Versatile Jazz bass pickup recommendations

[Eddcunningham]

I'm sure this has been asked a million times by now, but I'm trying to find a versatile set up pickups for my '04 Mexican jazz bass.

The bass currently has a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders and an early John East J-Retro preamp, which have both served me well for around 15 years or so now.
However, over the last 6-7 years, I've not really used the preamp, so I'm switching back to passive, with high quality pots and caps.
This has got me thinking whether there's a better set of pickups I can switch out for?

I tend to play a bit of everything, but I suppose you could broadly categorise it as "rock."
With that said, I also do play a bit of motown and funk/slap every now and again, so need pickups that are quite versatile.

I've looked into Nordstand Big J-Blade pickups, but I really do hate the looks of them 🤮.
Lindy Fralin split jazz pickups also seem nice, but haven't blown me away in the reviews I've heard.
Obviously looked at the standard Seymour Duncans, EMGs etc.

Is there any others that fit the bill that I haven't really considered?

[Stub Mandrel]

The Fender "pure vintage '64" ones supplied as fitted to mine give a lovely wide range of sounds and great tone IMHO but are not very 'hot' although give plenty of crunch if you turn up the amp gain and dig in.

When I bought it (Flea Jazz) I tried it side by side with a Mexican Deluxe active and far preferred the sounds from the Flea bass.

I am very much a lover of a 'traditional' bass sound though. 

(It seems they are no longer available as the listing has disappeared from Fender's website - they do do ''60's custom shop ones' which may or may not be the same.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Stub Mandrel

[Hellzero]

Try a set of ToneRider, dirt cheap and excellent sounding.

https://tonerider.com/product/jazz-plus/?v=d3dcf429c679

[hooky_lowdown]

DiMarzio ultra jazz. You can thank me later. 😁

[ahpook]

You could try Gemini Pickups, I've got a few of their pickups and I really like them.

If you're after hum-cancelling models, Catswhisker Pickups  do some that I'm very impressed by.

 

[Dan Dare]

If you want a traditional J bass sound, I'd avoid higher output pickups. I put a J Retro in my Jazz a few years back and removed and sold it because I found it made the instrument sound generic and lost 'that' sound. Before spending anything, try the SDs you already have. If you still have the ones it came with, try them too. You may save some cash. If you do want to try something else, I'd agree with Stub's suggestion above.

[LeftyJ]

 

17 hours ago, Eddcunningham said:

However, over the last 6-7 years, I've not really used the preamp, so I'm switching back to passive, with high quality pots and caps.

I did something similar with my MIJ 75 reissue Jazz Bass, I had an Audere preamp in it for a while but it made me stop playing that particular bass alltogether. It just had too many options for me, and I didn't like the base tone with the controls flat: I felt like it cut some of the lowest frequencies off, and sounded brighter. I replaced it with a passive VVT configuration with MEC pots, and had De Gier Guitars add a FatBoost (a 6dB bass boost engaged with a rotary switch), to beefen up the tone when I want to. I kept the stock pickups (Fender US-spec 70s J-pickups) and couldn't be happier with it.