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Post subject: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pair?
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 8:24 pm
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I'm looking for a set of the same pickups that are in my '05 Geddy Lee Jazz bass, to put in the new MIM Antigua Jazz Bass I just got. I want them to sound as close to each other tone wise as possible, and I definitely like the tone of the Geddy better. (Although the Antigua does play and sound very nice...)

What I'm looking for is the exact model of pickups in the Geddy Lee model... If you know what model pickup they are, great... if you've swapped yours out and have a set of spares, even better, let me know what you want for them. I did find a loaded pickguard, jackplate, and pickups combo on ebay, so I may just grab that, and resell the parts I don't need... but if anyone here can help me out in my quest, it would be appreciated. Also, would swapping the components from the plate help too? Are there noticable tone differences in the pots and wiring between the two models? If so, I might just keep everything but the pickguard.

Two other points... One, I know I'll probably want to upgrade the bridge to the same Badass II that's on the Geddy Lee, and two, I can't afford Fralins or an authentic '70s Jazz bass, so please don't suggest them... LOL! I just want to make the new Antigua sound as close as possible to the Geddy Lee. :wink:


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 10:33 am
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Geddy lee pickups IMO are below par compared to some other pickups that are available. No offense made but IMO why would you put a BA bridge on that nice bass you just got-??- you know the BA bridge will most likely leave a big square mark on the body. Plus after having umpteen BA bridges I'm not convinced they do anything at all to the tone of a bass. They MAY add a little sustain at best but I've always noticed that due to the mass of a Ba they suck the string vibration away from the body. There I said it please don't hate. Also my 2 Geddys didn't sound good. I'm bummed if you have one that sounds good. I sold both of mine. I took the BA off one of my Jedi's and to me it sounded markedly better. I wanted my Geddies to sound good but afterall they just blowed. Good Luck with your basses they look pretty cool. :D


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 11:46 am
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stroker vance wrote:
Geddy lee pickups IMO are below par compared to some other pickups that are available. No offense made but IMO why would you put a BA bridge on that nice bass you just got-??- you know the BA bridge will most likely leave a big square mark on the body. Plus after having umpteen BA bridges I'm not convinced they do anything at all to the tone of a bass. They MAY add a little sustain at best but I've always noticed that due to the mass of a Ba they suck the string vibration away from the body. There I said it please don't hate. Also my 2 Geddys didn't sound good. I'm bummed if you have one that sounds good. I sold both of mine. I took the BA off one of my Jedi's and to me it sounded markedly better. I wanted my Geddies to sound good but afterall they just blowed. Good Luck with your basses they look pretty cool. :D

I won't change the bridge unless for some reason there's still a drastic tone difference after swapping out the pickups... even then I'll probably start with a saddle upgrade like I did on the Squier I had. (I sold it to make money towards the Antigua...)

As for the Geddy, I like the sound of it through my SWR rig... Keep in mind that I'm only comparing it to other basses I've owned, which include the MIM Antigua, a dirt cheap Ibanez Gio P/J style knockoff, and an even cheaper Rogue 5 string that I bought used for $50 and ended up giving away. I'm sure there are better sounding basses out there, but for the rock band I'm playing with, the Geddy sounds great. It's a little punchy, a little clanky, and has plenty low end. I don't need more than that, honestly... and there's a good chance that just as much of it is the amp as it is the bass... regardless, the combination sounds great to me. I'm sure better pickups or a real vintage Jazz Bass would sound better, but I'm at my budget limit for now, so I'm only concerned with getting the MIM playing and sounding as good as the Geddy, so that it can get equal stage time and not be relegated to the rack as a backup incase of a string break.

I haven't had the chance to play the Antigua through my rig yet, but A/Bing them here at home through my Behringer V-Amp Pro on a clean setting into my computer, the Geddy sounds clearer and perhaps a bit louder than the Antigua, which I'm attributing to the muddiness of the stock MIM pickups. Since I can't afford two sets of upgrade pickups at the moment, I thought it might be smart to just put the same pups in the Antigua that are in the Geddy, which should get them close enough in tone to live with. Plus, call me superficial, but I like the look of the beveled pole pieces on the Geddy pups too. :)

Again, the bridge can wait... I doubt it makes as much tonal difference as it does sustain, or possibly tuning stability... regardless, the stock bridge will do for now. I'm not concerned with keeping a stock appearance or anything though, so if I decide it needs a badass, it'll get one and I won't look back. I had no problem putting a hole through the pickguard to add the thumbrest either... on either bass, for that matter. I want my basses to fit me, so I mod them accordingly.


