Fender Pure Vintage '74 Jazz Bass, Analysis and Review

[antigua]

shop.fender.com/en-US/accessories/pickups/pure-vintage-74-jazz-bass-pickup-set/0992243000.html



I haven't installed this set yet, but I bought it to replace a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound for Bass set that is just too dark. I was curious to see how bass pickups compared to regular guitar pickups, and it looks like these are hotter than most all Strat pickups, but fairly similar to a Tele bridge pickups. 


Fender '74 Jazz Bass Bridge
- DC Resistance: 7.93K ohms
- Measured L: 3.836H
- Calculated C: 139pF (149 - 10)
- Gauss: 1050G

Fender '74 Jazz Bass Neck
- DC Resistance: 7.45K ohms
- Measured L: 3.457H
- Calculated C: 141pF (151 - 10)
- Gauss: 1050G

Bridge unloaded: dV: 15.4dB f: 6.66kHz (black)
Bridge loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 5.0dB f: 3.13kHz (red)
Neck unloaded: dV: 15.4dB f: 6.97kHz (green)
Neck loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 5.4dB f: 3.28kHz (gray)



Bode plot:

[wgen]

You are the man! Now I think you really are the first man on earth who has done and published a proper test of electric bass pickups, perhaps.
Interesting enough these Jazz pickups seem to have a response that would be good even for guitar tones.
Most of the Jazz Bass players are used to playing with both neck and bridge full open, which is a parallel connection with the typical Jazz Bass wiring.
Which makes me think that it would raise the final resonant peak even much higher than around 3 Khz, like these two pickups by themselves have...!
Jazz Bass is usually regarded among the brightest of the electric bass tones, though...And it is one of my favourite bass tone for sure, especially with crunchy tones (yes, with bass too!).

[antigua]

That's a good point about the parallel mode. I calculate a loaded peak of 4.3kHz from 1.8H inductance and 740pF (470+270) total capacitance. 

I think you definitely want a good treble response for a bass to get a good slap and pop. I think the issue if that if they were wound much lower, the output voltage would be too low.