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Post subject: VM Jazz Pickups
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 1:31 pm
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Hi All i¨am new to The Squier Forum although i have been on the PBass forum for a few years....I recently picked up a VM Modified Jazz to act as backup to my SR4 HP I was so pleased with the way it looked and played that i decided to do a bit of upgrading starting with the pups, Well when i pulled them and looked underneath (See Pic) i was surprised to see the Fender stamp on them quite expecting them to be the Seymour Duncan types ...So my question is are they stock ones or has someone else upgraded them? Any advice from anyone would be appreciated may thanks Peter (Spain) :?:

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Post subject: Re: VM Jazz Pickups
Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 7:31 pm
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Those are Fender Noiseless pickups, they are NOT original to any Squier that I am aware of...

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Post subject: Re: VM Jazz Pickups
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 3:29 am
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Thank you dbhost ! It seems i have had a good result and any "upgrade" would be pointless,After looking on the web i found an identical Fender pup pic and it was labeled SCN type "Noiseless" Which should have the name on the pickup cover but mine didn¨t ...Thanks again, Peter :wink:


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Post subject: Re: VM Jazz Pickups
Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 1:46 am
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The fact you were looking to upgrade the pickups before you knew what pickups were in it does point to you wanting a different tone. I would not say it is pointless to change them.

Noiseless Jazz pickups sound different from single coil ones. They do not hum like single coil ones do either. There are things you can do to mitigate single coil hum such as copper foil shielding. I prefer single coil tone in a Jazz, but they can be noisier in certain environments, especially when soloing a pickup. The effort and relatively small cost of copper foil shielding supplies required to ground both pickup cavities, the control cavity and back of the pickguard will help as will adding and grounding vintage style chromed bridge and pickup covers.

Any quality mass produced Jazz pickup like the Duncan SJB-1 N&S pair or a pair of Fender single coils will be affordable and sound way different than the Noiseless variety. Sometimes you can find Fender and Duncan single coil pairs used on eBay. If you aren't happy and want a tonal change you could try them. It will sound completely different!


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Post subject: Re: VM Jazz Pickups
Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 2:39 am
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Thanks Brother Dave, When i first picked up this Bass i only tried it through a 15w old practice amp at first and then lifted the pups to see what was there, I have since gigged it through a GK 500 w rig and it sounded very different to the "normal" Jazz sound, With a Maple body and board i expected it to be a bit bright to say the least ! But this Bass has lots of low end muscle normally associated with a P Bass but with a clear piano type tone, As far as reliability is concerned the next move is CTS pots and some good cabling the orange cap, The tuners are rock solid and just as stable as the Schallers on my US Musicman ´Rays or the US G&L L2000...I guess i struck lucky on this one..... :D


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Post subject: Re: VM Jazz Pickups
Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 4:24 pm
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Before doing the pot cap swap you might want to make sure it hasn't already been upgraded. I generally don't worry about upgrading pots. Often if you do that on an Asian instrument you'll find the pot shaft on a USA spec CTS pot doesn't fit the hole and wind up having to drill the control plate holes larger. 250k is 250k so there really is no tonal advantage to swapping pots unless they are broken or malfunctioning.

The Orange Drop Poly (the one most guitar parts stores sell) is a good middle of the road cap but not all that different in character from a stock Poly cap, even the Asian ones.

I prefer the other cap extremes instead of the middle of the road. I want it either super clean or super gritty and that eliminates any Poly cap. In their favor Poly Orange Drops are super stable and relatively cheap compared to other parts. But so are the harder to find Mylar Orange Drops which have a lower distortion tonal character than their Poly kin. In fact the Mylar Orange Drops cost exactly the same or even less than a Poly Orange Drop. The Mylar ones are just way harder to find. Axegrinderz.com has the Mylar ones.

For the most grit use a vintage ceramic disc which should set you back all of one-dollar. For live play the vintage ceramic caps add a nice bite. The Poly caps sound a little cleaner. The Mylar ones cleaner than Poly and then for the ULTIMATE clean the paper in oil "Vitamin-Q" type including the cheap Russian ones are the lowest in distortion. If you play with your tone rolled all the way off or if you don't have a full range amp and cab with horn you probably won't ever much difference in caps anyway. There is a difference but a very subtle one. When comparing the ceramic disc to a Vitamin-Q I can hear a lot of difference especially in upper mids. You'll hear less difference between a ceramic and a Poly or between a Poly and a Mylar but there is some. Some people can't hear that or don't have clean enough preamps to hear it. It is most obvious when going direct into a mixer. Engineers say that on paper there is no difference between cap types, but to me there is a very subtle difference between each cap type and the most difference between ceramic discs and paper in oil Vitamin-Q's.

Distortion is not always a bad thing and for live play I like a little. But for recording my preference is super clean because you can always dirty it up in post but you can't clean up grit once it is recorded.


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Post subject: Re: VM Jazz Pickups
Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 8:30 am
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Thanks Brother Dave, Taken on board your comments so i´m not gonna fix what aint broke !! 8)


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