Simon. Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 After reading various reviews on here, I tried to get Andy to make me a set of 74's and he flat out refused... not sure why. However, I went for a set of stock 64's instead, and they arrived the next day and sounded great, so can't complain. More recently I got a Thumper as well, to make a PJ set. Again, it arrived the next day and sounds fab. In value for money terms, I think Wizards are excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bisonkills Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) Resurrecting this thread to report back. After discussing changing out the stock pups with Andy, he advised that the P/J volume issue was common to all bases with that pickup configuration. (Which is pretty much correct, the P is always going to be more powerful). He also wasn't convinced that changing out my pups would make much of an improvement as he wasn't familiar with the Overwater / Tanglewood Classic J. I must admit I was a bit miffed at the time, as it wasn't the response I was looking for or expecting. Perhaps I just caught Andy on an off day?! So, at the time I didn't come away with a solution to my problem, but at least Andy was honest about it and didn't simply flog me pickups regardless. I eventually broke down and ordered a set of the P/J (big) from Wizard anyway, which I installed this evening. Everything went smoothly... I had to hack up an old foam camping mat to get the desired pickup height but once that was sorted... well, I'm stunned. The difference is very apparent. The issue I had with the P and J outputs being a bit mismatched is significantly reduced. The Wizard P and J play far better together than the stock pickups did, and the J pickup is now far more usable. The overall tone is very full without lacking detail. The pickups respond very nicely to chords too. I've yet to get it into the practice room with the band, but so far I'm very chuffed. A worthy upgrade for anyone who owns one of the Tanglewood Overwaters. Guess they had to cut costs somewhere, eh! Edited June 24, 2013 by bisonkills Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 Thanks for reporting back, I'm quite tempted to chuck a pair in my Tanglewater classic now. I bought my bass second hand so the price of those pickups will be around half what I paid for the bass which is quite a pricey sum when compared to the bass. Do you reckon they're well worth the money or can similar ones be found cheaper? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkHeart Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 ive got Wizard `84`s in my Jazz and im seriously underwhelmed (is that a word? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 only just seen this thread. The tanglewood/overwater I tried in the shop was, IMO a midling made bass with some of the best pups I had heard in a long time- I even emailed overwater to see if they sold them separately! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1372529373' post='2126919'] only just seen this thread. The tanglewood/overwater I tried in the shop was, IMO a midling made bass with some of the best pups I had heard in a long time- I even emailed overwater to see if they sold them separately! [/quote] Were they the P/J passive pups or the active soapbars? I've got both across my two Tanglewaters and the active soapbars are impressive sounding. I do love the sound of the P/J but have also played a bass with some Wizard pickups in and loved the sound of those. Hmm, gotta think now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 [quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1372532790' post='2126987'] Were they the P/J passive pups or the active soapbars? I've got both across my two Tanglewaters and the active soapbars are impressive sounding. I do love the sound of the P/J but have also played a bass with some Wizard pickups in and loved the sound of those. Hmm, gotta think now! [/quote] the passive ones- they were amazing sounding on the bass I played and very balanced with each other. I think that Pup heights are very critical with a PJ setup and balancing them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bisonkills Posted June 29, 2013 Author Share Posted June 29, 2013 [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1372534433' post='2127009'] the passive ones- they were amazing sounding on the bass I played and very balanced with each other. I think that Pup heights are very critical with a PJ setup and balancing them. [/quote] I had issues with the P/J balance between the two. Tried all sorts of things, it may be that it's a one off issue with mine and I got a bit of a duff bridge pickup. I must admit to liking the overall tone of the original pickups, but needed a bit more output. The Wizards do exactly that, and the J pickup is way more usable now. Mornats, if you like the tone... Don't fix it if it ain't broken! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 Yeah, I do like the tone but have the same problem you had with the differences in volume. My J pup is almost touching the strings whilst my P is as far down as it can go and they're still a little unbalanced. Better than it was though but still unbalanced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panamonte Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 Don't know how much use this will be, but in terms of getting a balanced P/J set of pickups, when I decided that I wanted to swap out the stock pickups in my American Deluxe Precision I dropped in Fender 62 RI P p/ups and a DiMarzio Ultra Jazz bridge p/up. They work really well together - very well balanced - and there are no noise issues at all. Hope that helps. As far as Wizard pickups go, I have 84s and 64s in my two J basses. - they're great, and also really good value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassmachine2112 Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 I,ve got a thumper in my Vintagestein P-bass and I like it. Phone Andy and have a talk with him he,s good at advice and does custom winds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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