Distance of pickups from strings - a problem.

[nipperooney]

I've have a warwick corvette standard and I noticed that, while playing it acoustically, there was a rattle. I discovered that the screws on the pick-ups were really loose. I tightened them up and now the pickups seem miles away from the strings (well, alomost a cntimetre anyway). I've been reading various things on setting up a bass including this http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass...l/action4.html and I can't seem to get them any closer to the strings with the screws being too loose.

Is this OK, or do I need longer screws, some kind of padding behind the pickup or doesn't it matter?

[nipperooney]

Judging by the amount of 'springiness' in the pickup, I would think there are springs and/or padding behind them.

[[SD]]

i've got a warwick corvette std. Even thouhg i changed the original pick ups which had spring underneath them i can say that by design of the bass the pick ups tend to be quite far away from the strings. I have mines almost all the way out so i can get them as close as i can and still they are pretty far away. I have to say also that my bass is not setup for low action since i like to pluck hard on strings which actually compensates the pick up distance but still sometimes i wish they were a little closer to get some softer details amplified like when you play a bass with low action and really close pickups.