Jazz Bass Guitar Pickups Alnico V

(21 customer reviews)

£28.95£50.95

 

Jazz Bass Pickups Summary:

“It took only one song for us to be grinning like fools and singing the praises of your awesome pickups!”
 
 
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The Ironstone Jazz Bass pickups are Ironstone’s first Bass pickup design. They feature classic 7.3K bridge and 7.1K Ohm neck resistances for rich, but crisp vintage tones. The classic construction also includes:
  • Alnico V vintage tone magnets
  • Fibre flat work bobbins
  • Waxed cloth connecting cable

The Jazz Bass pickups are available as individual bridge, or neck, as well as a set. The set only, is also available in a rugged foam-lined presentation case (see photos). A comprehensive mounting kit accompanies all purchases.

 
 
 

Please note: The prices above and below are the UK total price including standard Royal Mail postage. Non UK customers will be advised of an additional small postal charge during the checkout process (see Shop page for current charges).

EU customers; regretfully, following the EU import VAT regulation changes of July 2021, we are unable to support direct website sales to EU countries (EU countries will not be accepted at the checkout stage). 

Description

Jazz Bass Guitar Pickups Alnico V

These Jazz Bass guitar pickups, like the Ironstone Stratocaster & Telecaster range, are based on Alnico V magnet Pole Pieces for warm vintage tone. They feature resistances of 7.3K (bridge) and 7.1K Ohm for a balance of full authoritative bass, but with crispness in the tone to stand out in the mix. Their classic construction includes traditional fibre flat work bobbins and flat pattern Alnico pole pieces, spaced at  63mm (neck) and 65mm (bridge). To complete the vintage appeal, a generous length of waxed cloth (‘push-back’) connection cable is fitted.

The pickups are configured as RWRP configuration, i.e. noise cancelling when selected / blended together. The Bridge pickup magnet polarity is ‘North Up’ i.e. attracts a compass South needle end. The Neck pickup magnet polarity is ‘South Up’ i.e. attracts a compass North needle end.
They are wax potted to reduce microphonics.
 
 
Standardly supplied with a fully comprehensive mounting kit of screws, springs, 2 lengths of self adhesive foam to attach under the pickups to support the mounting and a length of latex tubing. Simply cut this tubing into appropriate lengths for your instrument (approx 1cm), and use an alternative to the conventional springs, providing a firm yet adjustable mount.
Please note some Jazz Bass pickups come in differing physical sizes. These are 95mm (Bridge) and 91mm (Neck) long.
 
The wiring colour code is;
Bridge pickup:    Yellow = signal , black = ground
Neck pickup:       White = signal , black = ground
 
 
Jazz Bass related links:
For all things Bass check out Basschat, the UK Bass Guitar players forum.
And check out Fender’s own Jazz bass Forum
 

21 reviews for Jazz Bass Guitar Pickups Alnico V

  1. Neil Sutherland (verified owner)

    I fitted the Ironstone pickups to my Japanese Tokai. The Tokai is a good sounding bass anyway, but after fitting the Ironstone pickups,there is a huge improvement in the sound, which quite surprised me.

    The pickups are extremely well made, with high quality wiring, fittings, etc, and good instructions.

    With regard to the sound, they are really clear, with a rich, full roundness, and no harshness to the tone, and are nicely responsive.

    An excellent upgrade to my bass, and great value.

    Highly recommended!

    • Anthony

      Tokai’s are great instruments, but like so many, come with fairly indifferent pickups as stock. So a decent Alnico V pickup set will indeed make more of a change than folk may imagine. Enjoy!

  2. Jes Woodland (verified owner)

    I’ve just finished fitting a set of Ironstone Alnico V Jazz Bass pick ups to my 2002 MIM Fender Jazz. There wasn’t much wrong with the stock pick ups but the ‘G’ always sounded weak. My immediate observation is that the sound is now even across all strings, the neck pick up is much ‘punchier’ and the bridge is ‘brighter’!
    We are playing at a local festival this weekend and I can’t wait to hear how they sound at ‘full tilt’!
    I’m so glad I took the plunge and would 100% recommend these pick ups for any Jazz Bass!

    • Anthony Partridge

      Hi Jes, So pleased you are enjoying the new JB pups. Bright and punchy sounds like a good characterisation. Hope the gig is going / has gone well. Let me know. Cheers, Tony

  3. WillC (verified owner)

    I bought the Jazz set to try in my 2012 American Standard Jazz which came with custom shop 60’s as standard. My new Ironstone pickups took little more than 15 mins to fit and I was impressed by the build quality and attention to detail of the units. The enclosed fitting accessories were very much appreciated. Soundwise the new pickups have a clarity of tone that really impressed me. I usually use the neck pickup on full and vary the bridge volume for different tones. The interaction between the two pickups is remarkable and there is a much broader range of tonal variation than I had before. There is also a decent output and a good clean thumping bass tone with flats sounds fantastic. I can’t fault the tones available and in particular the sonic clarity of the pickup set. They are also very much quieter than the CS60’s ever were! Astonishing value for money, well done Ironstone.

