new bass pu's

ferdi

i know i asked this before but i actually have the money to do it now.

i have a mexican fender jazz bass and i want new pickups in as i feel that the fender stock pu's are letting it/me down. i'm looking for more sound (a little extra crunch) without loosing the warm vintage feel.

not sure of my budget yet, but i wont be that big so will have to import from germany..

any suggestions?

feylya

EMG's :P

Seriously, talk to Doc J. He's getting custom Rosewood pickups from some dude. Might be what you want

Eoin Madsen

I put two Seymour Duncan Hot Stacks in my Mexican Jazz Bass a few months ago. It has the same general tone, but far greater depth to the low end, and much higher clarity. I'd vouch for them.

I got them from http://www.guitarelectronics.com. It's in the USA, but even after the shipping and tax it's far cheaper than buying Duncans in Europe.

Doctor J

How much do you want to spend?

For the tone you're after probably the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Jazz would give you what you want. Have a look at the hot stack underneath it too.

The Fender
60's Custom Shop Jazz would definitely do what you want with a sweet, sweet, tone.

Probably a bit more expensive would be jazzbass pickups from Bassculture, the guy is making a custom set of pickups for my 6 string bass and he also makes pickups for HotWire basses (mad expensive totally fooooking amazing German bass maker) - you could get them made exactly as you want.

Also check out Bartolini the 9J pair might do what you're after.

The first thing to do though, is to measure the length of each pickup. The bridge pickup should be slightly longer than the neck pickup (though some modern jazz basses use the same size pickup) so you'll need to take this into account if you get them separately.

My recommendation? Go for the Fender 60's Custom Shop. Those pickups make me do horrible things in my knickers, they are foooooooooooking amazing.

Doctor J

Fender 60's bridge pickup - €75

Fender 60's neck pickup - €77

on Thomann

Doctor J

or even off ebay

edit -> cheaper

ferdi

i'd probably go for the 60's Custom Shop Jazz from thomann.

3 questions:

1.how much of a difference will they make compared to my mexican stock pu's?

2.what is the advantage of the fender custom shops over the likes of Seymour Duncans, Bartolinis,EMGs etc?

3.seeing as how i dont really know what i'm at, would it be worth my time (and money) bringing the bass and new pu's into a shop and getting them to fit them and setting the whole bass up nicer since i havnt tinkered with it since i got it with the factory setup?

thanks

Doctor J

There is a sizeable difference between the Mexican stock and the 60's Custom Shop. The Mex pickups probably cost less than $10 to make and are decent, but nothing special. The money you spent on your bass did not go into the electronics, believe me. The 60's Custom Shop are specifically designed and manufactured to acheive the tone of the original jazz bass pickups, complete with charateristic warmth and growl, except a little bit of a hotter signal. They are fantastic pickups and will make your bass come alive. Hence the price.

There is no real advantage of Fender over Seymour Duncan, just going on what you said I reckon the Fenders would get you closer to what you want. I love Saymour Duncan pickups, they are probably the best there is, but Fender created the Jazz bass and the Jazz bass pickup and the 60's Custom Shop Jazz pickup is possibly the best pickup they make. Each model of pickup sounds different, the Fender one will give you the tone you're after for sure. The SD's would too, but the Fender one is just a sweet, sweet pickup. Fender make other pickups, but the 60's CS is an ass kicker.

If you don't know what you're doing, get someone else to put them in and set it up. I'll do it for you if you want. If you're in Dundalk Feylya would probably do it for you too

Just be weary of how much a shop would charge you for what is a 10 minute operation. If they talk silly money, walk away.

ferdi

whats silly money for puuting in new pick ups and a general tweek/fix up? just so i know when to walk away..

Doctor J

I would say €20 is more than enough. Any more than that and they're taking the pi$$

Eoin Madsen

Most places in dublin will do a standard tweek/set up for about €40 (that's the exact cost for an acoustic guitar including new strings in Perfect Pitch). I can't imagine you'll get pickups installed as well for less than €60. The question is really: what is it worth to you?

One thing you should bear in mind is that if something goes wrong and your guitar gets ****ed when it's being set up (whether it's actually the shops fault or just your dodgy Mex), the shop is insured and can afford to replace it for you.

Doctor J

However, nothing realistically should go wrong for a pickup swap and truss rod tweak... Don't worry, it's very straightforward and your Fender warranty will cover any manufacturing defects which would cause a disaster.

feylya

Sixty ****ing euro? I replaced the pickups in a chaps squier, installed a new pickguard, cleaned the pots, really cleaned the guitar, set it up and set up his Gibson LP and I only charged him €40.

Doctor J

You're a cheap, nasty whooooore, dude, you'll give us all a bad name

fitz

Nothing should go wrong, if you know what you're doing.
If you're in doubt, would you risk having a useless instrument with a snapped truss-rod or fried pickups/pots?

Better safe than sorry tbh...

feylya

Originally posted by Doctor J
You're a cheap, nasty whooooore, dude, you'll give us all a bad name

He was a mate. And I'll be able to get support gigs with him when I get the band going.....

Doctor J

Band, eh? How's that coming along?

feylya

It's not. Haven't jammed in about 6 months, still no drummer. I'm writing songs but that means nothing tbh.

Doctor J

Meh. Just get as much shyt together as possible by yourself so then when the time comes, you're not fycking around. Even if it means using a dru... a dru... oooh it feels dirty to say it, you know what I mean, a computerised rhythm engineer... in the meantime

feylya

I'll only use a rhythm procuducing machine while recording or practicing. Live, it doesn't and shouldn't exist.

Doctor J

I agree 100%, but if you have stuff ready for a drummer to listen to when one finally arrives, and everything laid out, it should speed up the whole process.

feylya

Indeed. See my comment about recording with one