Best Pickups For Bass Guitar (2024 Update)

top quality built. totally silent pickups. perfect. my fender p-bass has an american heavy ash body and maple neck. it produce a punchy highs. i was looking for pickup set that will suppress and cut some of the too-trebley sound. i installed Dimarzio P122. these are excellent pickups, but are not the flavor i wanted. too much highs and too modern in eq and sound color to my taste. since all reviews always point to the Fender Custom Shop pickups as the best upgrade for Precision, i've decided to choose the '63 pickups over the '62. they have a different eq curve. my bet was successful. the p-bass's sounds is now deeper, sweeter, pleasant growl and has a real vintage warmth that i wished to achieve.doron.mckeithen

I love these pickups! They are a great design that date more than 60 years and sound delightful. Unfortunately, with my most recent purchase of these pickups from Guitar Center one of the coils to the pair of pickups was dead. I suspect during the manufacturing process the dead coil itself was tested for continuity at the factory, but, I suspect, in process of wiring my pair of Precision pickups together the integrity of one of the coils was compromised and broken. This can happen and pickup coils lead should always be retested after the solider leads have been attached. I made the same mistake as the factory and did not check the integrity of the pickups prior to installation. Therefore I voided any return I could have made on this item. I had to buy another set which is now working great.David

I bought a Fender Ash body FSR Precision Bass (the sister to the Ash Bodied Standard Jazz Bass everyone is crazy about.) a few years ago at the Manchaester Ct. GC. the Pup's where not to be desired. so I changed them out with the Original They put these in the American Vintage series and there high end Pricision's so these pup's have to be good. and they are. I get compliments on my Bass I also put in a professionaly made Push Back Wired harness with CTS 250k Pots and spraug Orange drop. She littealy is a '62 now. and im in love with the tonal spectrum of this incredible Bass simply by changing to the Fender Original. looking to pure Precision tone cant go wrong with this set.viperBSG

I put these in an American professional jazz to be able to blend without noise. I chose them because I wanted it to remain a completely Fender bass. They aren't absolutely horrible sounding, but I have decided the only way these companies should make noiseless "single coils" is by using side by side split coils. Not stacked dual coils. Splitting the coils gives good output, attitude, and a low mid bump- you know the kind that makes people love P basses. Everybody is figuring this out except Fender- the greatest guitar maker in the world. Aguilar, Dimarzio, Nordstrand, Seymour Duncan (recently), mojotone (guitar pickups), Fralin. They've all figured out the noiseless thing. I ended up with Nordstrand NJ4SE in one and Dimarzio model J in the other. Love both of my jazz basses now. I love you Fender, but get in the game with your pickups!Andrew

I don't know if this is the LATEST version of the noiseless jazz bass pickups…it is so hard to keep up with Fender as they roll out newer versions, however, this is a great replacement to older jazz bass pickups. It really as close to noise free as you can get as you solo each pickup individually. As most jazz bass players know, the single coil aspect of the jazz bass pickup is GOING to get some hum or noise unless you are playing both the neck and bridge pickups at the same time to cancel out noise. This retains the signature Fender Jazz Bass sound with great clarity with the advantage of being noise free. Highly recommended!!road-cat1

These are a special wind from Tim Shaw, the ultimate pickup guy at Fender. They are capable of perfect vintage deep bass while throwing out strong mids and super crisp, bright highs. Not super hot so you still have to work if you want overdrive distortion, which is a good thing. These have become my favorites for all my Fender builds–basses, teles, and strats.bobvarns