  4. Fredrik Sandberg

    Jätte nöjd med dessa mickar. Perfekt balans mellan strängarnas volym, enormt klart ljud, även med avrullad tonkontroll. Min favorit ljud är 100% stallmick, 80% halsmick, full tonkontroll. Knorrar fint och lagom tjockt. Kan garantera att mer prisvärda mickar inte går att få. Tack Tony! Mvh Fredrik Sandberg från Sverige.

    • Anthony Partridge

      Fredrik from Sweden writes (according to Google translate!); Very happy with these pickups. Perfect balance between the strings’ volume, enormously clear sound, even with unrolled tone control. My favourite sound is 100% bridge pickup, 80% neck pickup, full tone control. Grunts nicely and thick enough. Can guarantee that more affordable pickups are not available. Thanks Tony! Regards Fredrik Sandberg from Sweden.

  5. Tomas (verified owner)

    Hi Again,

    Got ANOTHER set – this time for my fretless bass! Great job.
    Here its sample – NO EQ, No Compression, Just some reverb…
    https://soundcloud.com/zvirus/take-five-fretless-bass-ironstone-pickups

    • Anthony Partridge

      Beautiful little sample Tomas. Classic bass riff sounding wonderful on the your fretless.

  6. Tomas

    Same tonality as Fender American Pickups 003-3753-000 BUT… A LOT, LOT quieter!!! Fenders being sold now…

    Personally I` d suggest installing “normal” cables instead of (placebo) cloth covered and spend more on pickups covers 😉
    Cables WONT give you better sound – better quality covers look… better(?)

    • Anthony Partridge

      Comments much appreciated, and good to see such a positive comparison to the significantly more expensive Fenders. Cables (and covers!) are very much in the eye of the beholder / customer in my experience, but I understand your points of course.

  7. Stephen Hookings (verified owner)

    The stock pickups in my SX JB75 sound great but go microphonic when used with multiFX (problem doesn’t occur with earphones).

    I installed set of Ironstones – see https://youtu.be/E9cF_TWZEp0 for installation and basic testing.

    On their own they have amazing punch. Thru the effects pedal one can dial in even more amazing tones. Around 20 mins in I put the bass Infront of speaker – virtually noiseless. Thru pedal it’s only when I turn the tone right up I get the infinite sustain thing going on. Really impressed with these pickups – cannot praise them enough.

    Great pickups even at twice the price.
    I hope Covid finishes soon so I can play them live. I think the audience will love the booming bass and punch.

    • Anthony Partridge

      All of the Ironstone pickups range is wax potted to reduce microphonics, one of the curses of single coil designs. But its also possible to ‘over’pot pickups which leaves them sounding rather dead and ‘breathless’. I like to think the Ironstones have it just right!

  8. Eamon.G (verified owner)

    Amazing! I upgraded an old Mexican Jazz Bass with these as only one pickup was working. I chose these as they are pretty much the same specification as the Fender CS60 Jazz Bass pickups, but 65% cheaper. After doing some comparisons and spectrum analysis through my DAW, and properly setting the pickup height, I can confidently say that the Ironstone pickups are equal, if not better than the CS60s. They’re well rounded, punchy and simply have that classic Jazz Bass sound. Highly recommend these for any Jazz Bass upgrade, amazing value, quality, build, and assembly, they should really cost a lot more. Customer service is also great, Tony is really helpful, and honest about what his pickups can achieve.

    • Anthony Partridge

      What more can I add Eamon! Thanks for the detailed comparison, which will hopefully help others with their choices too.

  9. Lex Lawson (verified owner)

    Alex Lawson

    I’ve just installed the new JB pick ups on my Fender ’77, didn’t really know what to expect. WooW, the sound is AMAZING!!
    I’m really surprised by the variety of sound, punchy and vintage. I would recomend it to all. Try and you will be very pleased.
    for this price it’s unbelieveable. Thanks a lot.

    • Anthony Partridge

      Ironstone’s aim has always been maximum vintage tone at a great price. Enjoy!

  10. Jens Simonsen

    I bought a used pair, jazz bass. I didn´t really need them, but I have kind of a pickup fetich, so I bought them. I have 9 Jazz Basses, so I have tried a lot of pickups, all the expensive brands too, Fralin, Nordstrand etc…
    These are excellent pickups. I put them on a Fender Roadworn, and they will stay there..
    It sounds just right, and on level with all the expensive brands. I highly recommend them !

    • Anthony Partridge

      Thanks for the compliments Jens. Always good to hear from customers pitting Ironstone against the bigger names with such great results.

