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Seymour Duncan pick ups - are they worth it?


Jaykingfunk
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Morning all,

I've got a MIM Jazz deluxe and was talking to a chap who'd upgraded his pick ups to a set of Seymour Duncan's and said that they were really good!

Don't know much about em apart from the name so thought I'd ask others on here who have a set to see what's what!

Thanks in advance, J.

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Ahh, but which Seymour Duncan Jazz pickups are we talking about? There are many different types, all with different properties.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/pickups/bass/jazz-bass

I used a Quarter Pound bridge pickup years ago in a project but I'll be damned if I can remember much about it, sorry.

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[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1483963604' post='3211396']
I recently put a Seymour Duncan quarter pounder in a mex Precision, sounds much better than it did with the standard pick up, but not as good as a US Standard.
[/quote]

Yeah, I found the SPB-3 a bit too aggressive sounding.

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Seymour Duncan has been around a long long time so he knows his stuff. His Basslines bass range are as good as any. I've used his active and passive Jazz sets for years and I think they are excellent on my fretless and fretted basses.

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Like any pickup their VFM depends on your opinion of the tone of the sound you get out of them.

IMHO they're fair value for money. I've had cheaper pups that in my opinion are as good. I've got some in my MIM that I think are better, but they do cost more.

You pays your money and takes your choice.

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  • 1 month later...

To resurrect an old thread, I'm weighing up getting some quarter pounders too - they're to go in a bass which is naturally quite bright and midrangy, so given what i've read about them, i'm hoping they may add a bit of thud/smoothness to things.

I've heard a few people describe them as a bit too aggressive etc - what does that mean exactly? Are they just too hot and push to distortion, or do you mean they sort of overwhelm the sound of the bass itself?

I'm a novice to replacement pickups, but there's a point at which i'm just going to have to buy some and see how they get on.

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QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!QUARTERPOUNDERS!

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[quote name='bassbiscuits' timestamp='1488294401' post='3247595']
To resurrect an old thread, I'm weighing up getting some quarter pounders too - they're to go in a bass which is naturally quite bright and midrangy, so given what i've read about them, i'm hoping they may add a bit of thud/smoothness to things.

I've heard a few people describe them as a bit too aggressive etc - what does that mean exactly? Are they just too hot and push to distortion, or do you mean they sort of overwhelm the sound of the bass itself?

I'm a novice to replacement pickups, but there's a point at which i'm just going to have to buy some and see how they get on.
[/quote]

I put them in my precision (which was already VERY bright due to a carbon neck) and they sound brilliant. To the point theyll be going in my current project too.

On my bass, the strings I was using made it a tad too bright so I've swapped them for nylon tapewound strings. Might be worth trying those first if the bass is that bright. With the tone up there's still plenty of treble, but the strings really push the bass, and with the tone rolled right off the give a great vintage tone.

In regards to people calling them aggressive; they are, but not to the point of distortion. The gain on my amp (TC Electronic BH550) is set to 9 o'clock and there's no distortion or clipping. For a while I was going between a passive P with QP's fitted and an active stingray. The stingray needed a bit more gain where the P had a higher output.

Hope this helps.

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Depends on what sound you're after. The QPers have a specific tone and are built that way. The vintage stuff will sound another way. The website shows BMT values which helps illustrate what to expect. There's loads of great pick ups out there and if you're gonna experiment you've come to the right place. Check those for sale threads'

Good luck

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SD are great pickups. I have Mike Lull's custom versions on my Lull basses.

Lindy Fralin pickups were designed to sound like vintage Fender pickups.

I love the fat sound of the Bartolini pickups I have on my Lakland and on my Fender P bass.

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Quarter Pounders are a good pickup but the don't really sound like a traditional P bass pickup. The mids are lower and the bass is higher. Great if that is what you need, but not so great if you want a 1960s sound.

but there are other SD models to choose from that have the vintage sound with a bit more output if that is what you need.
There's a lot of snake oil around about pickups, but SD's are well made and sound good. My regular guitars usually end up with them as well.

I don't think I've ever tried the jazz QPs.

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They make some great pickups and some not so great (imo). I have SPB-1 Vintage P and SJB-3 Quartpound J pickups on my p/j bass and love the tone, they sound huge together , however when I had the SPB-2 Hot P pickup I couldnt get that pickup out of my bass quick enough, it was just mids,mids and more mids, with that being said I was using flatwounds at the time which can often sound a bit woofy in the mids so the SPB2 probably sounds much nicer with rounds

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