So I just snagged this SX jazz copy. It's as good as they say, mine has the "lawsuit" headstick, and $141 tax included? In 2015? Done. We're getting married in the spring.
Never really got to dig into a good Jazz pickup wise. Acoustically I've played tons.
Stock SX pickups aren't bad...A/B'd it with a CV Jazz at GC into an Ampeg PF350. SX played and sounded better but the pickups in the CV are clearly superior. Not the Duncan Designed ones either.
I think Dimazio Model Js are in my future. Wired correctly, they do P, J, humbucker - & all noiseless. They seem like a good fit, because I don't really give a fuck about Jaco or Geddy or 70'S funk tones. Mad Rhinp in a China shop more like.
So...any other "Mad Rhino" options for the J besides the DP123s? Would just a series mod. on a random "correct" jazz pickups be sufficiently gargantuan?
BTW...what the hell, they're going in this. (The whisky bottle. I hear it adds to the aggression ;-) )
(https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/10856779_10205118104370495_5040173154815466705_o.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9)
I was using a set of bartolinis for the longest time. I really liked them, but they do have a traditional jazz bass tone. not sure if that's what you really are going for..
To be honest, I think after another round of SX into SVT, that the stock pickups aren't trash. I still see DP123s in my future, but wouldn't run out to buy them before the next round of recording.
The neck pickup solo is almost a P tone anyway. They actually did a blind test on Talkbass, and many a nerd got it wrong because "everyone knows a J can't be fat and big like a P". No one in a live setting could tell.
The stock "everything up" setting loses some balks but a push pull fixes that.
It helps if you actually look up how to run a jazz bass too. Much like the BDDI that made a PF500 sound anemic in comparison, if you go for "idiot" settings it sounds like shit.
Oh, and even with what to a funk or R&B guy would be a retard amount of overdrive from both the BDDI and a Rat...the hum was only perceptible when the bass was idle with my hands off the strings.
Little wonder aside from a series option I always wanted a J for in the first place, it's easy to see why this config hasn't gone anywhere in 50 years.
To think I was mad about having to come off of my SUB SB4 earlier...ain't missing it now ;-)
I really like the Dimarzio Model J pickups. I don't have a jazz style bass currently though. The Model P is also my favorite Precision pickup too, something about their approach on both of them are just perfectly to my taste. Not too much mid scoop, plenty hot and with a nice growl to them.
+2 model J. I tried Seymor Duncan's and it didn't do much for me. I think it was their vintage Jazz pups, and perhaps a 1/4 pounder config too. Then I tried the model J's and that was what I was after.
Beyond that, I never bothered with the more slightly more boutique stuff, like Rio Grande or Fralin's or whatever.
The only weirdo pickups I'd go for are the Alumatones.Those really are next gen stuff...but I think the MJs fit the 70's vibe better. And really I don't dig djenty tones. So meh, even QOTSA/KYUSS, Strapping Young Lad, Tool, etc, all use pickups of the shelf from the 80's. I still really haven't found many pickups for my tones and style than the Duncan Custom.
There's cool new stuff but I could easily rebuild nearly my exact rig if I hopped into a time machine set for 1995...& wouldn't need to buy clones!