Product: Bill Lawrence J-45
Price Paid: US $$106.
Submitted
03/23/2003
at
02:41pm
by
Deacon_blue
Email: contact me on the bass forum for questions<dot>
Features
:
Pickup features: Single coil, passive
Impedence or other specs:
Instrument
:
Model of guitar or bass: 2002 4 string Spector,(Korean bolt on)
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Both SSD EMG's
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: R Beck. (Similar)
You musical style(s): Varied
Reason for pickup change: Uneven edgy sound.
Sound
:
No Opinion
Perceived output level: Surprisingly high output for a passive pup. Louder than the original passive SSD. Bill Lawrence will downplay output, while of course, trying to acheive it.
Tone: I had to build another body to house the new pickups cause I didn't want to butcher the original body. The new one is made from cherry wood which is a little heavier and harder than the alder OEM. The sound is very much a function of the accoustic properties of the wood. The alder lacked lows. The new body is meaty/woody sounding and the Lawrence pups produce that tone very well. This is somewhat of a mix between Musicman and early P bass. Very even response high, low and middle. No one better than the other.
Sonic evaluation: Now custom Spector. Controls are rotery selector switch for on/on/on use with 1 master volume and seperate tone control. Since I routed the body myself I use a bridge location of 2.75" and a neck position of 5.375" from the bridge. This is the optimum string spacing for the pole pieces and I was also looking for a little more mellow tone from the bridge pup for voicing when using it by itself. My playing requires strong bass fundamentals. My amp is a '91 Twin Reverb played through a Yorkville 2X10 cab.m I use the clean channel. My practice amp is a Fender 25B bass amp. These pups sound good on the SS Fender but are great on a tube amp with fine dynamics and excellent live presence.
For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Church praise group. A great match for my needs.
Overall Rating
:
10
Comments: If my bass was stolen I would be very annoyed. It's the way I want it now and the cherry body looks great. The neck and bridge are high quality (from the original) and now the pups are up to snuff.
If I do anything from this point it would be to experiment with pot and cap values. Right now I have the original stuff. The pots are 500k and I'm not sure about the caps.
