Pickup sizes; replacing stock pups

[dlenaghan]

What would you do?
Got an 80's MIJ Fender power jazz special, great, great sound but I want to put in passive pups for sake of reliability. Found some 68 Fender P-bass and 70/80's passive j-bass Demarzios on eBay.. would you do it? Any sizing issues? Read that bridge and neck J-pups are sized differently, any balance issues for those of you who have done this?

[spaz21387]

Measure then do some research of the pickup measurements. All pickups seem to be different. For example my nordstrand np4 wouldnt fit into white covers made by fender for some odd reason.

[darkstorm]

Unless I'm mistaken the pups in yours are passive. Its simply got a active eq preamp instead of passive tone controls. Unless you dont like the sound of the ones in yours, Id keep them in. As far as the active eq, battery for most all preamps last several months. And you could simply add a bypass switch if desired. For when you want just passive sound. Id go for dimarzio PJ set myself for pup replacement. They work very well in both passive and with active eq preamps in my experience. The fender P pup will have noticebly lower output then Dimarzios have. Dimarzios do not have removable covers. Cause theyre wax sealed for no hum etc. But should fit fine in your bass. Theyre available in black or white.

[walterw]

and offering the opposing view:

a real '68 P pickup will be way better than the japanese stuff. those basses are nicely made, but the electronics are sub-par.

i would lose the cheap (likely ceramic) pickups and the cheap preamp, and put good passives in.

the dimarzio should work fine. (for my money, an area J or even ultra J will tonally and visually fit better with the vintage P, but the ol' model J will do the job without noise. the bridge version of any of these should fit the bass.)