Removing the j on a P/J bass

[Eilif]

I have heard alot of people removing/turning off/disconecting the j pickup on squire and MIM P/J basses. Is the J pickup that useless? I was curious about this, because I hate the look of a P/J, and was wondering if their is a logical reason to hate it besides my asthetic point of view.

[Slater]

On most "budget" basses (like MIM Fenders & Squiers) with P/J pickups, the P and J pickups aren't matched-up very well. The J pickup is usually much weaker, which causes a very noticeable difference in output when switching between the P and J pickups. Also, when the wimpy J pickup is blended with the P pickup, it seems like the J pickup sucks the tone away from the P pickup, and you get an odd out-of-phase sound from the blended pickups.

I had the problems mentioned above with a Squier Pro-Tone 4-string. I replaced both pickups with a matched P/J set of (active) Seymour Duncan Lightnin' Rods, which cured all of the pickup problems.