question on string alignment vs polepiece

[Faultline]

i just recently rewired and installed some seymour duncan quarter pound p/u's in my squire P-bass.
when i went to reassemble my bass, i noticed somehow my neck developed an S bow. i adjusted the truss rod to it's limit, and it made no difference. i released all tension on the truss rod and removed the neck, clamped it to a straight edge for a while, still no difference. in an extremely stupid lapse of judgement i put the neck on my thigh, pressed down on either end of the neck, trying to flex it straight and snapped the headstock off.
i ordered an sx neck, it is slightly smaller than my squire neck at the body joint.

i installed the new neck, did a dry fit with the supplied nut to check string alignment with the fingerboard and the p/u pole pieces.

i have a badass II bridge that was installed on the bass when i got it and i think it is not square with the body.

the long of the short of it is, my A string lies more toward the center of the polepiece on the p/u vs. in between the 2 polepieces.

will this effect my tone negatively, or is it a minor thing?

[randbguy]

To my knowledge and ear, I have not heard a difference if the pole pieces stride each string symetrically. It bugs me but I have a Precision like that. It's the A on mine too. My bass has killer tone by the way, I'm very happy with it. Just forgetting about it and lettin it talk, and it's speaking a lovely streak. Enjoy yours too!

[zagnut]

Know what, I just got done rebuilding my bass (same p'ups BTW) and had a similar problem with my D and G strings -



Mine is a Washburn. Immediately after taking this pic, I moved the p'up over to align properly. However, I had to take my Dremel tool to my pick guard in order for it to fit properly. Which is no big deal since any pick guard I've ever put on doesn't line up properly, so I'm used to doing this.

As for having an effect on the sound, some will most assuredly say it has an effect. Personally, I didn't notice much difference, if any. But knowing it wasn't lined up properly would have driven me nuts.

[Relic]

In my experience, it doesn't really matter. Even if there was a difference in tone/volume, and I'm not sure that there is, it's so slight as to be nearly indistinguishable.
Single pole pieced pickups might be different but these Fender types...nah.

[walterw]

oh, there's definitely a difference.

the whole idea of the double magnets flanking each string was in response to the original single-coil p-bass having an issue where the transient spike of the notes would tear up those fragile early amp speakers.

having the magnets to the sides allowed for plenty of output without the initial spike.

a properly lined-up P or J bass will have a more even string-to-string output and a smoother attack.