Pickups for ‘74 Jazz Bass

[Sebastiaan]

Hi! I just bought a ‘74 Jazz Bass. Origial pickups were replaced by Fender Noiseless, I don’t know which generation. Should I consider replacing them by something else?

[Lozz196]

Well given my OCD I’d be looking at the Fender Pure Vintage 74 Jazz pickups. Not only do they match OCD-wise they sound great, I had some in a Squier VM77 Jazz and they really made the bass shine.

[Belka]

I'd agree with Lozz, the '74 Pure vintage sound great. They are a bit funny in one respect though - the neck is hotter than the bridge pickup. Normally it's the other way round. I did notice on Fender's website recently that they must have altered this, as the specs now read that the bridge is hotter than the neck, but this could be an error - probably worth contacting Fender to find out for sure.

 

Another option could be the '66 Pure Vintage. These are wound less hot than the '74, with a value a lot more typical of an early '70s J than the '74s, so they may be actually more authentic despite the name. 

 

Fender J pickups started out at around 8k in the early '60s with the black bottomed ones. In the mid '60s they dropped down to between 6-7k and stayed around there until the late '70s, when they started creeping back towards 8k again.

 

You can always pay more and go for Duncans, Fralins, Lollars, Brantley etc, These all sound great but are generally quite a bit hotter than real vintage mid 60s/70s pickups; they're a lot closer to 1962 spec, but if you want punchier tone and more mids they could be the way to go.

[Jonesy]

Here's another vote for the 74's. I have them in a G&L Tribute Jazz and really love them, there's loads of depth and bite to them.

 

[LawrenceH]

I have both the 74s and older AV75s in a couple of basses. Both are great. I get better string to string balance on the 75s but big caveat is that I haven't had time to adjust the 74s on what is fairly a new arrival, so perhaps that will change when I do.

I'd definitely go for a 70s-type pickup for a 70s bass. That said, I'd also consider something like the Ultrajazz.