Is there a noiseless J pickup that sounds like a Rickenbacker?

[Alanko]

So.... a long shot!

I have a Rickenbacker-shaped thing on order. It has a Jazz pickup in the neck position, and enough space for another jazz pickup in the traditional Rickenbacker bridge position. I plan to use two Jazz pickups as they are a standard design.

I realise I'm trying to make something sound like something else, and nothing sounds like a Rick (etc etc, ad nauseum), but IF you had to chose a noiseless Jazz bass pickup for a Rick-type tone, what would you use?

I've been recommended Dimarzio Ultra J pickups in other places.

[Dave W]

Sorry, I don't. What's in there now?

The Dimarzio Ultra Jazz is a nice pickup but it doesn't sound Rickish to me.

[amptech]

I used a seymor duncan stacked jazz pickup in bridge position many years ago. It was noiseless, and could produce some trebly tones but I don´t recall any clank But the log it was in was not made of maple either, so who knows...

[Alanko]

I think Dave Meros of Spock's Beard uses stacked SD pickups on his various creations. I've read that the stacks can lose some top-end from the non-speaking coil? I'm sorely tempted to go with Dimarzio Model J pickups simply because I know them already and they could be wired in parallel if necessary.

[Dave W]

What's in there now? If it has the same dimensions as a Ric hi-gain, you can use a Ric humbucker. Dead quiet and you keep most of the Ric tone.

[Pekka]

I know it isn't noiseless but a SCPB does sound more like a Ric than a Jazz PU does. You could have a pair made RWRP. Sorry for posting this again but here's a clip of my Telecaster that has some Ric in its sound even 'though the pickups are not in the Ric positions. The riffs in the following clip may contribute to the Ric-y-ness but some of them were played on a T-Bird, Electra and Telecaster (w/ a bridge PU) originally so...:




E: Correct me if I'm wrong but I recall that there are also noiseless versions of the single coil Precision pickup?

[Alanko]

What's in there now? If it has the same dimensions as a Ric hi-gain, you can use a Ric humbucker. Dead quiet and you keep most of the Ric tone.

The bass is a 'Tuscany Bird', which is a Rickenbacker copy, loosely. I've uploaded pictures of it to the 'Rickenfakers' Facebook page if anybody is a member over there.

The neck pickup is a single coil Jazz-bass profiled thing, going down the Delano route with four chunky pole-pieces. The bridge pickup is a MM-style humbucker, wired in series. The two pickups are hilariously unbalanced, and don't blend very well. The bass sounds pretty good unplugged, but the pickups are a bit blah. I know a guy selling Toaster clones configured as humbuckers with four wires. I might go down that route.

[Dave W]

I just looked at images of the bass, no wonder you weren't looking for Ric-sized pickups.

[Alanko]

Yeah it is a totally different animal. I plan to go down the Dan Armstrong route and building a few different pickups into empty MM humbucker shells. That way I could swap out a split-coil, single coil or full humbucker in the bridge position.