Fender Standard Jazz Bass Pickups.

[Hobbayne]

I'm looking at replacing the pickups on my Indonesian made Fender Standard Jazz. I am looking at at a Fender vintage 62 set.

Will these fit? I know some replacement P ups need a bit of jiggling to fit the cavities. 

[ebenezer]

Should drop straight in with no mods

[Stub Mandrel]

Yep should be a good fit.

 

They will give a modest output level and a rich vintage sound.

[HeadlessBassist]

I'd also look at the Fender Pure Vintage 66 pickups. I've bought a couple of sets now and they're excellent.

[Hobbayne]

Thats great cheers. Its only a back up bass, but the ceramic pickups that it comes with sound a bit thin to my ears. 

[HeadlessBassist]

1 hour ago, Hobbayne said:

Thats great cheers. Its only a back up bass, but the ceramic pickups that it comes with sound a bit thin to my ears. 

 

The Jazz Bass' natural scooped sound [with everything dimed] often needs a little help - if you set your bass & treble on the amp to about 2 o'clock, that always helps. Also, passive Jazz pickups sound best when set closer to the strings. (6-7mm for neck pickup & 3-4mm for bridge pickup.)

 

I'll be interested to hear your findings if you do end up swapping the pickups.   

[NancyJohnson]

Honest to god, people love to waste £££ on modding.

 

With all due respect to @Stub Mandrel, but what constitutes 'vintage sound'?  

 

60+ years ago, when all this was fields, Fender were producing fairly low quantities of basses and as cited in Tom Wheeler's American Guitars, "quality control was out the window", pickup windings were erratic, there was little consistency in manufacturing and Fender was known to use whatever was on hand.  Christ, they were putting Stratocaster pickups in some bass models, then wax potting the covers to hide what was in there. 

 

60 years on and we're all sitting here rubbing our collective chibs, going, 'Mmm, 60s Vintage pickups, gimme some of that, I need more ponk in my tone.'

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

To me vintage tone is characterised by lower impedance windings and modest strength magnets giving a lower output with more middle and top end without being harsh.

 

This gives a richer sound but you need to crank the gain more.

[NancyJohnson]

23 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

To me vintage tone is characterised by lower impedance windings and modest strength magnets giving a lower output with more middle and top end without being harsh.

 

This gives a richer sound but you need to crank the gain more.

 

Thing is (and I say this from the perspective of our desired signature tone), we all know - more or less - what we want to sound like and in truth, don't we just dial that in via our amp/cab choice and/or processing?

 

Installation of Fender '62 Vintage pickups might make the owner of a bass feel better and oh, they're definitely going to hear that perceived tonal difference, but the irony is the bass will sound pretty much the same as it did beforehand.  

 

@Hobbayne - buy a couple of cheap Chinese Strat pickups and pop 'em in.  They'll sound just the same as what is in there now and what you're going to replace them with.

[Lozz196]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

To me vintage tone is characterised by lower impedance windings and modest strength magnets giving a lower output with more middle and top end without being harsh.

 

This gives a richer sound but you need to crank the gain more.

I found that on guitar, I prefer to get the sound/gain from lower wound pickups cranked more, rather than higher wound cranked less. Gibson SG for example, I prefer the 490T pickups to the 498T, just sounds better to me.