Bulldog Pickups Custom 60's style Jazz Bass

A pair of custom made, hand wound, single coil Jazz Bass pickups. Vintage spec enamelled wire, Alnico magnets and vintage style cloth sleeved wire.
Bulldog Pickups are a one man operation of the highest pedigree (no pun intended) based in Holmfirth, Yorkshire. Hayden Minett has worked with Matamp, Hayden, Ashdown and others developing amplifiers, and worked with Bare Knuckle in their early days, developing and winding pickups. He knows his stuff!!
He has an impressive range of "standard" pickups, but is happy to make pickups to YOUR specifications - describe your ideal tone, and he will do the rest.
I wanted a "fat 60's Jazz Bass" sound - more midrange punch and a smoother top end. Think Carol Kaye, and the greatest bass sound of all time - the intro to "you Set The Scene" by Love - You know "Bark-ba-bark ba-ba-ba-ba-bark..." He suggested a 10% overwind and got to work for me.

These pickups are fitted into my Levinson Blade Tetra Bass (one piece alder body / rock maple neck with mahogany fretboard)with sreies/parallel switch, which is my main gigging bass, into a Marshall 7200 bass rig, via various pedals.
The stock pickups were great, but a little too "vintage" for me. I replaced them with Schaller JBX humbuckers that were great but a little too "thick" sounding.
I play in a punk / new wave covers band (guitar, bass, drums plus singer), so need to cover a lot of ground.

Output is great, string-to-string balance is spot on, and the sound is absolutely amazing - EXACTLY like I wanted it, not nearly, EXACTLY. The fundamental is strong and tight, with loads of harmonics and overtones.
The level of detail in the note is extraordinary - that Jazz Bass "piano" sound is a concert Steinway of a sound. I play Nickel roundwounds, and prefer them played in, with a fairly high action, but the lack of finger and fret noise is impressive. The level of 60 cycle hum is amazingly low - on a par with the Schaller humbuckers, but the guitar is VERY well shielded.
The sound is a PERFECT match for the guitar and the type of music I play. I use my tone control and pickup pan pot a lot during a set to cover the range of music we play, as well as the series switch for a fatter P Bass tone on a couple of numbers. On every setting, the sound is pure class.

I LOVE these pickups, I've been playing almost thirty years and I am a professional guitar repair technician. Therefore I spend a lot of my time playing, and LISTENING to other peoples guitars - the good the bad and the indifferent. I'm no tone snob, most of my favourite music is scratchy and dirty and raw - Jamaican Dub to Sonic Youth - but I know the difference between the RIGHT sound and the wrong.
These pickups are so right, they are rightgeous!!

Hayden is a great guy to deal with, and for the price, I really don't think these pickups can be beaten. By ANYONE.