Recently, I flipped an eclectic collection of gear. A bass I never use anymore, a few pedals, etc... and ended up putting it towards a Gibson Les Paul Jr Tribute that was at Chicago Music Exchange. I love short scales. Didn’t really do much research other than kind of recalling when these basses came out, but I jumped on it.
Super light, balanced, comfortable neck, hipshot tuners... all appealing.
The sound of the original pickup is good! Quiet humbucker with a general T-Bird quality to it. Low and round with a somewhat tame high end. Not bad, but after doing some googling, I found the @LowEndLobster video where he swaps pickups to the Serek LZN B-90 (the humbucking version). Video was semi-conclusive, but sparked enough curiosity to reach out to Jake Serek. I drove to pick it up directly and he drilled the holes in the pickup cover to the correct string spacing right before I arrived and I was off.
Took a minute, but wired it in series/Parallel (as opposed to the stock coil splitting option). The holes matched up and all the wiring fit in the cavity nicely. It’s not very noticeable, but the pickup is a little bit smaller than the original, but in the future i’d love to find the chrome pickup ring to fit around the gap. I’m happy that it fits and wasn’t oversized so I didn’t have to route it.
Huge improvement. It’s present, punchy, and the it factor with most pickups to me which I can only describe as “weight”. Reminiscent of a dark star/guild bisonic kind of realm of pickups. Not really a P sound. It’s not overtly hot, but the output is definitely higher from the original pickup. Series has a thicker mid as expected, but the treble response is still airy and clear. To my surprise, switching to parallel doesn’t drop much in volume and doesn’t get scooped. Sounds more flat, but very usable. Opens up in a pretty way, non endemic, and jives well with my pedals.
OVERALL:
If you mod your instruments to make your bass better than how you got it, this pickup is more of an enhancement than an upgrade. It does what the original does, but IMHO much better. It makes the bass sound the way it looks. Definitely more of a rock sound, but I can see it fitting many musical situations. I’m very happy with it and can’t wait for all the bull crap to be over to use it on some gigs.
Check it out!
Super light, balanced, comfortable neck, hipshot tuners... all appealing.
The sound of the original pickup is good! Quiet humbucker with a general T-Bird quality to it. Low and round with a somewhat tame high end. Not bad, but after doing some googling, I found the @LowEndLobster video where he swaps pickups to the Serek LZN B-90 (the humbucking version). Video was semi-conclusive, but sparked enough curiosity to reach out to Jake Serek. I drove to pick it up directly and he drilled the holes in the pickup cover to the correct string spacing right before I arrived and I was off.
Took a minute, but wired it in series/Parallel (as opposed to the stock coil splitting option). The holes matched up and all the wiring fit in the cavity nicely. It’s not very noticeable, but the pickup is a little bit smaller than the original, but in the future i’d love to find the chrome pickup ring to fit around the gap. I’m happy that it fits and wasn’t oversized so I didn’t have to route it.
Huge improvement. It’s present, punchy, and the it factor with most pickups to me which I can only describe as “weight”. Reminiscent of a dark star/guild bisonic kind of realm of pickups. Not really a P sound. It’s not overtly hot, but the output is definitely higher from the original pickup. Series has a thicker mid as expected, but the treble response is still airy and clear. To my surprise, switching to parallel doesn’t drop much in volume and doesn’t get scooped. Sounds more flat, but very usable. Opens up in a pretty way, non endemic, and jives well with my pedals.
OVERALL:
If you mod your instruments to make your bass better than how you got it, this pickup is more of an enhancement than an upgrade. It does what the original does, but IMHO much better. It makes the bass sound the way it looks. Definitely more of a rock sound, but I can see it fitting many musical situations. I’m very happy with it and can’t wait for all the bull crap to be over to use it on some gigs.
Check it out!