  11. Stephen Hookings (verified owner)

    I have had a Vintage Modified Squier Jaguar Short Scale Bass for a few years now – it was my first bass. The P pickup is killer but the Jazz pickup is notoriously weak plus picks up hearing loop in church where I play.

    The ironstone pickup cures this – amazing tone but you will need modify bass to fit it. New Jazz pickup is much closer to P bass output.

    Jazz pickup and has got me back in love with this great bass.

    MOTE DETAILS

    Recently I wanted that J bass tone again. So I decided to try an Ironstone J bass pickup. I got the bridge/neck plus noise cancelling set just incase the fit in Jaguar would be an issue (I would have gone to guitar shop and bought the cheapest jazz.bass that fitted them).

    I made a small template of new neck pickup and carefully extended the existing arches in Jaguar using a Dremel type tool – that worked out quite well – not too shabby.

    The first thing to notice is the pole pieces are different spacing to original Jaguar Jazz pickup. Actually they seem to be MUCH better aligned with the strings than the original.

    The tone of this new pickup is amazing. Well worth butchering a Squier for – I mean the bass is cheap.
    Put a new set of strings on, followed Dave’s World of Fun Stuff to setup Jaguar (originally I adjusted pickups too high because I forgot one has to fret the last fret when measuring pickup height).

    Really great tone coming out of the J Bass now. And having a lot of fun playing the short scale again.

    Thanks for manufacturing these awesome pickups. I think I will be looking for a cheap 2nd hand full scale Jazz bass so I can get another neck pickup and install rest of the set there.

    • Anthony Partridge

      Many thanks for so much detail Stephen. Hopefully it will encourage / inspire others to have a tinker!

  12. mrchilli (verified owner)

    I love my American Special Jazz, but I thought the sound could maybe be improved with new pickups. I felt the bass just lacked a bit of ‘bite, growl and clarity’ (I’d used an active bass before, so perhaps I was expecting too much from the ASJ). Read a few online reviews, and landed here. Due to the price of the pickups, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect…I decided to try them anyway. Sent a few emails back and forth to Tony for advice, then ordered a set. Damn!! These pickups have BROUGHT THE BASS TO LIFE!! I was truly amazed. They haven’t really ‘changed’ the sound of the instrument, just brought out EVERYTHING that wast there already…just ‘hidden’ (if that makes sense?). Consistent across the strings, highs and lows are spot-on. They can be really subtle, but have some REAL attitude when pushed!

    I cannot recommend these pickups enough, and Tony is a GREAT guy to deal with!!

    100% Happy!!

    • Anthony Partridge

      Thanks of course for the great comments on the pickups. And very pleased to hear the customer service side is appreciated as well…very much part of the Ironstone ethos! Cheers, Tony

  13. Barry Skeates (verified owner)

    i purchased the Jazz pickups some time ago and fitted them to a Self build Jazz bass, great sound, punchy and vintage.
    I recently purchased a Squier Modified 70s Bass as my main bass and wondered what would the Ironstone pickups sound like, Wow what a difference from the standard pickups, real vintage and more punchy when compared like for like.
    I then upgraded the Pots to Varitone and CTS Volumes and again great boost in the tone.
    I have since purchased the Dummy Coil from here as well, bt unfortuantly cannot fit the coil inside the control cavity, not enough space under the pots with the Varitone pot installed which is a shame a trying the coild outside of the cavity did make a difference to the background noise the pickups make so would of liked to use it, but no matter, its there if i can find somewhere to fit it.
    I did a quick measurement between the normal pots, the bottom of the cavity and the Dummy coil, and found that the Dummy coil would not of fitted simply because the cavity has been routed out 1mm too shallow to allow the coil to fit under the pots normally which is a shame.

    • Anthony Partridge

      Shame about the routing spacing for the dummy Barry. It does make quite a difference to hum levels. But glad you are so pleased with the JB pups of course.

  14. Mark Shepherd (verified owner)

    I took a bit of a risk with the new pickups because the bass already sounded good. It’s a vintage Fender Jazz with a classic, vintage jazz voice but I thought the old pickups lacked punch and really struggled when the tone was rolled right off. They had also become a bit microphonic. The new Ironstones have delivered everything I had hoped they would, the neck pickup growls hard, the bridge pickup barks and together they are perfect. The sound is now so clear that I now have the luxury of rolling the tone off to get my sound just right. Even a complete tone roll-off delivers something usable. I couldn’t have hoped for better and I can’t imagine any Fender Jazz sounding any better than this. Nothing of the vintage voice has been lost and every element of tone has been improved. I also love the case that they came in, the old pickups live in there now.

    • Anthony Partridge

      Vintage tone is what Ironstone is all about Mark. And glad the case has come in useful too!