I swapped some Bass Bars in place of the stock EMG 40 sized soapbars in my LTD-B5E, and it made a world of difference to the touch, dynamic response, and overall fullness of the instrument. I researched the best low cost replacements for months and settled on Alumitones. They certainly aren't low cost in tone and materials, since they use only a large magnet without a half-pound of copper windings. They are very attractive, and the finish was 7/10. Not sure about the chrome version, but would say they could be de-burred a tiny bit better but is only a microscopic flaw. The overall impression they gave me was a very natural, but present sound, that is balanced like a great hi-fi system. Every frequency range is presented well, and were actually quite a bit more bright in comparison to the pickups they replaced, but are just as full in the low end (seriously). When playing fingerstyle, they are smooth and fat, yet edgy on the top since so much more is represented. When slapped, they are ballsy as hell. They have a bit of everything you want to hear from your playing through an amp and DI. Another good upgrade to make if tone is an issue, would be to also replace pots, wiring, and preamp. I can tell the sound will compliment, or potentially reveal weak areas in the circuitry. The Alumitones mated well without any issues to the passive pup/active preamp circuit in my bass. Overall I'm very happy with my purchase, and would recommend Lace to anyone.calucal1f7ossu

I bought two of these. One of them doesn't work. These pickups have 4 holes to mount, but they only come with two screws (yes, both pickups only came with two screws). The wiring of these pickups is unique, but they don't come with a wiring diagram. An Email to Lace MIGHT get you a response… but don't count on anything quick.Septemfluous

I have a Spectorcore 5 string bass which is a semi hollow bass with a active Piezo bridge pickup, which is awesome, and a passive EMG bar pickup. I was never happy with the EMG, not enough highs, it wasn't as load as the Piezo and not enough growl for me. Maybe if it is used active or on a solid body it would be better, anyway when I came across this pickup and read what it does, especially acting like an active pickup I thought I'd give it a try. I put it in and it blew me away. It is louder, brighter and it growls. I love this pickup it's like I just got a whole new bass, thanks Lace.HerbalT

This pick up really opens the door for bass players to add sonic layers to their sound. Great quality, easy installation and great soundCarlos Z

I installed this unit on a five string bass and use the GI20 MIDI convertor. Both are working great. I find the tracking and accuracy rate very good overall. I found the installation straight forward. The pickup comes with all the adapters necessary for most bass configurations. I will note that I had an initial tracking problem that was due to my rush to try the darn thing out. On the neck side of the pickup are two screws that allow you to adjust for varied string spacing. Make sure you take the time to align these. It greatly increases the accuracy of tracking. PS. Thank you Roland Support! they had me squared away in less than ten minutes.Mickey D.

The pickups were super easy to install and almost hassle free! Almost all connections are solderless which makes installing them a breeze. These pickups sound amazing compared to the stock Peavey Millenium Pickups. Only slight sanding on the screw point was needed in order for the neck pickup to drop into place.Trisphere

Bought this as the finishing touch to my Telecaster project. I was given the original guitar which had been left out in torrential rain in someone's garden years ago. Having refinished the body, replaced the neck and upgraded the hardware I decided to increase the tonal range by replacing the neck pick up with a Humbucker pickup. This involved some careful surgery to accommodate the new, bigger unit and a replacement, purpose made scratchplate ( customising the original didn't go well!) The new pickup is a genuine Fender part, substantial and well made. It's done exactly what I was hoping to achieve and I now have my perfect electric guitar with a fat, dirty sound option as well as a clean traditional Tele sound.jo_611328

The pickups were super easy to install and almost hassle free! Almost all connections are solderless which makes installing them a breeze. These pickups sound amazing compared to the stock Peavey Millenium Pickups. Only slight sanding on the screw point was needed in order for the neck pickup to drop into place.Trisphere

I bought the pickups a couple of days ago and immediately tried setting them up for my jazz bass and i was having a little bit of difficulty. one of the soderless wires didnt quite fit in the pickup but eventually i made it work. Also there was not enough room under the control plate so i had to route out the back of the body and use an old pickguard and the back of a wah pedal to fashion a battery clip. After the battery was in place i realized that i had the wrong type of output jack. I had a mono and needed a stereo jack. i drove down to radioshack and picked one up and plugged the guitar in. I immediatly heard a difference. i can get anywhere from ajaco pastorius sound to a growling sound easily just by tweaking the knobs on the bass. Im really happy with their performance so far and cant wait to test them at a gig.reedorius123