I do appreciate your input though... I am new to playing bass "for real", so any insight I can get from more experienced players is helpful. :D


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 6:43 pm
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You may find that the Geddy Lee bridge pickup is too wide to fit the rout in your Antigua's body without modification. AFAIK, the GL pickups are built to the same physical dimensions as the original Jazz Bass pickups and the contemporary Custom Shop '62 set. And those bridge pickups are wider than the MIM Standard Jazz Bass bridge pickup by a couple of millimeters. Best to measure your Antigua before you start ordering parts.

HTH

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:14 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
You may find that the Geddy Lee bridge pickup is too wide to fit the rout in your Antigua's body without modification. AFAIK, the GL pickups are built to the same physical dimensions as the original Jazz Bass pickups and the contemporary Custom Shop '62 set. And those bridge pickups are wider than the MIM Standard Jazz Bass bridge pickup by a couple of millimeters. Best to measure your Antigua before you start ordering parts.

HTH

Arjay

Good tip, thanks!


*EDIT* - Just checked, bridge pickups on both basses measure right at 95mm x 18m. Should fit with no problems, but if I have to shave anything out of the cavity it will be a coat of paint... they look pretty colse to the same size. If anything, the Antigua has a little MORE wiggle room in the cavity. So I should be fine! But again, thanks for the heads up! Could have been an ugly surprise!


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:48 pm
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MacGyvercaster wrote:
stroker vance wrote:
Geddy lee pickups IMO are below par compared to some other pickups that are available. No offense made but IMO why would you put a BA bridge on that nice bass you just got-??- you know the BA bridge will most likely leave a big square mark on the body. Plus after having umpteen BA bridges I'm not convinced they do anything at all to the tone of a bass. They MAY add a little sustain at best but I've always noticed that due to the mass of a Ba they suck the string vibration away from the body. There I said it please don't hate. Also my 2 Geddys didn't sound good. I'm bummed if you have one that sounds good. I sold both of mine. I took the BA off one of my Jedi's and to me it sounded markedly better. I wanted my Geddies to sound good but afterall they just blowed. Good Luck with your basses they look pretty cool. :D

I won't change the bridge unless for some reason there's still a drastic tone difference after swapping out the pickups... even then I'll probably start with a saddle upgrade like I did on the Squier I had. (I sold it to make money towards the Antigua...)

As for the Geddy, I like the sound of it through my SWR rig... Keep in mind that I'm only comparing it to other basses I've owned, which include the MIM Antigua, a dirt cheap Ibanez Gio P/J style knockoff, and an even cheaper Rogue 5 string that I bought used for $50 and ended up giving away. I'm sure there are better sounding basses out there, but for the rock band I'm playing with, the Geddy sounds great. It's a little punchy, a little clanky, and has plenty low end. I don't need more than that, honestly... and there's a good chance that just as much of it is the amp as it is the bass... regardless, the combination sounds great to me. I'm sure better pickups or a real vintage Jazz Bass would sound better, but I'm at my budget limit for now, so I'm only concerned with getting the MIM playing and sounding as good as the Geddy, so that it can get equal stage time and not be relegated to the rack as a backup incase of a string break.

I haven't had the chance to play the Antigua through my rig yet, but A/Bing them here at home through my Behringer V-Amp Pro on a clean setting into my computer, the Geddy sounds clearer and perhaps a bit louder than the Antigua, which I'm attributing to the muddiness of the stock MIM pickups. Since I can't afford two sets of upgrade pickups at the moment, I thought it might be smart to just put the same pups in the Antigua that are in the Geddy, which should get them close enough in tone to live with. Plus, call me superficial, but I like the look of the beveled pole pieces on the Geddy pups too. :)

Again, the bridge can wait... I doubt it makes as much tonal difference as it does sustain, or possibly tuning stability... regardless, the stock bridge will do for now. I'm not concerned with keeping a stock appearance or anything though, so if I decide it needs a badass, it'll get one and I won't look back. I had no problem putting a hole through the pickguard to add the thumbrest either... on either bass, for that matter. I want my basses to fit me, so I mod them accordingly.


