The bottom line about Am standard...

My Guitarist use to swear by EMG 81/60's in every guitar he had while I played Fender's with passive pickups, He came to me about a month ago and said, "Man I finally bought an American Strat and I have to say it's one of the sweetest tones I have ever heard"..... he's starting to thin his herd of guitars with the EMG 81/60's and now has a thing for Fender Strats........ it's all personal preference and at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter to me as long as he doesn't try to tell me which pickups to put in my bass....

 

Well it's not exactly the same company. I was sold two or three times since Leo ran it. But they keep making them pretty much like they did back in the day. I think the quality on the newer ones is sometimes lacking, but the same can be said for Gibson.

 

People like and dislike lots of things. For everyone who likes pickup A, someone else will tell you it's the worst pickup they've ever used.

Meanwhile, changing strings make as much difference in sound as changing pickups...and many people ignore that.

Make up your own mind. Your friend may be an ass...and I would tend to believe that about anyone who makes absolute statements like the one you cite.

Besides, he's a guitarist. You're a bass player. Who is better qualified to decide what sounds good on a bass????

I've had a Schecter C4 series and it was a fantastic bass, but it absolutely did not sound $1350 better than any other bass I own. It didn't sound better or worse than any other bass - it was a bass and it sounded like one. The Schecter is the only bass I've owned with EMGs. I liked the EMG pickups fine, but I also read things from people trying to tell me that EMG pickups are doggy doo. They were idiots. Again - make up your OWN mind.

 

I get that some people like the sound of another's companies pups. But I've never understood why someone shopping for a fender to begin with would start by changing the pups. That is the fender sound we've all come to know, especially an American made model. I can see putting a set of '62 pups in a MIM model if your on a budget. Something I plan on doing myself when a I find that good used cheap body. The extra 100 or 150 your going to pay retail for the new 2012 models is all about the vintage pups. Stained or painted makes no difference. But as they've all mentioned before, the sound you want is all up to you. Hope you find what what your looking for and enjoy it when you do.

 

Try the bass out. The important thing is how it plays and if you like the neck. Pickups you can change.

But don't buy a bass because of the name on the headstock. Buy it because you like playing it.

People often change pickups to get their own tone, and to sound different from every other person with the same bass. Some people like blending into the crowd, and some don't.

 

What if you like the bass but you want a different tone? There is a market for replacement pickups because not everyone wants that tone.

Maybe you don't want to sound like every other guy with a Fender?

 

As I said, I get that. I just don't see paying out more than a grand just to change the pups.

 

You are paying for the bass. That cost a lot more than the pickups. Also some of the hardware on Fender is not all that great. Even Geddy Lee complained about the tuners on his signature bass.

This is how Sadowsky got started. You take the factory bass and make it better. The other thing is personalization. If you are happy with cookie cutter basses then that's fine. But people have been modifying their basses and guitars for a long time to get new tones and to make it more personal.

That's why I started making basses and pickups as well.

 

They seem pretty nice. I once had someone give me a Hondo II P bass copy. It was OK, but was a cheap bass. So I replaced the cheap hardware for some good stuff, and replaced the P pickup with a DiMarzio P and added a Schaller Model J copy at the bridge to make it a PJ, and added a Kahler trem. Oh and I made it fretless. So that cheap bass became my main instrument. I was able to use it as a platform for better parts and some modding.

Same thing with a customer that brought an Epiphone Sheriton II guitar in for work once. The woodworking was very nice, but the pickups and hardware were crap. So I replaced all the hardware and electronics, and it was like an expensive Gibson.

So if the bass seems well made and is nice to play, go for it.

 

american standards are great basses! graphite rods in the neck, lightweight keys, a rock-solid adjustable-spacing string-through bridge, a thicker headstock to eliminate dead spots...

the pickups in them are decent. i'd take a duncan vintage or fender "original" over them, and the fralin i put in my '96 P was a night-and-day improvement.

 

Fender is making some of the best basses ever quality wise. I really don't think you know what you are talking about at all.