Yeah I know. Battery compartments are still nicer 
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Funnily enough my cheap 5 string has a seperate battery compartment and yet the Warwick has a battery rammed in amongst the pots as designed.
I’m going to have to check the others now 
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Yeah it actually caused a warranty repair on my first Streamer
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Hi all - just posted this in another thread, but it’s probably more relevant to put it here. Any input from the brains trust would be appreciated before I get my soldering iron out. Cheers
https://forum.bassbuzz.com/t/best-value-base-bass-to-upgrade/23505/90?u=bassdacious
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looking forward to your opinion about this bass. I myself am considering a piezo + magnetic bass.
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@DaveT About changing the bridge, check out this thread and specifically this post from @terb. Fender and bridges
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I’ve wanted this combo for a while. Had a “false start” with the Italia bass that got returned.
There is a “woody” tone that the piezo mixes in that I like a lot. I put Labella tapes on this one and so far I’m liking the tones a lot. I’m glad I opted for the two band EQ, it gives you more options for sure but a pedal after would do the same (but this fills in the extra hole.
Still fiddling but enjoying it.
My next cover will use this bass btw
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great, I was wondering if “electric” flatwound strings would work well with a piezzo pickup.
my goal would be to start with an acoustic bass with a built-in piezzo, and add a magnetic pickup. then use two separate ouputs, like on a Rick, and mix the signals with external gear (pedals, preamps, DAI).
looking forward to it !
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This is essentially how the Italia is set up, but in a semi-hollow.
I used the Bassbone Tonebone to mix the two (works really well for this) but is a big pedal.
I had an A/E with piezo only with tapes on it, loved the sound, hated the giant body and super long neck (and was a fretless), but the tone was great. Sounds like a great plan you have.
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yeah that’s what I might do at first 
but the idea of adding a magnetic pickup in the soundhole (common thing on acoustic guitars played live) is interesting too.
Mixing the pickups should not be a problem as I have way enough preamps and inputs on the DAI 
and also I have two Pro-Cessor kits ready to be built, if I ever need to mix in a live context. but for now I’m stick with my studio-only things.
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Upgraded to my first Fender this week. A used MIM Jazz Bass. So far pretty impressed with the fit and finish - the neck feels great. It looks black in the photos, but really it’s just quite dark, maybe rosewood?
It hasn’t sounded quite as punchy as I expected though. That might just be me, but there are some tool marks on the pickups, stripped screws, and the neck pickup is way lower than the bridge. Clearly some unskilled hands have been at work here. Hopefully raising the pickup will help, but I may be looking for a passive j-pickup set soon. 
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Oooh, very nice. I can recommend the Tom Brantley Geddy Lee pickups. I put them in my jazz bass and love them.
Lindey Fralin also makes great jazz bass pickups and a pre-wired control plate that upgrades the wiring, gives you CTS pots and a Switchcraft output jack. That also got dropped into my jazz bass.
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Thanks for the recommendations @LeftyChad
I’m going to give it a chance with these pickups for bit and see how I feel before going down the pickup rabbit hole.
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Nice. What year is the bass? If it’s a recent Player model, the fretboard is probably Pau Ferro. I have a black tuxedo Player jazz that looks just like it.
I also have a Paranormal Jazz, and put Seymour Duncan Apollo pickups in it, and they are punchy. I quite like them.
EMG also makes good pickups which are solderless installation, super easy to do. If you go this route let us know.
update: looked up the serial number from the headstock, that is a 2000-2001 Jazz made in Ensenada, MX. So you are correct, rosewood fretboard.
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I’ll take a look at the Seymour Duncans too. I was looking at an EMG pre-wired kit but it seems like people needed a make room for a battery for those, I’d rather keep it completely passive if possible.
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EMG JHZ set is passive, and they are super easy to wire. You can do it yourself. I put EMG pickups in two basses, and have pickups for a third bass on order.
They also make wire harnesses like this one, there are others, that improve your pots and have connectors so you don’t need to solder.
One thing you will need to do is check the size of the bridge pickups. In a normal Jazz setup, the neck pickup is slightly smaller than the bridge, however, in some Fender MIM models they are the same size. So you would have to order two neck pickups.
I looked at your photo but not enough contrast to tell. The black on black thing lol.
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@LeftyChad which Fralin J pickups did you get?
How do you like them?
I am looking at them for two different basses, a fretted and a fretless.
I have a set of Fender CS ‘60s in my Squier J bass that I would love to compare them with as well.
I have the Fralin overwound P on it’s way to go in my Fender semi-hollow P-Piezo setup.
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FWIW, I am not a fan of EMG passive pickups at all.
Have had 2 sets and not impressed. YMMV.
EMG active - awesome.
I do like passives on a J.
I had great luck with Fender CS ‘60s J pickups and Emerson pots BTW.
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I ended up with the Tom Brantley pickups for my jazz bass. Tom used to work in Lindey Fralin’s shop before going out on his own, so I’d suspect they’re pretty similar. If I had been thinking, I would have gone with the Fralins because I could have saved on some shipping when I got the pre-wired control plate rather than splitting the order between two different places.
I do have Lindey Fralin’s Vintage Hots in the neck & middle position on my Strat & his Steel Pole 42 in the bridge, along with his custom blender pot. I cannot say enough about the quality of workmanship and responsiveness of his crew. They’re good folks.
He and Jason Lollar are two of the best pickup makers working today.
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So, my Seymour Duncan Steve Harris pickups won’t be here for another month 
Supply chains? Never mind supply chains, it’s supply gaps out there.
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