Those of you who have followed the Saga of JustTim for a while know that I went through a phase where I bought lots of basses, got disillusioned with them, sold them, suffered seller’s remorse, and bought them back (if not the actual bass, the same model).
This post is related.
A while ago I picked up a near-mint, used Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas PJ IV. I loved the ergonomics of the bass… the body and neck shapes were, for me, almost perfection. But I was not a huge fan of the DiMarzio pickups or the stock pre-amp. And the pre-amp was bad; it would randomly fuzz-out and stop working for around 10 second. So, I took it down to my local guitar repair shop and had them convert it to a passive PJ instrument with volume/volume/tone knobs. I called it my Charvel No-Mod San Dimas PJ IV. It was much better on my ear, but the DiMarzio’s were still very hot and too mid-forward for my tastes and style.
So, I sold it.
And then regretted selling it.
And then bought another one.
Anyway, I’ve been trying to play it as-is and not change it up, but I’m still faced with the fact that I don’t care for the DiMarzio’s and the stock pre-amp. I’ve decided to “No-Mod” it again, and convert it to passive V/V/T. But! I’m also going to swap out the DiMarzio’s for something closer to the “classic Fender” sound. I have about $200 to spend on pickups. Here are the ones I’m looking at:
https://www.amazon.com/Fender-Yosemite-Precision-Electric-Guitar/dp/B07MVZ6HXB/ref=sr_1_57
…or…
https://www.amazon.com/Seymour-Duncan-SPB-1-Vintage-Split-coil/dp/B001FXQDVQ/ref=sr_1_6
…and…
https://www.amazon.com/Seymour-Duncan-D150-1B-Replacement-Position/dp/B0002GKZOS/ref=sr_1_2
Any thoughts on either of those sets? Recommendations for other pickups? Or would I be better off just swapping out the pre-amp and staying with the DiMarzio’s? I’ve heard Aguilar makes a pretty badass pre-amp.
Thanks!
Edit: interestingly, I just found this tidbit on another forum where you can talk bass, talking about the preamp on this bass:
That’s pretty genius, I don’t know why I never thought of that myself. It’s still a bit aggressive and mid-forward for my taste, but that approach does help out quite a bit.