When no less than Danny Gatton pronounces your pickups "the best on the planet", I can see where that would encourage you to think you were doing something right. The great Telecaster-master knows his way around an electrified guitar, so the aforementioned pickups from Joe Barden Engineering bear some scrutiny. These days the Barden product line has expanded out to bass pickups delivering "the Joe Barden tone" to 4- and 5-string J-Basses. From Barden:

J-Style Bass pickups offer the same great Joe Barden tone, power, and response for the bass guitar as our ground breaking double-blade guitar pickups have done for 6 string guitars for the last 25 years.

Our J-Style pickups were designed to maintain authentic J-BassTM tone and character but with extended frequency response and articulation that characterizes all Joe Barden pickups. And, like all other Joe Barden pickups, the J-Style pickups exhibit quiet performance for live performance or recording.

Now, bass players are free to tailor their sound more precisely than was possible with stock pickups, and can select one or both pickups without fear of noise or hum often induced by traditional single coil bass pickups.

Neck and bridge position pickups differ in size to fit into the cavities of traditional J-Bass and similarly styled guitars without modification to the instrument.

J-Style pickups are available for both 4 and 5 string J-Bass styled bass guitars.

Wiring diagrams download and mounting hardware are included to facilitate installation.

J-Style Bass Pickups: $169.95 Each, $294.95 Set Please see our dealer listing...for a local Joe Barden dealer. Or call (703) 530-TONE for a local dealer near you.