I have a follow-up to my original post
[color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]A few years back I bought an Overwater Tanglewood Classic Jazz. The first thing I noticed were that the electrics were weak...very low output pickups. Having decided to change these out, I swapped in a simple jazz loom, and installed some Entwistle neo pickups. The volume improvements were immediate. The tone improvements were not. Changes of strings didn't help. It seemed as if there was too much power...clanging overt[/font][/color][color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]ones...fret clank...horrible. I recently set-up a friends 1980's Jap Jazz, on the face of it, a similar bass, but the contrast was stark. I decided that I would sell the Overwater, but at least do some basic work on it first: Install & cut a new nut, as the previous strings had been very heavy gauge etc.[/font][/color]
[color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I changed the strings out for some old roundwounds, but the problem persisted. As a final measure, I wondered if the problem lay with the neo bridge pickup, a very high output design, with very high magnetic pull. This turned out to be the issue. It was not the output, it was the pull. Once I switched it for a more conventional design (in this case a hum-cancelling pickup from an old Peavey Zodiac) the bass was transformed. No clanking, just much better. Probably a keeper now. Lovely with Chromes. Now setup with a Wilkinson split and a Peavey bridge pickup. [/font][/color]
[color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The lesson for me was the neo pickups are not suitable for all instruments, and careful matching is needed.[/font][/color]