dicey start with that discount for buyers who posted positive things on the web program, especially here at TB. In all fairness to Lakin, it wasn't like anyone was going to misrepresent the quality of the basses, or tell lies just to get a discount because they wouldn't have needed to lie.

There was a Gold Jo on GC used site a few weeks ago. It had pearl blocks/rosewood, neck binding, and....stacked-knob controls. The neck features made it an obvious custom order bass in and of itself, and possibly may have been ordered with the stacks. But being GC, there was zero info about anything regarding that bass. And really, calling the store for detailed info would be futile because, well....Guitar Center. They had it priced at $999. OTD with tax would have been ~ $1100 to me. It looked great, and it was definitely "special", but I passed thinking it was priced too high. It did sell though, and I haven't seen it re-listed back on the GC used site (yet), so it was probably in okay shape at least.

The green Jo that's on it's way here now, supposedly weighs 8.5 lbs and has its OEM pickups in place, which is a big deal to me. I got a pretty nice discount for a nasty gash on the body, but I feel like I still paid a premium price for it. Oh well, sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants?

 

[Father Gino]

I recently bought an all black, stock J @ GC for $900. It went unsold for months. I now have 2 Js and one P. That’s enough for a lifetime for me. The P was my very first P and was a revelation to me but it gets little love these days. I’m just a J kinda fella I guess.

 

[Iridescentone]

I recently bought an all black, stock J @ GC for $900. It went unsold for months. I now have 2 Js and one P. That’s enough for a lifetime for me. The P was my very first P and was a revelation to me but it gets little love these days. I’m just a J kinda fella I guess.

Was that the one with a sticker on the front?

 

[Father Gino]

That’s the one. By the time I got it, half of what had been a star was pulled off. I managed to pry that off without too much damage. I bought it so I could experiment with different strings and leave my other Lakin J with TI flats that have been there for 3 years or so. I started the experiment by putting an almost new set of TIs on the black J. It surprised me how different the two basses sounded. Both Js are theoretically identical. I think it’s just the relative ages of the strings that caused the difference. I should have put the older set of strings on the new black bass to make my experiment more viable, but I was too lazy. I also didn’t want to affect the voodoo of that green bass the way it is. I do remember putting a set of TIs on that green bass and not liking them years ago. When I put a used set on several years later, I was in love with the combination and still am to this day. I like to pluck them pretty aggressively (too aggressive is really bad) and they yield a nice flatwound thump but maintain nice growly (with a lot gain) upper midrange. Very old skool, just like me

I came close to buying that new, sunburst Lakin that was for sale here for a long time. But I’m too cheap and not super fond of sunburst finishes. Not a deal breaker, but I actually prefer the truss rod wheel and top load bridges on the Korean basses. I’m done now with buying basses… unless an absolutely stunning one falls from the sky right in front of me. Well, maybe a black Ric so I can learn for the third time that I don’t like them.

Meanwhile, I’m glad this thread convinced me not to go down the rabbit hole of buying different pickups. I really like these Lakin Js just the way they are. I bought a Korean Lakin P with a J neck which came with an EMG Geezer in it. I don’t know if that’s good or bad as it’s the only P I’ve experienced.

 

[Iridescentone]

That’s the one. By the time I got it, half of what had been a star was pulled off. I managed to pry that off without too much damage. I bought it so I could experiment with different strings and leave my other Lakin J with TI flats that have been there for 3 years or so. I started the experiment by putting an almost new set of TIs on the black J. It surprised me how different the two basses sounded. Both Js are theoretically identical. I think it’s just the relative ages of the strings that caused the difference. I should have put the older set of strings on the new black bass to make my experiment more viable, but I was too lazy. I also didn’t want to affect the voodoo of that green bass the way it is. I do remember putting a set of TIs on that green bass and not liking them years ago. When I put a used set on several years later, I was in love with the combination and still am to this day. I like to pluck them pretty aggressively (too aggressive is really bad) and they yield a nice flatwound thump but maintain nice growly (with a lot gain) upper midrange. Very old skool, just like me

I came close to buying that new, sunburst Lakin that was for sale here for a long time. But I’m too cheap and not super fond of sunburst finishes. Not a deal breaker, but I actually prefer the truss rod wheel and top load bridges on the Korean basses. I’m done now with buying basses… unless an absolutely stunning one falls from the sky right in front of me. Well, maybe a black Ric so I can learn for the third time that I don’t like them.

Meanwhile, I’m glad this thread convinced me not to go down the rabbit hole of buying different pickups. I really like these Lakin Js just the way they are. I bought a Korean Lakin P with a J neck which came with an EMG Geezer in it. I don’t know if that’s good or bad as it’s the only P I’ve experienced.

Same here. My Lakin J sounds so good with whatever nickel rounds the PO had on it, I just left it alone instead of rolling string sets for the best matchup (like I usually do). When the green one gets here it'll be getting a set of flats, probably Fender's but I'll try a set of TI's, DTF's, Cobalts, and LTF's. Definitely leaning toward the Fender's though, my new fave flats.