I recently read somewhere that the secret to the greatness of the Jazz Bass is in the proper pickup heights, and their relationship to each other. Getting that perfect neck/bridge height correct is crucial to the Jazz Bass sounding the way it should.

Great, I think, now my Jazz Bass is out of whack, and I'm not even aware of it. :hmm:

I usually just set up my Jazz to Fender's specs. Am I missing something? It sounds good to me, but maybe it can be better.

How do you set your Jazz Bass pickup heights? By ear? By manufacturer specs?

By ear ... I favor the bridge by keeping it a little higher but I also keep the pickups fairly low into the body - I seem to get better string to string balance and maybe a little rounder, sweeter tone doing that. Having the pickups up near the strings seems to be more harsh sounding to me.

Plus if you raise them too close the magnets will start to affect the strings.
Definitely by ear so the strings balance.
Good luck. :D

I know what you mean by that.I'm constantly fiddling with my pickup height.I just adjusted them for the 100th time at least.I'm thinking it sounds better but I'm sure I'll change it again.

http://www.fender.com/support/basses.php