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PJ pickup advice - EMG Geezer, Bareknuckle etc


foxyFuze
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Hi all,

Following some good reviews on here, I recently acquired a JHS Vintage V4 as a spare / something bit different to my 80s Fender Jazz Special (PJ) - original P and Hot Stack J as per Duff M 🙂
It's quite a bass by any standards, let alone in its price range. It is actually a PJ; there are none on the JHS website so I've asked them if this is a) a model they did or b) an owner retro-fitting, and am awaiting response.  

So.... I did only get the V4 for a the 'P' function, which sounds decent. The 'J' pickup isn't particularly strong / to my taste (and yes, I've adjusted pickup heights to compensate for output differences).  I'm contemplating an upgrade for one or both pickups.
I generally play rock / 80s pop, indie stuff etc and wouldn't mind something a bit different to the Jazz Special (Which has a less-than-traditional sound on the 'P' pickup, IMO).

The EMG Geezer Butler set seems pretty good, as does the 60 J and 58 P combo from Bareknuckle. Naively, I assume the Bareknuckle '58 P would be fairly similar to the Fender Custom Shop 59 found in the Dirnt sig models, which I'm most impressed by.

Opinions welcome one or both options! 

Thanks

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I recently bought a Tonerider Precision Plus pickup and it sounds very much like the Custom Shop 62s that are in my US Precisions. They`re very reasonably priced too, so may be worth checking out both P&Js in their range.

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I have the EMG GZR P and the standard EMG HZ P here that I’ve been meaning to install in my 76 P-ish. The plan is to do a comparison, but that is proving difficult as the boss makes it difficult to have time to do such frivolities .

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@RandomBass The original seller's photo.  Neck feels good and it's quite light too (think that's a common thing with these V4s).
Only VT + 3 way switch says to me the J pup is retro-fitted. I could be wrong.  I've no reason to believe the body is not JHS, given the layout of the pickguard screws and aforementioned weight.

vintage 1.jpg

vintage 2.jpg

vintage 3.jpg

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Thanks for the pictures. Quite likely a retrofit job, but looks like it's done well. Seems they have put the 3 way switch where the volume was, and made a new hole further forward for the volume. VT and 3 way switch is a fave setup of mine, hence my love of Yammy BB's.

Looks good to me. 

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Going by my recent experience with a Jess Loureiro split-coil 51 Telebass pickup (which sounds absolutely excellent - warm, punchy and articulate), I can only imagine that his P/J sets would be equally stellar. He does a 'classic' set and a 'coil split' set, thus:

http://jlguitars.eu/shop/index.php?id_product=63&controller=product&id_lang=4

http://jlguitars.eu/shop/index.php?id_product=64&controller=product&id_lang=4

All hand wound with traditional materials - and his prices are very competitive, too.

Edited by discreet
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2 hours ago, discreet said:

Going by my recent experience with a Jess Loureiro split-coil 51 Telebass pickup (which sounds absolutely excellent - warm, punchy and articulate), I can only imagine that his P/J sets would be equally stellar. He does a 'classic' set and a 'coil split' set, thus:

http://jlguitars.eu/shop/index.php?id_product=63&controller=product&id_lang=4

http://jlguitars.eu/shop/index.php?id_product=64&controller=product&id_lang=4

All hand wound with traditional materials - and his prices are very competitive, too.

Oh they look good, and very competitive prices. I'm currently looking at PJ options for a recently acquired Peavey...

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13 hours ago, discreet said:

Going by my recent experience with a Jess Loureiro split-coil 51 Telebass pickup (which sounds absolutely excellent - warm, punchy and articulate), I can only imagine that his P/J sets would be equally stellar. He does a 'classic' set and a 'coil split' set, thus:

http://jlguitars.eu/shop/index.php?id_product=63&controller=product&id_lang=4

http://jlguitars.eu/shop/index.php?id_product=64&controller=product&id_lang=4

All hand wound with traditional materials - and his prices are very competitive, too.

They look very tempting. Price is about half of some of the competitors I've been looking at.

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3 minutes ago, Trueno said:

They look very tempting. Price is about half of some of the competitors I've been looking at.

I get the impression he's a one man band, so he won't have the overheads of the bigger companies. He makes a high quality product, there's no doubt about that. My split coil 51 Telebass pickup is lush. On the strength of it I'm buying a split coil neck pickup for my Jazz.

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On 19/06/2018 at 20:11, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Doesn't look like their usual headstock shape - perhaps it's a discontinued model?

 

On 19/06/2018 at 20:19, RandomBass said:

Re the headstock, it looks like an early V4 to me. And yes, it could well be an older discontinued model that has passed me by.

 

14 hours ago, foxyFuze said:

It is a stock model after all; got this back from JHS.  I think the date reads '1997'.

Old Catalogue.png

I was going to say, as a current V4 user, that I believed that the bass in question is the forerunner to the V4, before Trevor Wilkinson started adding his hardware to the basses, but I've been beaten to it. I've seen these 'Pre-Wilkinson' Vintage P-basses listed on eBay and Gumtree before now, as a V4. Now we know they are models in their own right, the E84

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