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I would be tempted to ignore the bridge/Treble pickup. Maybe, even, remove it from circuit altogether.
Instead, have a piezo Tune-o-Matic bridge and create your own DIY Martin Taylor style Jazz guitar.
The second item to change in search of tonal improvement is the carved wooden bridge. The preset intonation curve is intended for string sets with a wound G. A bridge with metal saddles would yield more treble.
The third item to change is the control harness. In 2000, it was cheap shit. Today, it is old, cheap shit. In your position, I would replace the bloody lot. There is little point upgrading pickups if the pots and selector switch just sap away the signal.
What funkfingers is saying is right, but figure out what is important to you.
The difference is you can learn what you like OR you can learn what everyone else likes... which of those do you think is important?
Should I generally be using a set with a wound G for something like the Joe Pass? (I don’t play Jazz)
I have played Casinos and Epi Century reissues. In a similar ballpark but with a bit more “zing”, if that’s the right word, to them.
I will look into the harness option though. Any recommendations?
If it sounds good acoustically - then look to the pickups and loom. Until then consider
Finding strings you like playing first, then figure on the pickups later. The strings you use have a profound effect on the tone and may determine the sound you want, for me it's a constant battle to reconcile the tone against fighting meaty strings.
I personally use Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Swing Flat-wound 13s on my archtop and D'Addario ECG24s Flatwound 11s on my Telecaster. (I use round-wound on the 335, SG and Strats).
The bridge, is it intonated correctly? You can replace a wooden bridge with an ABRS-1 and intonate that.
The tailpiece - do the strings resonate behind the bridge too much? Is there any mass to the tailpiece to help sustain (if you think it needs it). Tailpieces are a nightmare to replace as there's no one standard layout - the measurements on every spec are measured differently too, if the strings resonate too much I thread some cloth through the strings near the tailpiece.
At this point - you're looking to transfer that tone, to the amplifier.
Replacing the pickups is easy - cut them off close to the pickups so you don't need to remove the loom - this is nothing but misery and grazed knuckles. This will reduce the resale value of the pickups but save time, injury, frustration and a lot of tooling.
Replacing the loom. It will all want to go into the guitar through one of the pickup holes, so make sure the pots you've bought fit, not a problem on many hollow-bodies, my advice is put 3 feet of surgical tubing on each pot after removing the knob, nuts and washer. remember to loosen the jack and switch and then pull it all through carefully leaving the tubing on the pots, wire up the new loom and place the relevant tubing on each pot so they can be pulled back into place... I have an old coat hanger pulled straight with a 6.35mm jack (not the jacket) soldered to it, that goes through the jack hole and the jack is inserted into the jacksocket ... and all the tubes and the coat hanger are slowly pulled through ... don't forget to swear loudly if anything falls off.
Loom construction:
Braided wire looks great and shields well, but it's the earth wire - so if it touches the switch or the live lugs it's goodnight Vienna. In a big empty box any slack can have that happen intermittently - I use transparent heat-shrink on all the loom and the last foot of the pick-up wire.
I use CTS Audio taper on tone controls and CTS Linear on the volume (others prefer Audio for volume)
I avoid paper in oil caps as I like consistently reliable electrical components - I like the thicker wired orange caps.. I often wire them directly between the pots instead of cable. and I create a jig of all the holes to ensure it's in the ball-park, but bend extra loops into both ends so the length can change a little if needed.
Feedback
I definitely found the intonation on the Epi 335 I had way more comfortable, but it's a different guitar so as to be expected...
I will persevere!
I swapped the pickups out for a s/h set of Seymour Duncan 59s and it was soooooo much better. Its since changed hands to an old friend who changed out the 59s for a set of Seth Lovers and he makes it sound incredible.