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Best pickups for active/passive Jazz Bass

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  • Best pickups for active/passive Jazz Bass

    Hello everyone,

    I own for years now an american Fender Jazz that can be played in active mode or passive. The bass is alder body with ebony fretboard.
    It is set with Fender's noiseless pickups (4th generation I think) that sound good but in my opinion lack of a little something in the low end registry.
    Yes of course I can use the bass in active mode and boost the bass but I mostly use it in the end passive and mess with the tone knob to create that unique passive sound. To me the active circuit doesn't sound that great for that bass. The treeble knob doesn't response that well, It doesn't definately reproduce a real tone knob and thus, the overall active circuit produce a annoying volume boost that my other active basses don't

    I was looking for some pickups that would produce a better and a little punchier passive sound but that would still be good with the active circuit if I was to play with it again someday. (I want the bass to be still polyvalent if I had to change anything)

    In the past, I already tried the quarter pound set in another passive bass, and decided to send it back for the lack of mids
    I'm looking for something that will add punch in the low end/mid frequencies without changing too much the sound.

    On this website, I checked the apollo set, which are noseless too. Do you think it would be a good choice? I heard on youtube they were very treeble driven which I don't really like (the active circuit already produce a lot of annoying treeble)

    Well theanswer could also be totally something else or even "dude don't change the pickups, the fender noiseless are the real deal for this bass"

    I'm open for any recommendation

    Thanks in advance
    Last edited by 4string; 12-08-2019, 05:02 AM.

  • #2
    Re: Best pickups for active/passive Jazz Bass

    The Apollo set was the first thing I though of, so that's absolutely what I'd recommend. They aren't super treble driven, in fact, probably less so than normal vintage Jazz pickups.
    Administrator of the SDUGF

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    • #3
      Re: Best pickups for active/passive Jazz Bass

      A Jazz bass is typically setup in parallel mod. Try wiring it in series or add a push/pull pot to switch between the two. Series mode should give you what you are missing and you will keep some cash in your pocket.

      I did the exact thing on an American Jazz, same pickups. They sound great and almost everyone on the team plays with it in series.
      Last edited by Shane Foster; 12-08-2019, 02:35 PM.

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      • #4
        Re: Best pickups for active/passive Jazz Bass

        Have you ever tried a P bass pickup? P/J is an awesome combo, super punchy and full, very articulate and responsive to right hand technique. I have a series/parallel switch on mine. Usually I prefer parallel, but series is a killer power sound.
        “I can play the hell out of a riff. The rest of it’s all bulls**t anyway,” Gary Holt

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        • #5
          Re: Best pickups for active/passive Jazz Bass

          Originally posted by Shane Foster View Post
          A Jazz bass is typically setup in parallel mod. Try wiring it in series or add a push/pull pot to switch between the two. Series mode should give you what you are missing and you will keep some cash in your pocket.

          I did the exact thing on an American Jazz, same pickups. They sound great and almost everyone on the team plays with it in series.


          Never though of that, but it is indeed something famous on stingrays

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