I do appreciate your input though... I am new to playing bass "for real", so any insight I can get from more experienced players is helpful. :D




* very good and thought out post. You sound like a "for real" bass player to me. :D


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:14 pm
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stroker vance wrote:
* very good and thought out post. You sound like a "for real" bass player to me. :D

Thanks... it's more like my almost 20 years of guitar experience has some level of crossover into the bass world, LOL... but I'm a quick study! :D

It's funny, the guys in the band can't figure out why I don't like using a pick on bass. I've tried to tell them, holding a pick, I feel like (and play like) a guitar player. If I anchor my thumb on that thumbrest and pluck with my fingertips, I feel like a bassist. They were telling me it was my fingers causing me to have a very "clicky" bass tone... I got rid of the Squier bass and underpowered Ampeg combo, and brought in the Geddy Lee and the SWR with a pair of Hartke cabs, and now they don't push me to use a pick anymore. Turns out the tone issue wasn't so much in my fingers after all... :mrgreen:

So I figured out how to buy tone... now I need to find a store that sells talent. Everywhere I've looked, it seems to be on backorder... :?


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:30 pm
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Everybody gets the click thing going on from time to time. You kind of figure out how to play without doing it. Sometimes you'll click and it won't matter because everything is so loud that you can't hear it. To beat the click think"pluck" instead of "strike". I have developed more than a couple ways to use my right hand to get the sound out. I move it around . I like the bass tone when plucking the strings over the upper fretboard. Then there's always going "Jaco" and playing right in front of the saddles- all that stuff is good.

I can't hardly even use a pick on bass . It doesn't feel right to me. I go all "flubby" and whatnot! :D


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 6:56 am
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Yeah, we have one song that's faster and sort of punk influenced, pretty much driving 1/8th notes all the way through... I use a pick on that song because by the end I'm pretty much strumming full power chords across all 4 strings... I kinda get a Duff McKagan thing going on that song. For the rest of the set though, it's all fingers. Oddly, I can play finger style for hours on end, but with a pick my right hand starts getting crampy after ten minutes or so. Probably because with a pick, my hand is used to the much lighter strings of a guitar.


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 7:23 am
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Well you have to hold the pick kind of tight and that wears out my hand (thumb).


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 8:46 am
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Could you go into a little more detail?


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 12:57 pm
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stroker vance wrote:
Well you have to hold the pick kind of tight and that wears out my hand (thumb).

That's what I figured was my issue too. The thicker strings require more force from the pick to get a good solid pluck, so my wimpy guitar technique just doesn't cut it. Plus, where I have the bass hung (fairly low, but not silly low like some of the guys I've seen duct-taping two straps together, LOL!) it hurts my wrist to hold my hand in something resembling a proper picking position, with my wrist roughly behind the bridge... but I'm perfectly comfortable playing fingerstyle, because that way my wrist is more above the strings, if that makes sense. Basically, I would have to raise the bass at least 3 or 4 inches if not more when switching from fingers to a pick. Except on that one song, where I'm more strumming across the strings like playing rhythm guitar on an acoustic, LOL...


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:42 pm
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i think the Geddy's have Fender Original 62 pickups on it

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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:50 am
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If you're getting the dreaded clicky tone, trim your nails. It changes everything.

I'm not sure of what music you play, but you should check out Billy Sheehan's three finger, right hand thing. It's all about economy when using multiple digits.

You might want to experiment with the strap level some more. Adjust it so to allow for better playing.

The Geddy Lee Basses are great, but I don't know if the pickups are Vintage Reissues, American Vintage Reissues...or if there is even a difference.


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Post subject: Re: Geddy Lee pickups... what are they? Or, do you have a pa
Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:13 pm
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The Geddy Lee Jazz Bass comes stock with a pair of single coil vintage Jazz pick ups, :)


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