fender custom shop pickups

Soma · Newbie Alert Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

hey guys, my first post woohoo...

got a bit of a question... i recently bought a 2004 jazz bass. love the bass, great feel, great tone great look, just great... however, the problem i have is with punch. the guitar just doesnt have enough punch and power. i run a pretty extensive effects set up and i have e.q'd the hell out of it so its almost better. what i was thinking, was to fit it with a set of fender custom shop pickups. these were the ones i was thinking of getting http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0992101000

i wanna know what u guys think of them. will they take away any of the tone i have at the moment? will they give me some more punch? what are the pro's and con's of getting these installed?

thank you very much
Soma

rick1651 · Tadpole Joined: 30 Sep 2005 Posts: 17

Hello Soma,
I have a '75 American Deluxe Jazz and had the same issue with sound. About a year ago, I tried the Fender Custom Shop Jazz pickups, and I really didn't think they helped. The sound didn't change as much. I too use an extensive pedalboard, and I also have a Rickenbacker 4001 and a MusicMan Stingray 5. The jazz just didn't seem to have the same punch. I just recently installed a set of DiMarzio DP149 Ultra Jazz bass pickups and I really like them. The punch is there, the volume is there and I seem to have more control over the tone. Another set to try is the DiMarzio DP123. These have individually adjustable pole pieces so you can fine tune each string. I originally had these on my Jazz, but replace them because they had cream colored covers and were scratched up at the time. I replace them with the Fenders and almost put them back on! That's when I found the DP149's. I don't think you'll regret them. And I think they're even cheaper than the Fenders. Hope this helps.
_________________
Playing my bass a day, helps keep the blues away.
(Unless its da blues your playin')

MusicMan Stingray 5
'76 4001 Rickenbacker Custom
'75 American Fender Jazz

Soma · Newbie Alert Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

ah thanks dude, i'll definately keep them in mind. i recently bought a hartke 2500 and im running that thru an asdown mag 410 and that is making my sound a lot more punchier though. what do u think of the seymour duncan sjb3 quarter pounders?

i'll post a pic on here of my effects and u can let me know what u think of that as well... ppl on forums have absolutely crucified me for running effect on bass, so its kinda cool meeting someone else who does it

thanks
Soma

rick1651 · Tadpole Joined: 30 Sep 2005 Posts: 17

Soma,
Never tried the Seymours, but I have heard good things. And who the hell would crucify a bass player for using effects! Good god man, would they crucify Chris Squire, et al. Anything you do to express your playing is artfwork, don't ever forget that. How you choose to express yourself is a matter of personal taste. I have been playing for longer than I care to mention and the bass quitar has become more of an upfront instrument, thanks to Geddy, Chris even Sir Paul McCartney demonstrated that the bass is as much as solo instrument and less a background beat keeper. I mean bass has it's place to keep the fundamental beat going along with the drummer, don't get me wrong there. But I feel demonstrating a little more virtuousity from time to time very cool. My pedal board is mostly DigiTech stomps. I have the Bass SynthWah, Bass Driver distortion, Phaser, Flanger, Chorus, and DigiDelay. I also have a Dunlop WahWah, Vox Volume pedal and Boss Tremolo. These are all mounted on a Furman SPB-8 pedal board that provides power to all boxes and has built-in signal routing so I can split signal or send to two different amps, etc. I can send a picture as soon as I get my camera back. My amp config is a little strange. I came by it in pieces, mostly off of eBay. I have an Ampeg SVT 4-Pro. What a beast! 1600 watts of neighbor annoying boom boom. I run through 2 SVT 1x15E cabs, 1 SVT4x10HE cab and 1 2x10HE cab. The beauty of this system is, I can Bi-Amp the four cabs and roll off the nice lows to the 15's or for smaller venues I can take just the cabs I need. Beats hauling around the big 8x10 cabs. I don't think anything beats Ampeg for pure bass sound. My very first amp was a Carvin. Way back then, Carvin was not none to anyone. Strickly mail order. The set up was cool, my first big cab (2x15) and big head (probably less than 200 watts) and it sounded like crap, but I didn't care. I was 16 and it didn't matter then. I progressed to Fender amps and they were Ok. Mostly the name, I guess. I then got a Peavey 400 setup. A little louder but still crappy speakers. I kept blowing the speakers and having them reconed. I finally bought an Altec-Lansing 15 and a JBL 15 and installed them in the box, and wow, what a difference. After that I stopped playing for awhile and sold the Peavey. Got the itch to play again and bought a small Peavey TKO 115. 85 watts and a Sheffield 15 speaker. Nice amp and loud for the amount of watts. That's when I started getting into the Ampeg. I had played through one when I sat in on a friends gig and I was sold right there. I love my set up and I still try to play everyday for a least 45 minutes to an hour.
Keep on rocking Soma, and let your fingers do the talkin'
Rick
_________________
Playing my bass a day, helps keep the blues away.
(Unless its da blues your playin')

MusicMan Stingray 5
'76 4001 Rickenbacker Custom
'75 American Fender Jazz

Soma · Newbie Alert Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

dude, that is so cool, my dream amp is an ampeg!!! i once played thru an svt 3 pro and my god the balls. so much tone and so much power and so much versatilty in the EQ. i loved it, but alas, its a bit too much for me on my meager budget. one of these days though...

i used to have a really weird amp setup too, i only got the hartke about a month ago. my old setup used to be two roland cube 6o's, linked together and then linked to a peavey tko 75. was loud, was punchy and slightly muddy, but heaps of fun to play with. i think the cubes are the most underrated little amp around. the two i had were originals from the early eighties with the tolex covering and original speakers.

