Product: Nordstrand NJ5F
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
11/08/2007
at
04:37pm
by
Peter Bausch
Features
:
Bridge Replacement Pickup for Fender Jazz Bass 5 stringers. True single coil, passive, no hum reduction, vintage sounding.
Instrument
:
A year ago i replaced my dead Fender noiseless single coil neck pickup on my Fender Deluxe Mex 5 string bass by a Nordstrand NP5 split coil pickup. Please see my review.
With the new Nordstrand pickup, the loudness between the still working Fender noiseless bridge single coil, and the Nordstrand NP5 split coil, was very uneven. The split coil PU is much louder. The sound of the Fender PU was not bad, but i thought it could also be better. So i swapped it with a Nordstrand NJ5F. With this pickup i wanted to come as close to a vintage Jazz Bass sound as possible for a 5 string bass.
Sound
:
9
Fits perfect to the Nordstrand NP5 split coil pickup in the neck position.
This bridge pickup is a real single coil and so i was a bit astonished about the ambient noise (50/60 cycle hum) with it. Until now i only played basses with humbuckers, split-coils, hum-canceling single-coils, or deadly quiet active-pickuped basses like Steinbergers. Never had used such a "pure" single coil. So the first thing i had to do, after the first rehearsal, was shielding the bridge pickup. Now there is still a bit noise with it, but it depends on the direction to electric equipment and you can't shield the front side, of course. So this is fine now.
Comparing the both bridge pickups (Fender - Nordstrand), the tonal quality is much better than the original Fender "Noiseless" bridge pickup. It has more across the board. A fuller, deeper tone, slightly more mids, more growl, and still you can get this fine nasal sounding of a typical fretless sound. Depends on eq-ing, of course. To make a long story short: more substance.
Overall Rating
:
9
The NJ5F is a real single coil and so you should use a perfect shielded instrument. If you use it, please check the shielding and pay attention that everything is orderly grounded, especially the copper foil in the cavities.
I use the Nordstrand pickups in my Fender now for a year and i am still impressed with the sound. Both Nordstrand are very good pickups and i'm happy with it.
