EMG PJ Active Bass Guitar Pickup Set, Black

I replaced my cheap Ibanez Talman TMB100 stock pickups with these. Wiring was way, way easier than when I've had to solder pickups in the past. Why aren't all bass guitar electronics solderless like these are? I can't think of any reason why you'd want soldered electronics instead of these. There were a few minor hiccups that I had when installing the pickups. First, I had to drill out a hole in the pickguard for the extra knob the bass now has. This was easy, though. Also, I had to widen out some of the pre-existing wiring holes, and I also had to remove a very small amount of wood in the J position to fit that pickup in. I accomplished this with a little bit of drilling and a little bit of x-acto knife work. I have next to no woodworking experience, but this was pretty easy even for me. In total, the installation probably took me a couple of hours AT MOST. You can probably do it a lot quicker if you need to. In terms of performance, the pickups are great. The split P humbucker is thumpy and clear. The J is totally noiseless and sounds equally amazing. Great product. Huge improvement over my stock pickups. My only regret is that cream colored PJ pickups aren't available here on amazon. Oh well! These will work just fine.

Easy to install. They sound fantastic. I have left the bass plugged in overnight 3 times and the battery still works fine. Don't leave it plugged in, I am just saying don't be scared off by the battery component. These pickups sound clear and have a really wide variety of tones.

Easy upgrade for my old rig. Great sound once you get it set up. Make sure to read the manual and have a new battery ready.

The sound out of this world, they are magicians!!

Wow! Until you've tried them, you can't fully appreciate the word WOW. The difference between these and what comes with your bass, nearly ANY bass...the space between galaxies is still not a big enough definition of what you get vs what you have. Homebuilt bass, got it perfect with the exception of the sound I wanted. No matter what pick-ups I put in it, I just couldn't get 'that' sound. Deep and wide lower, with a bit of a tinny fuzzy edge at the top end. Put in, pull out, put in, pull out, adjust this, adjust that, pull out and try again with a different set. Until the EMG's showed up. There is nothing else I need to do. Even partially adjusted, I'm there. What I'd hoped for in this new build, well, EMG delivered it. The installation process is stupid easy, slide on connectors. Even the output jack...spade connectors and you're done. Literally a 20min job. I did have to move the mounting holes a bit on the neck side of things, but that was fully expected. They look perfect, they work so well it's nuts. Value, well sometimes you need to spend the money to get what's right. These, above and beyond.

So the main reason I picked these were the whole solderless easy to install aspect of it. Nope, not on my bass! So this is not the manufactures fault, but that being said do a ton or research on your bass before you pick these if you’re picking these for the easy to install reason. 1: the bridge pickup was slightly too thick to fit into the pickup cavity, thus the wood needed to be routed out some. If you have wood working tools and wood working skills no problem, I have neither. 2: the posts on the pots were too wide for the stock holes that were on the bass, thus more wood working needed. 3: the jack on my bass is a barrel jack and the jack that came with the set was a standard jack, thus I now needed to buy a barrel jack and this also would have to solder said barrel jack, and I have no soldering kit and my soldering skills are cavemanish at best, and the entire reason I picked this set was to not solder at all! So in the end I ended up taking my bass to the luthier to route out the wood and install everything including a barrel jack which was an additional cost. So how do they sound? They are ok. I cannot tell a discernible difference from the stock pickups which is a disappointment. For reference the bass these were installed in is the Ibanez Mikro Bass which brand new shipped cost me $179 these pickups were about $179 and I paid the Luthier $75 for what he did making these pickups a cost to me of $254. At that price I probably would have chosen Lace Alumitones or maybe even had the luthier do major routing and put guitar humbuckers in there instead, and I am actually playing this bass as a 4 string baritone with lighter gauge strings than the standard bass string set. Again there is a chance these pickups will fit perfectly in your bass with no issues and everything will go smooth for you, however for me pretty much everything that could go wrong did. I was able to install the neck pickup and feed the wiring through and that was it. Very disappointed with this project as far as the install went. Like I said had I known this beforehand I would have definitely chosen a different pickup set for sure!

Great Product

Pros: I went from a whimpy, thin bass tone to good solid punch. The pickups fit for the most part, my cheap guitar need a bit of trimming but cant blame that on the p/u's. The directions were fairly clear. Read and don't assume and anyone can do it. Cons: * One cable was missing and I had an addition of a cable that was not mentioned in the parts list or wiring directions. Being a professional electronic tech I was able to overcome that small obstacle by removing the wired pins from the connector and using connectors from an unused cable. A layperson would have had to wait for replacements. Added: additional battery clip for 18 volt operation and a small on/off switch. Next: Brass knobs. LOL. I was debating the active eq but for me this works great.