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Have I been had?!


Swaffle88
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I bought a Mexican jazz bass (fretless) a while back. I never really got on with it but I kept a hold of it anyway incase I changed my mind.. 

recently I decided to give fretless another go and after a good look over I noticed both the pickups are different! I should have noticed this when buying it I know.. so no need to tell me 🤐

It was pre owned when I got it from a shop, do you guys think the previous owner put a different pick up in it? I’ll post pictures.

the bridge pickup has a different look to the pole pieces than on the neck pickup and the plastic looks matt compared to the neck pickups gloss plastic

96AC277A-CD37-4CF3-990C-DC8D30A30ABD.jpeg

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06346C6F-BAEA-4CA3-8E7F-3D20F72E3C9A.jpeg

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Caveat emptor mon suet!

The shop may not have known, even the previous owner may not. Unless sold specifically as stock/unmodified, not a lot you can do really. Could try having a word with the shop/seller but - - -

Yes they're different pick ups, does it play OK? have you looked underneath them?

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I mean this with respect, but Max jazz pickups are about £15 secondhand, so it’s dishonest of the shop (if they knew) and poor form if they didn’t, but hardly crime of the century.

Annoyingly I had a pair of Mex jazz pickups I could have sent you but I gave them away.

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18 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

I mean this with respect, but Max jazz pickups are about £15 secondhand, so it’s dishonest of the shop (if they knew) and poor form if they didn’t, but hardly crime of the century.

Annoyingly I had a pair of Mex jazz pickups I could have sent you but I gave them away.

Thats good news. Can you show us where you buy a set of secondhand fender jazz pickups for £15 please? 😀

Edited by hooky_lowdown
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6 hours ago, thegummy said:

You've been gifted the opportunity to judge the sound of the pickups honestly without any bias from prejudice you'd have if you knew what they were.

That's something that few people get.

I think it sounds... not great. It could never be bridge only on this jazz! I’ll be favouring the neck pup until I either get new pick ups or give up and sell it.. most likely to the shop that sold it to me 👿

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OK, so the bass has pups from 2 different makers. I doubt that will exactly be responsible for the inability of the OP to get on with fretless. Pups don't make *that* much difference to how it plays, providing that they actually work. After all, the chances are, the replacement pup is almost certainly going to be an upgrade. So, get on and play it, or sell it.

Edited by Grangur
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11 minutes ago, ClassicVibes said:

Sorry to hear about this. I've dealt with a few dodgy sellers in my time and walked away when they were caught out.

What's dodgy? So he saw it with 2 different pups and he liked and bought it. Nothing dodgy in that. Ok so he didn't notice the pups.

If you sell a car, do you go round with each buyer and point out the stone chips?

Edited by Grangur
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1 hour ago, Grangur said:

What's dodgy? So he saw it with 2 different pups and he liked and bought it. Nothing dodgy in that. Ok so he didn't notice the pups.

If you sell a car, do you go round with each buyer and point out the stone chips?

Okay - let's break this down.

What's dodgy?

The fact he was sold a bass which was not stock and these modifications were not mentioned. This is false advertising. This is illegal.

So he saw it with 2 different pups and he liked and bought it.

Has above, he was not told that any modifications were made to the bass so was right to assume that the pickups were stock. 

"I bought a Mexican jazz bass (fretless) a while back. I never really got on with it but I kept a hold of it anyway incase I changed my mind.. 

recently I decided to give fretless another go and after a good look over I noticed both the pickups are different! I should have noticed this when buying it I know.."

Nothing dodgy in that. Ok so he didn't notice the pups.

Which is what makes it dodgy. He wasn't told about the pickup swap and sold something that wasn't as advertised.

If you sell a car, do you go round with each buyer and point out the stone chips?

The pickups in a bass are more fundamental to the sound than some chips in the body. If you're selling something, you at least owe it to the buyer to tell them if any modifications have been made and if the item is stock or not. 

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4 hours ago, Grangur said:

What's dodgy? So he saw it with 2 different pups and he liked and bought it. Nothing dodgy in that. Ok so he didn't notice the pups.

If you sell a car, do you go round with each buyer and point out the stone chips?

That doesn't work as an analogy - you're talking about minor accidental cosmetic damage (which I definitely do point out when selling an instrument) but it's actually a deliberate swap of a key component to something else.

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8 hours ago, Swaffle88 said:

I don’t think it is Andy- the pole pieces have wee circles on them.. kinda looks like the bottom of a frying pan 😂

F0F307AF-ABDE-40B1-BB98-AA4A37823D36.jpeg

All the Ibanez 'Dynamix' pickups I've handled look like that - matt textured cover and circles in the pole pieces. If it's one of those then I certainly wouldn't call it an upgrade. They're not bad, but I've only ever taken them out - never installed them!

 

Edit: Here's one I removed earlier...

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IMG_5014.jpg.abbb42e529fe2e3a2235ff56b847bfcc.jpg

Edited by Ed_S
Edited to add pictures
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