What Pickups for vm 5 string jazz

[TJAS92]

The time has come where I want to start changing the pickups in my jazz as I've become unhappy with the sound I'm getting from it! I love the bass but I'm just unhappy with how it's sounding! What pick ups would you recommend putting in there? And do I go active or stay passive?

[geoffbyrne]

I'd leave the pickups & put a John East J-Retro preamp into it - it'll give you much more range & variation of tone than changing pickups.

G.

[chris_b]

Bartolini pickups are used in many boutique basses and I put their preamp and pickups in my PJ.

I love the sound of Barts, but I have some fantastic sounding Seymore Duncan pickups in my passive Lull.

Whatever you choose I'd leave it passive. You can always add a preamp later.

Edited August 1, 2015 by chris_b

[mrtcat]

[quote name='geoffbyrne' timestamp='1438422896' post='2834357']
I'd leave the pickups & put a John East J-Retro preamp into it - it'll give you much more range & variation of tone than changing pickups.

G.
[/quote]

This.

I have a VM JazzV and it plays great. When I got it i dropped in some Seymour Duncan pickups and it sounded a touch better than with the stock pups. A few weeks later I put in a John East J-Retro and BOOM it was a huge leap forward.