What pickups for active electronics?

[willyf87]

I've got a squier deluxe active jazz bass and am interested in swapping the pickups. Can I use any passive pickup to do so? I believe the stock ones are passive. Was thinking of putting dimarzios in instead. This doable or will it ruin them?

[ikay]

Yes you can swap in any passive J pickup

[mcnach]

Yup, any passive Jazz pickups will do. Nice bass, by the way... I had the 5-string version and I thought it was great, only let down by the meh pickups. A set of Dimarzio Area J pickups would be a great improvement...

[JTUK]

I think the pre amp should be the first thing to attend to.
I don't Fender pre amps are very good... I'd call them agricultural at best..

[willyf87]

Thanks guys! Mines got a fretless neck on, the pre amp is ok. I may look into replacing though! Any recommendations??

[JTUK]

I'd say pretty much anything could be an approvement on the Fender... but I'd go for a Glock.
The problem with the Fender, IMO, is that it is ok in a very narrow spectrum...and is not flexible enough in less than very good conditions.

As soon as you are out of that 'sweet spot', that is where your problems start.

[markstuk]

Or a "drop in" John East J-retro preamp... http://www.east-uk.com/index.php/bass/j-retro-01.html - I've got this in my Jazz 5 with Nordstrand big singles... Enormous tonal range..

[steve-bbb]

as previous comments - east or glock is good - also what sort of tone are you after will dictate what type of pickups you go for - ive got a squier with an east retro and wizard hammers - its does a pretty good geddy lee jazz tone