BassManGraham

Following on from my recent SX P bass upgrade project, I have just acquired an old SX PJ style bass, and I am looking for a decent bridge single coil jazz p/u. I may use an Alan Entwistle PBXN to upgrade the P type split coil ( which I recently fitted to the aforementioned SX P bass and it blew me away for the price) or go Seymour Duncan. Has anyone tried the Alan Entwistle jazz p/us? Appreciate your advice and thoughts.

Yes I fitted the Fender HiMass bridge. I have Badasses on all my Jazzes, but this is close and less than half price of the Omega Badass clones. Sonically there is little difference to my ears. The only issue is the pregrooved saddles and cheap pickguard means the strings do not align with the magnets.as the pickups need to move a couple of mm to the left. So my OCD requires me to adjust pickguard and if that doesn't do it , I will refile the bridge saddles.

Well the Entwistle PBXN pickup arrived. Wow very impressed with the sound, nice tight lows and very punchy indeed without the slightly boxey honk of the stock SX one that I removed. Wonderful value for 27 quid. Didn't need to rout body perfect fit, but cheap non Fender pickguard needed some minor alteration to get it to fit. Plays well and sounds amazing. Might treat myself to an aged MOP pickguard to give it a more vintage look. But all in all a really cracking P style bass for around £110! Think I will look for another beat up bass to rescue. Thanks again for all your comments advice and suggestions.

What have the Roman's ever done for us!

As Spike once said "it's a sign"

Yes I was curious about all but I had to start somewhere the PBXN is now on the way. The Geezer sounds interesting, Many thanks for your tips which I will try!

Yes you are quite right. I have ordered the PXBN to give it a try, before possibly venturing into more costly options. I will give feedback when I've fitted it., so I can't say that I definitively prefer it at this stage. But at £30 Inc postage to Ireland, it was worth a punt as a first option. Hoping it does the job. I am sure the other suggestions are great too, including the mods suggested which I will also experiment with. Finding the perfect pickup is like searching for The Holy Grail, which probably means something different to everyone.

Choices choices! So many pickups, so little time! This forum is such a helpful source of wisdom and education, even for an old fart like me, who likes to think he knows it all! Being as this is a fun/low budget project I have just ordered an Entwistle PBXN, to give it a try, which at £27 is marginally less than the bass, and a fraction of the big brand names. I am also a big fan of the late great OX, which I do realise is purely coincidental. I was going to go Seymour Duncan, 1/4 pounder, but had a very poor experience with a 3 coil alnico MM retrofit that never worked properly, and I haven't forgiven them yet! In fuller time I will in investigate the wonderful array of all the fine Basschatters suggestions. The various Fenders, particularly the Custom shop 62s,EMG Geezers, Dimarzio etc. Many thanks to all your valued and appreciated contributions.

That's a great video, thanks for sharing. I owned a Marcus Miller P7, but traded it in for an M7, which sounded far nicer IMHO. Love Sandbergs but to be honest blind sound tests always leave me rather confounded. I have a few Fender Jazzes, but after listening to this my bass brand snobbery has been shaken. Should I sell my collection and buy a Harley and ride off into the sunset?

Thanks for all your feedback, very much appreciated. I should have said the bass only cost me £30! The body has a few dings, pickguard was damaged with a loose/wobbly jack socket , tone control not working, knob missing for volume control, with a very high action. This is a fun project, but I want to create a gig worthy bass. I have an SX jazz which I upgraded and players are initially convinced that it's an American Fender. SX make some cracking basses. Sound:I always use round wound steels and tend towards mid scoop, with a tight punchy thump I like bass to cut thru mix and to avoid too much low end boom and low mid mud etc. .So Chris (Ezbass) seems to be on the money. To date I have fitted a new loaded pickguard.( but kept SX pick-up). New Fender Hi Mass Bridge, and Fender chrome knobs . I have shimmed neck and adjusted truss rod to get a fairly low action which I prefer. So I have spent about £50 and a bit of time so far. So for about £80 it I think it compares well with a Squier or Mex Fender. I am happy to spend say £75 on a decent pickup but I would go to as much as £120. Which would get me a very decent P bass for between £125 to £200. Footnote: I have always favoured Jazz basses, but have recently rekindled my interest in P basses. In my early days of playing I bought a new bottle green 70s Precision new, but I sold it on mainly due to preferring slimmer necks of Ricky's and Jazzes etc. The bridge was also poor and grub screws kept falling out of saddles. Probably be worth a fair bit now though! Hey Ho!

Hi All, I have recently acquired an old SX Precision style bass for a song that needs some serious TLC. Looking for a decent probably noiseless split coil retrofit pickup. The on board pickup is not bad, but seems a bit too honky for my taste. I like a fairly tight, punchy sound with a bit of thump. Welcome advice please.

Still AVAILABLE???

Thanks Pete, I am thinking the same, best stick to 8 ohm speaker to play it safe.

Here are pics. Have removed from combo case and built cabinet. Saves weight and the ten inch integral speaker falls far short of my Vanderkley and Barefaced Cabs. That's right, there is only one jack output which was originally connected to internal speaker so to use an alternative speaker one had to unplug the internal speaker, so using an extension speaker was not facilitied. Have run for a little while at 4 ohms, and it sounds huge, but not sure if it safe to do so for a 2-3 hour gig, without over heating and overloading power amp section?

Hi Fellow Basschatters, I have just acquired a BLX 80 Combo. I plan to remove amp to use separately and save my back, plus not overly impressed with integral 10" speaker.Howver It sounds massive thru my Barefaced or Vanderkley cabs. Stupid question, I cannot find specs or manual on power amp section. The single speaker output jack says 8 ohm, I am assuming this relates to the internal speaker and not minimum load. I would like confirmation that I can run this amp safely into 4 ohm load. Most Trace Elliot amps state minimum 4 ohm load, but this doesn't. Are there any Trace Elliot aficionados out there who can advise?