Thinking about changing the pickups in my Sei Jazz 5.

[bubinga5]

As the title says. It sounds wonderful, plays great. East pre, and Barts, Don't get me wrong I love Bartolini's, but they are sounding a little polite and dark for what I want now. Passive the bass has quite a woody soft tone set flat, which is strange because it has the woods that make up a Fender Jazz bass in passive. Swamp Ash Body, Brazilian rosewood FB, maple neck. So I can only assume its down to the pickups.These are15  year old Barts btw.  The strings are DR High Beams, so I can take the strings out of the equation. Also the sustain is not so good. 

They have to be single coil. I prefer the single coil tone from hum canceler pups and I dont record the bass anymore so the hum doesn't bother me. Ive been looking at the Lindy Fralin 5 string set or Aguilar's 5J 70's pickups. The bass in question. 

Any thoughts.?

Edited January 29, 2019 by bubinga5

[therealting]

The sustain is probably the physical instrument as well. I personally find Barts a little dark. I will say that Nordstrands brought my Sadowsky and medium scale Jazz to life (the Jazz has an East J-Retro Deluxe in it).

[Aliwobble]

Wow, gorgeous bass. I Know that Nordstrand do a jazz pickup set. Their “big singles” sound great on my Ibanez and I know the do a selection of jazz pups.

[chris_b]

I'd try out outboard pre-amps rather than making changes to this bass.

[timhiggins]

I was having the same thoughts regarding pickups with my fender jazz which had high beams on ,and i thought they had plenty of life left,

however i had some new cheap warwick nickel reds to try out which i did and all the snap and sparkle came back !

might be worth trying new strings before splashing out.

[Guest]

I had a Sei whose tone I didn’t like and did just that - it made no noticeable change to tone. Not sure whether a new preamp would have made more of a difference but put me off switching pickups. Now where possible I’ll only go for a bass that sounds right as-is.

[bubinga5]

The Barts are long and short like a Fender set. 95mm at the bridge and 92 mm at the neck. Any ideas as to what options I have.?

[4000]

Having had Barts in a few basses, the only one I’ve really liked them in, with hindsight, was a Pedulla. They’re far too dark and polite for my tastes, typically. 

If I were you I’d have a word with Martin Petersen. Obviously he’s made loads of basses like yours and including yours, with doubtless many, many different pickup and preamp combinations. 

Also, have you thought of trying passive?

BTW, yours is a beautiful bass, one of the nicest super-Jazzes I’ve ever seen.

Edited January 30, 2019 by 4000

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

Hi... the bass is very beautiful!

Going the single-coil way without spending a fortune, but only if you can still find them, I'd say Fender PV '64 pickups! Great '60s jazz bass tone.

Otherwise, the Aguilar HC hum-cancelling; they sound like single-coil '60s jazz bass pickups ... growly!

 

[bubinga5]

Eventually I found the Bartolini B Axis pickups. Very hot pickups.They are a hum cancelling pickup but quite aggressive.  A different pickup altogether to the original Bart sound.. I recommend them.  Still sounds like a modern Jazz Bass, but not polite. Labella Stainless steel strings are a different string for me.   Sustain has improved soo much. HipShot USA lolly pop tuners were a perfect fit.. 

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by bubinga5