Clarky Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 At the request of a BC'er, I A/B'ed my Nash '63 Jazz, with DiMarzio UltraJazz pickups, against my MIA 2009 Jazz to see how the pickups varied in terms of output and tone. I was rather surprised at the findings. The output/volume of the new MIA 2009 pickup is, if anything, slightly higher than the UltraJazz when directly A/B'ed into my Mesa combo with same full-on volumes/tone knob settings. Maybe it could be due to older strings on my MIA and fractionally higher pickup placements? Perhaps, but I expected the UJ's to be appreciably louder than the stock Fender p/ups and they are definitely not. The 2009 MIA is also slightly richer sounding, especially on the E and A strings, the UJ sounding more middy and probably better for soloing (which I don't do!). But actually there was not a whole lot in it again. Conclusion: there really is very little in it and - if I had a slight preference - it would be for the stock 2009 MIA pickups. Either option sounds good though to my ears. Maybe Fender have just been continuously impoving their stock pickups (as well as QC more generally)? On this basis I would most certainly not look to "upgrade" the pickups on a newer Fender MIA Jazz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Horse Murphy Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 [quote name='Clarky' post='679994' date='Dec 10 2009, 10:33 AM']At the request of a BC'er, I A/B'ed my Nash '63 Jazz, with DiMarzio UltraJazz pickups, against my MIA 2009 Jazz to see how the pickups varied in terms of output and tone. I was rather surprised at the findings. The output/volume of the new MIA 2009 pickup is, if anything, slightly higher than the UltraJazz when directly A/B'ed into my Mesa combo with same full-on volumes/tone knob settings. Maybe it could be due to older strings on my MIA and fractionally higher pickup placements? Perhaps, but I expected the UJ's to be appreciably louder than the stock Fender p/ups and they are definitely not. The 2009 MIA is also slightly richer sounding, especially on the E and A strings, the UJ sounding more middy and probably better for soloing (which I don't do!). But actually there was not a whole lot in it again. Conclusion: there really is very little in it and - if I had a slight preference - it would be for the stock 2009 MIA pickups. Either option sounds good though to my ears. Maybe Fender have just been continuously impoving their stock pickups (as well as QC more generally)? On this basis I would most certainly not look to "upgrade" the pickups on a newer Fender MIA Jazz.[/quote] Wow Clarky! Good review. You Could be the next Suzy Perry, only sexier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted December 10, 2009 Author Share Posted December 10, 2009 Like Suzi I was wearing a leather one-piece catsuit as I wrote this review ;-) Also proves that my soldering on my Jazz (after removing Audere) was successful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 It would be interesting to get some more era's of Fender pickups compared to UltraJazzes (just using the UJ's as a benchmark). Simply because I think the p'ups in my 2003 MIA Jazz are fantastic, I've already talked to Clarky about this, but I genuinely feel that they're the best pickups I've tried in ANY bass!! I've got UJ's in my Shuker/Parts jazz, but as some of you know, the neck is being repaired, so I'll have to wait to do a full comparison! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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