Poll: What size ORIGINAL pickups does (or did) your Fender MIM Jazz bass have?

[GatorDogDoc]

I'm trying to collect some data on pickup sizes and styles of Fender MIM Jazz basses during their transition years of 2000-2004 (MZ0xxxxxx to MZ4xxxxxx).

It is traditionally reported that Fender MIM Jazz basses made before 2001 have 2 pickups of the same size (often referred to as 2 "neck" pickups). One is in the neck position, the other in the bridge.

In 2001, Fender announced upgrades to their MIM Jazz line, and the basses began to convert to the traditional set of 2 different sized pickups... a neck pickup paired with a slightly longer bridge pickup.

This is relevant to those of us that may want to buy upgrade pickups and need to know if we need to buy 2 neck pickups or can use the traditional neck/bridge pickups (or modify the bridge rout of a "double neck pickup" bass to accomodate the larger bridge pickup of a standard set).

In my recent conversation with Fender, they said the transition that began in 2000 or 2001 was not fully completed until 2004. If true, this leaves a lot of MIM owners unsure of just what they have as far as pickups.

Consequently, there is discussion among MIM owners as to when this transition was completed, as well as if the introduction of pickups with varied pole piece height (taller poles under the A and D strings) occurred at the same time or later.

If you own a Fender MIM Jazz bass would you please answer the pole question?
YOU CAN CHOOSE MORE THAN ONE ANSWER IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE BASS--CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY!

Thanks!

[Ian Perge]

I can't imagine it would take Fender 4 years to do a relatively simple change in the CNC programming for the pickup routing on MUM Jazz Standards, or that they would alternate between the older "same length" and newer & near-universal "long/short" Jazz pickups for such a long period on time - it sounds like your contact @ Fender way be misinformed in regards to the changeover in MIM Jazz Basses.

BTW, I owned a 2002 (MZ2xxx) Midnight Wine Jazz Bass Standard with the "standard" long/short pickups and routes, with the stock pickups having raised poles. I remember because even with them I wasn't getting a great tone from my D-string and as part of it being my "Modding Bass" (I scored it for a steal of a price, swapped out a number of parts to end up with a very nice-sounding passive bass which I later sold and made a profit on even with the parts cost to help fund my Mike Lull Modern 5) I installed Bassline SJB-2 "hot" pickups which not only fit the routes perfectly but sounded amazing and greatly improved the tone of the bass.

[Rockman]

I'd believe it if you consider that they had to burn through all the old stock of pickups and pre routed bodies, and b they likely had a contract with some company to manufacture the pickups.

[GatorDogDoc]

I agree that it seems like a long time... that's why I'm taking this informal poll to try and sort it out.

Everytime I email or call Fender, I get someone who gives me some variation of the story... sometimes the year is different, sometimes it's the size or type of pickup.

The problem is that Fender does NOTHING to dispel these rumors... maybe they even relish them, since it keeps those who own the MIM's talking about it (sort of a sick form of publicity). There is no "official" line from the company, so it seems everyone that works there has there own version of how it all went down.

Nice to hear you ended up with a nice modded bass AND made a profit!

Thanks for taking part in the poll, too!