Cheap J pickup with lots of bottom end?

[Paolo85]

Hi all. I am looking for suggestions dor a good cheap J bridge pickup that does not sound like a traditional J but has lots of bottom end (and high output).

I have a PJ with Tonerider plus P pickup. It also had a Tonerider J but as an experiment I tried to replace it with a £15 Wilkinson ceramic, to see if I could avoid any thinning of the sound when adding a little bit of J. The Wilkinson was advertised as having lots of bottom end. And that's certainly true but unlike the Wilkinson P ceramic pickup, which I liked a lot, I just think it is not very good. The tone is not very inspiring but beyond that, it has a strange system with two different sized ceramic bars and the E has much higher output than any other string and it's as if the sound came from a completely different pickup.

Despite all that, the experiment is successful. If I add a little bit of J (and keep the J quite slanted), I get a tone that I like. The sound remains fat, just more scooped and makes my flats a bit more thumpy.

So I am looking for a similar J pickup: higher output than an alnico (even a hottish alnico) lots of bottom end, maybe less high end than a normal J bridge, but also a nice sound that I may on occasion want to have to full volume. I read good things of the Entwistle JBXN. Would they fit the description?

Also note that I use a KiOgon loom, I do not have a soldering iron so stacked hunbuckers that require conneting more than hot and ground would not work for me at this stage

 

Thanks

Edited December 19, 2022 by Paolo85

[Dan Dare]

The sound of the bridge pickup on a J bass has much to do with its positioning. I once played a bass with 2 P pickups and the one nearest the bridge sounded very different from the one nearest the neck. I think you may struggle to find what you are after, especially as you are looking for a single coil with only two connectors.

[Paolo85]

14 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

The sound of the bridge pickup on a J bass has much to do with its positioning. I once played a bass with 2 P pickups and the one nearest the bridge sounded very different from the one nearest the neck. I think you may struggle to find what you are after, especially as you are looking for a single coil with only two connectors.

Thanks! It looks like I'll have to try again when I'll have a soldering iron

[itu]

I was wondering why are you wanting two pickups: cheap and good? Wouldn't the good one be enough?

[Paolo85]

27 minutes ago, itu said:

I was wondering why are you wanting two pickups: cheap and good? Wouldn't the good one be enough?

Uhm, I meant one pickup that is both cheap and good There is plenty (I personally like Wilkinson Ps, both ceramic and Alnico, and Toneriders - the P more than the J. I also liket the Rosewell J pickups in a Harley Benton I sold)

[DGBass]

I have a set of Ironstone Jazz pickups in my American Standard and they are plenty beefy in use with stainless flats. They are an Alnico design based on a 70s jazz tone and have way more output than the standard Fender CS60s my bass came with as new. You can get them in singles as well as pairs and for me they seemed very reasonably priced. I would even go as far as to say they transformed my Jazz in both tone and output. Definetly worth a look imho.