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Best pick ups for rock in a jazz bass


Randall jamison

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Best Jazz sound I ever heard was a USA Jazz with Delano pickups (the ones with the big, MM-style polepieces) and a series/parallel switch, set to series. Sounded somewhere between a Precision and a MM and was absolutely thunderous. 

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As a Jazz bass disliker (it's me not the basses) I'm probably not the best to advise. 

But I put a pair of Entwistle JBXNs in my Aria copy and wired a in series switch. The result is a thunderous J bass that I like. 

The series wiring is key, but probably not to a J bass lovers liking. 

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I don't have a jazz any more but when I did I spent a lot of time listening to demos and comparison videos, and the ones I liked the most were SD Apollos. They're in line humbuckers in a single coil housing so sound fatter.

 

I think the key though is not having both pickups on all the way. On a jazz with 60s pickup positions, I think you get a lot of mid scooping going on with that setting. 

 

My ideal jazz would have in line buckers like the apollos, in the 70s position with the back pickup closer to the bridge, be wired VBT rather than VVT to make changing pickup balance easier, and maybe even have a series/parallel switch as others have mentioned.

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 I've had a few Jazz basses including a usa Geddy and a real 75 and a real 76 '

i have a MIJ geddy now and a Mex Jazz 

I Play in a loud classic rock band and they do ok but the winner is my Sadowsky metro vintage jazz in passive mode .Its just massive and fat and sharp and sings all over the neck .Its heavy mind but worth it 

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40 minutes ago, jazzmanb said:

 I've had a few Jazz basses including a usa Geddy and a real 75 and a real 76 '

i have a MIJ geddy now and a Mex Jazz 

I Play in a loud classic rock band and they do ok but the winner is my Sadowsky metro vintage jazz in passive mode .Its just massive and fat and sharp and sings all over the neck .Its heavy mind but worth it 

A heavy Sadowsky? Crikey!

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There's a good YouTube video which compares about 8 different J pickups (played back to back and just a few minutes long with no commentary), which will give you a good idea of which to go for. The ones that sound the least like normal jazz pickups are the DiMarzio model J (DP-123), which is not surprising giving that they are inline humbuckers. With these you could not only fit a series/parallel switch between the 2 pickups but also a switch for each pickup for the two coils. This would give you great variety of tone without even going near any eq. Tempted to give it a go myself.

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