These emgs are overall a very good buy. You won't hear a completely different tone coming from your amp if you have jbass stock pickups, but they are definitely a whole different level of pickup. Fairly easy to install. The only trouble I had was fitting the battery in, but I made it work. Slapping is crisp and nice and fingerstyle and pick playing are nice and smooth. Highly recommended to anyone who has stock pickups and would like an upgrade.Jbassist

I went through a few boutique pickup makers for my custom built guitar and was having trouble finding a bridge pickup sound that wasnt super thin/twangy. Fortunately a friend recommended these dragon II and Im a happy boy! I immediately ordered the neck pickup version!blkmax03

This pickup was the perfect way to amplify my 50's Kay Upright. Big results for low buck and tons of volume without preamp.bornin49

Nice build, but not hum cancelling. Disappointing. These pickups have nice tone, and have good build quality, but they are marketed as a set for Jazz bass which should be Reverse Wound/Reverse Polarity (RWRP) so that they are hum cancelling when both pickups are engaged which these pickups are not. Very disappointing as this makes them basically unusable in an electrically noisy environment (even in a well shielded and properly grounded bass) where normal jazz pickups are totally fine.eberbachl

I'm experienced with building guitars and designing electronics and both pickups were dead when I wired it them up. They also hummed like crazy. I got the neck pickup to give great output but I had to add a jumper wire that was missing in the back. The bridge pickup only ever worked at half volume and I tried every possible wiring on the output with different jumpers and eventually the pickup wires that run out to the coils gave way from being reworked so many times. Way more work than they are worth.Clark

I wanted to like these pickups, but unfortunately they are too tall. The American Ultra guitars must have a deeper route to accommodate these or something. My vintage style MIM Fender body (purchased brand new as a replacement body from Fender/MF for a Partscaster) did not have enough depth in the pickup cavities to fit these. Fits standard single coils with tons of room to spare, so it's not a shallow route. These would go in if you bottom them all the way out, but then they're just barely under the strings, buzzing on the pole pieces, no room for adjustment. From what I heard, they do sound ok, but obviously need an adjustment, which I can't make. The noiseless aspect was good. They are pretty low output. Even with them near touching the strings they were significantly lower output than the Fender Tex Mex set I was trying to replace. I made recordings of before and after to compare, and they weren't any better than the Tex Mex – actually preferred the Tex Mex for tone and output. The Ultra Vintage had slightly less mids, less output, and no hum. that's about it. If you can fit them, I'm sure they'd be great, though I would opt for the Ultra Hot Noiseless instead for the increased output. For reference, from bottom of the PCB to top of the tallest pole piece they are roughly 0.984" tall or roughly 25mm. Also only available in aged white, so no color options either. Side note – the listing says they come with pots, switch, etc. They do not. This is just the pickups and mounting screws/rubber "springs" – that's it. The screws are different from typical single coils too, using threaded inserts instead of plastic screws directly into the bobbin. Keep that in mind.c00lkatz

I was a bit underwhelmed with the N3 noiseless set that came fitted to a 2013 Deluxe Strat I bought used. I noted the Gen4s had a higher output, but some forum comments suggested they weren't a worthwhile upgrade. They were wrong! More noticeable than the higher output is the improved tone the Gen4's provide. Far more 'stratty' than N3s, more touch sensitive, alive, present, and less compressed (most noticeable with the neck pick-up). Positions 2 and 4 give an authentic chimey sound. And, as a bonus,with the S1 switch activated there is less of an increase in volume than there was with the N3s. I now have 10 very usable tones! Brilliant purchase!greengoatster

These are great pickups, and a fairly easy conversion once you sort through the 3 or 4 different instruction manuals that come with it. I did end up having to drill a new hole for the plug, and extend the battery cable. All in all great kit and better price for what was includedcoolsample13