Description
The 57J1L/S pair belongs to Bartolini’s Classic Bass (CB) Series — a passive design engineered to sound bigger and clearer than a typical vintage J-style pickup without straying from the format’s fundamental character. Where old-school single coils can get muddy or thin once you push into 5-string territory, these open things up with an extended frequency range that pulls out more top-end air and note definition, all while keeping the low end and low-mids solid underneath.
Each pickup is fully potted in epoxy, which kills microphonic squeal and unwanted feedback — a real consideration once you’re running higher-gain rigs or standing near stage monitors. The 57J1-L is specifically voiced as a drop-in replacement for the Fender American Vintage 5-string Jazz Bass, so routing and mounting line up with what’s already in the bass.
What sets these apart on a 5-string, though, is the CNC-machined blade construction. Instead of fixed polepieces that can leave your low B or high C sitting slightly off-magnet, the blades span a wide range of string spacing, tracking evenly across medium-radius fingerboards. The result is consistent output and balanced string-to-string response across the entire width of the neck, not just in the sweet spot four-string pickups were designed around.
If you’re chasing that familiar Jazz Bass snap and growl but want it translated properly to five strings — with cleaner highs, tighter lows, and even coverage across the board — this pair is built for exactly that job.
- Bartolini Classic Bass (CB) Series, passive single coils
- Sold as a matched neck/bridge pair for 5-string J-bass
- 57J1-L: replacement for Fender American Vintage 5-string Jazz Bass
- Epoxy-cast construction to reduce microphonics and feedback
- CNC-machined blades for wide string coverage on medium-curvature fingerboards
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