i had a look at the furman pedal boards when i was deciding on mine and they look *Holy Censor, Batman* hot. but the problem is some of my pedals are 9 volt, some are 12 volt and one is ac instead of dc. the picture attached should explain what i did. i built my own board and carpeted it myself and i have a power supply for everything except the compressor which runs a seperate power supply at teh back of the board. there i mounted a power block that has teh compressor plugged in and an outlet so i can send that into the wal and power it all up. my order is:
1. EH black finger compressor
2. used to be a noise suppressor but i removed it.
3. EH big muff PI russian
4. ibanez sb7 bass synth
5. volume/expression pedal
6. ibanez de 7 delay echo
7. behringer EQ/DI bass driver

the power supply is underneath the top level and behind it is a pwoer block for everything to go into. theres no ground loops or hum on this baby and i am quite proud of it, coz i built it

if u wanna have a listen to my sound, i got some tracks up on myspace with my band. its at www.myspace.com/astreetlightsong these tracks were recorded with the cubes and on an ibanez gsr bass, except the last track "people" which was done on my jazz. i was really dissapointed witht eh sound of it coz the jaz had awesome tone but no presence. thats what lead to me asking the question about the pickups

cheers dude
Soma

rick1651 · Tadpole Joined: 30 Sep 2005 Posts: 17

Soma,
Nice board. I made my first one too, but it blew up in my face. Made my own power supplies and it work for a long time, but I overloaded it and it took a dive. You'll have to tell me how your attach photos to these threads. I was thinking of sending you pics of my rigs. I went to your myspace and gave you a listen. Very nice. I love the tone of your Ibanez. I agree, the Jazz seemed to get a little lost. I guess you could have beefed it up in post production. I did some recording in the early eighties and they wanted everything done on my Jazz. I liked the Jazz more for live stuff, but I dearly love my Rickenbacker 4001. It's been my dream baby since I got it. It has been fully redone and customized. I had it shaved and the edge binding removed, repainted and then I did all the new electronics myself. New pickups, new controls, new wire, new jacks, new tuners. It really sounds great. Especially when I run it in stereo. I can run each pickup into its own amp and really tweek the sound. I almost hate to admit it, but I have a son whose probably not much younger than you. He wanted to start playing bass, so I bought him one of those Ibanez starter sets. He played for awhile but seem to outgrow the bass. I had another Ric that was not in great shape and I fixed it up and gave it to him. He plays in a couple of garage bands. Fun watching him grow into it. It's amazing. I'm at the age where most people listen to the easy stuff, but I find I still love the loud stuff. I have really gotten into Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, Trapt, Avenged Sevenfold. My son turns me on to the new stuff and I turn him on to the old. It works out great. Hey I noticed your band is in the Sydney, New South Wales area. My sister used to live up the coast from there in a place called Banora Point. I think it's in the town of (forgive the spelling) Coolingata? She moved to the north eastern end of Australia, and she and her hubby bought a news agency shop there. I live in California and I try to get out there to visit her when I can. I just love Australia. I dearly love visiting and always meet the greatest people there. I guess now, you included. Let me know how to do those pics and I'll send something tomorrow.
_________________
Playing my bass a day, helps keep the blues away.
(Unless its da blues your playin')

MusicMan Stingray 5
'76 4001 Rickenbacker Custom
'75 American Fender Jazz

Soma · Newbie Alert Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

hey,

the way to put up pics is u have to have a photobucket account. you can get it at www.photobucket.com i used my girlfriends account hehe. upload ur pix into ur photobucket account and then paste the image url into the post box. on the picture preview page of photobucket there will be img links and url links and just paste the img link into the box i am writing in right now... hope u can figure it out Smile

at the moment we are recording our first album with australian producer Tim Powles (drummer for the divynils, the church) and i am recording with the jazz, still thru the cubes, but i am sure its gonna sound amazing because we have decent equipment behind us. the myspace tracks are all self produced demo's from my singers home studio. we subsequently released that as an EP as well. within the next few weeks we are releasing the first single from the album. its going to be the track titled "ordinary entertainment" on myspace, but its getting renamed i think. recording for it is finished and the unmixed roughs we've heard are sounding incredible. so i'll keep you posted on how progress for thats going as well

coolangatta is near the border between queensland and new south wales. i know where it is. australia is an incredible country i agree. maybe see u down here soon Smile

rick1651 · Tadpole Joined: 30 Sep 2005 Posts: 17

Thanks for the update and for the heads up on photobucket. I just setup an account, so I'll see how it goes. I'm sending you my efx board and my amp rig. The rig has my SVT 4-Pro on the bottom. Above that is a fan system I made. Above that is an Alesis MidiVerb reverb unit, then a Sabine 7000 tuner, then my Furman power processor and a drawer for cables. The effects board starting from left to right is the Vox Volume, Boss Tremolo, DigiDelay, Wah Wah, Phaser, Flanger, Bass Driver distortion, Ampeg OCT octave pedal (new) and the SynthWah. I also have a DigiTech Chorus pedal, and run that through the effect loop on the amp.
As you can see on the Furman, it has the 8 power jacks (9v negative center, positive ring) but also has three ac outlets for ac adapters and wall warts.
So there ya go!
Good luck with your recording and hope to stay in touch. This thread was mainly about the pickups and we got a little off subject. If you want to email me directly, my address is rick-1955@comcast.net.

_________________
Playing my bass a day, helps keep the blues away.
(Unless its da blues your playin')

MusicMan Stingray 5
'76 4001 Rickenbacker Custom
'75 American Fender Jazz