Best pick ups for rock in a jazz bass

[Russ]

Best Jazz sound I ever heard was a USA Jazz with Delano pickups (the ones with the big, MM-style polepieces) and a series/parallel switch, set to series. Sounded somewhere between a Precision and a MM and was absolutely thunderous. 

[Mokl]

Bartolini B-Axis might get you there. 

[Maude]

As a Jazz bass disliker (it's me not the basses) I'm probably not the best to advise. 

But I put a pair of Entwistle JBXNs in my Aria copy and wired a in series switch. The result is a thunderous J bass that I like. 

The series wiring is key, but probably not to a J bass lovers liking. 

[Vin Venal]

I don't have a jazz any more but when I did I spent a lot of time listening to demos and comparison videos, and the ones I liked the most were SD Apollos. They're in line humbuckers in a single coil housing so sound fatter.

 

I think the key though is not having both pickups on all the way. On a jazz with 60s pickup positions, I think you get a lot of mid scooping going on with that setting. 

 

My ideal jazz would have in line buckers like the apollos, in the 70s position with the back pickup closer to the bridge, be wired VBT rather than VVT to make changing pickup balance easier, and maybe even have a series/parallel switch as others have mentioned.

[Raslee]

On 10/10/2022 at 13:49, Rich said:

The first ones that sprang to mind were Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders. 

Yup, my first thoughts too for rock. 

[fretmeister]

I’ve got EMG j set in mine with their preamp.

But with all jazz basses I think they need a boost at about 100hz to give some proper welly but without the flub of boosting lower than that.

 

So a preamp with a variable mid that goes down to 100hz is really useful.

[jazzmanb]

 I've had a few Jazz basses including a usa Geddy and a real 75 and a real 76 '

i have a MIJ geddy now and a Mex Jazz 

I Play in a loud classic rock band and they do ok but the winner is my Sadowsky metro vintage jazz in passive mode .Its just massive and fat and sharp and sings all over the neck .Its heavy mind but worth it 

[asingardenof]

40 minutes ago, jazzmanb said:

 I've had a few Jazz basses including a usa Geddy and a real 75 and a real 76 '

i have a MIJ geddy now and a Mex Jazz 

I Play in a loud classic rock band and they do ok but the winner is my Sadowsky metro vintage jazz in passive mode .Its just massive and fat and sharp and sings all over the neck .Its heavy mind but worth it 

A heavy Sadowsky? Crikey!

[Lfalex v1.1]

On 12/10/2022 at 10:44, lonestar said:

This works for me. Stock USA pickups, I tend to use  100% neck 75% bridge, tone in the middle. I have a jazz with the S1 switch. Switching to series really does beef up the sound and output 

That worked best for me on my S1 also...

[bubinga5]

Put up with single coils. They are just magic.

[Boodang]

There's a good YouTube video which compares about 8 different J pickups (played back to back and just a few minutes long with no commentary), which will give you a good idea of which to go for. The ones that sound the least like normal jazz pickups are the DiMarzio model J (DP-123), which is not surprising giving that they are inline humbuckers. With these you could not only fit a series/parallel switch between the 2 pickups but also a switch for each pickup for the two coils. This would give you great variety of tone without even going near any eq. Tempted to give it a go myself.

[jazzmanb]

On 20/10/2022 at 17:07, asingardenof said:

A heavy Sadowsky? Crikey!

The first Japanese metro's are a solid Ash full body 

Nyc had smaller bodies with chambers 

[ead]

Grizzly Bear pedal maybe?