  15. Stewart Dunsmore

    I bought the Jazz Pickups a few months ago, but didn’t manage to fit them for a good few weeks. This was due to me still building my project bass. It’s based on a Jazz bass but has a floating one piece maple bridge and a neck set back at 3 degrees. The body is 5 piece with black Limba wings and a Meranti centre block in a Maple sandwich. Apart from the ironstone Pickups, I also used CTS pots and vintage cloth wiring. Without being able to compare the pickups with anything else, and not knowing how the project would turn out,I suppose it was all a bit of an unknown quantity. However having played it for a few weeks, I need not have been concerned. I am more than happy with the pickups and the bass as a whole. The sound to my ears is just lovely with a great smooth vintage tone and fantastic sustain. Several people have complimented me on the sound and agree with my assessment. The pickup choice just seems ideal, and I am more than happy to recommend for both tone and price. I am glad I came across Ironstone…hmm think i feel another project coming on!

    • Anthony Partridge

      Hi Stewart, thanks for the glowing review. As you say, a new set of pickups can feel like a leap of faith. At Ironstone we are always happy to offer as much advice and support as we can to get you to tone you want. Enjoy!

  16. Anthony Partridge

    Ironstone Dummy coil user experience (Steve Flacy);
    “My observation is that I do not hear much volume reduction. What I do hear is a slightly different tone adjustment. Less treble rolls off when I turn down the bridge pickup and less bass rolls off when I turn down the neck pickup. All this is within totally workable ranges and the bonus is that rolling back the bridge pickup produces a more usable sound than before. The only way to describe it is that the B-string thump, for which I used to have to have the bridge pickup fully on to achieve, is still there when I turn the bridge pickup down a bit … but a bit of edge is rolled off the higher notes. I like it. The only other thing I’ve noticed is that when I turn a volume knob all the way down, right near the end there is a volume floor drop. Since I never fully favor one pickup, it is not a problem.

    For your reference, the bass I installed the Ironstone Jazz Bass Dummy Coil is a Squier Vintage Modified Jazz Bass V, made in Indonesia by Cort. To remind you, I had previously replaced the stock pickups in this Squier Jazz to supposedly hum-cancelling pickups, a no-name pickup ordered from China. They reduced the hum somewhat but did not eliminate it. The Jazz Bass Dummy Coil did.

  17. Anthony Partridge

    “Just some feedback to say, I have just finished some shows with your pickups, hands down the competition need to be concerned!! They are brilliant!!  I am using the pickups in a custom 64 Fender jazz bass with a twelve position varitone, which really brings out great tone for all styles of music. Better than anything I have tried over the past thirty years! Look forward to do more business with you.

  18. Anthony Partridge

    “Many thanks for the Jazz Bass pickups you sent to me via eBay. I fitted them last weekend and went for a rehearsal with my guitarist friend ( wedding gig coming up in September), from the very first note we noticed the huge improvement in tone and sustain over the standard factory fitted pickups. I play a Fender 70 s re-issue Jazz Bass made in Mexico, so I assumed that they would have a reasonable pickup quality fitted into them. My amp is an Ashdown MAG300 with two 4×10 cabs. It took only one song for us to be grinning like fools and singing the praises of your awesome pickups! They have a fantastic clarity yet deliver a powerful bottom end, I could hear all the tones that my bass is supposed to produce and they gave a whole new and very professional sounding lease of life to my bass.
    Thank you again for your fabulous pickups, the wedding gig is going to sound epic!”

  19. Dav’

    I chose these pickups for my Fender classic 70 Jazzbass.
    The quality is top. The sound is excellent with a very good vintage tone !!!!
    For the price, the kit is complete with screws and rubber tube and springs.
    Perfect, I highly recommend !!

  20. Marco Riccato (verified owner)

    I decided to try this pickups first of all for their really super competitive price, i have a fretless jazz bass with humbuckers , and i was searching search a true vintage style alnico V single coil.These pickups are great, a really vintage sound jazz bass with a very nice dynamics to the fingers touch, they sound fantastic with my fretless.
    They are very well made , with lot of attention to the details, they came with all the accessories for mountig and also something more ( plastic covers , neoprene cushion foam , screws and also a rubber tube and also with springs!! ) all into a very nice plastic box, for their cost they are near to be a miracle!!
    I highly recommend this jazz bass Ironstone pickups, they sound very nice, are very well made and have a really outstanding value.

    • Tony Partridge

      Many thanks for the comments Marco. I try to provide a complete kit as you have found!

  21. Roger Borham.

    Bought these pups to uprate an old Squier jazz bass I picked up and the end result is very good indeed..Plenty of punch and good note clarity even with the flat wound strings that I use for blues/country rock.Well constructed and with a comprehensive fitting kit,choice of springs,foam,or rubber tubing and screws these pups are very good value.

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