Are there any Jazz Pickups out there where you can raise the poles?

[George92]

I have a Fender MIJ 75 reissue and I'm having a little problem with my tone. As the fretboard has a radius, and you follow this on your bridge, it means that the E and G are louder as they are close to the pickups... Ive seen some pickups where you can raise the poles to counter this problem.. Seen the DiMarzio DP123 ones, but was wondering if anyone else has used these for the same reason.. or if there are any other pickups like this out there.

Cheers!

[line6man]

Have your pickups custom made.

[jallenbass]

NBD Fender Jaguar Bass - review

Look at post 60.

[svtb15]

Dimarzio makes a J pickup.. Or at least they did where each pole was able to be adjusted with a Hex key
http://www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/bass/ Find the the Model J

[Rusty the Scoob]

Yep, DiMarzio is the first one that comes to mind.

I have a DiMarzio P in one of my basses with adjustable pole pieces... something that I find amusingly redunant.

[Willicious]

i think staggered j poles are a good idea, though fender goes back and forth quite a bit with staggered poles on their stock pickups.

bestbassgear stocks a few models with staggered poles (not adjustable, though).

bought a set of std. fralin j's off them with staggered poles. nordstrand will also stagger poles upon request. a no-cost mod.

[walterw]

this is a peeve of mine as well.

the dimarzio area J is staggered to correct for this, while their ultra-jazz is not (nor can it be ordered that way, i've discovered to my dismay).

+1 to fralins also correcting for this.

fender american standard jazz pickups can have their poles pushed up from the bottom with no trouble, as they're insulated from the coil wire by the plastic bobbin.

i've had good luck tapping up new jazz pickup middle poles from duncan and fender, but there is a risk, since the magnets are right against the coil wire. do not do this with an old pickup, and do not try it with the outside polepieces!

[mmbongo]

DiMarzio. Winning!

[George92]

Originally Posted by walterw

this is a peeve of mine as well.

the dimarzio area J is staggered to correct for this, while their ultra-jazz is not (nor can it be ordered that way, i've discovered to my dismay).

+1 to fralins also correcting for this.

fender american standard jazz pickups can have their poles pushed up from the bottom with no trouble, as they're insulated from the coil wire by the plastic bobbin.

i've had good luck tapping up new jazz pickup middle poles from duncan and fender, but there is a risk, since the magnets are right against the coil wire. do not do this with an old pickup, and do not try it with the outside polepieces!

Right, i'll give that a go, it might save me buying new pickups! what did you use to push them up? and how much force is needed so I don't break anything?

[walterw]

if they're plastic one-piece molded bobbins, then there's no problem. flip them over and gently tap on them with a small hammer and a little flat-faced punch. a 1/16" makes all the difference.

if you flip them over and find a big ceramic bar magnet glued to the bottom, you're out of luck (and would benefit from better pickups anyway).

if they're "vintage-style", being nothing but two fiberboard plates stuck onto the ends of the magnets with the wire wrapped right onto the magnets, look out!

this trick will probably work fine, but you might catch a coil wire with a magnet, breaking it and destroying the pickup. proceed at your own risk!

[George92]

Cheers for the help, mine won't budge though. However, I found some 5mm magnets on the internet and I just stuck them over the poles to raise them, seems to do the trick! I'll probably go for the dimarzios eventually though.

High Performance Neodymium Magnets From Magnet Expert

[walterw]

5mm, or .5mm? you'd only want an extra 1/16" or so of height from the middle poles.

also, i wouldn't go putting neo-d magnets near my pickups, those things will eat alnico polepieces for breakfast!

[Nedmundo]

I had this issue on my new G&L JB, and it is irritating, especially when I'm used to the Fralins in my 2003 Fender, which have raised poles under the A and D. I figured lowering the pickups further into the body could help, because then the difference between polepiece heights is a lower percentage of the overall distance from pole to string. It did seem to help, so for now I'm happy with the pickups.

[walterw]

yep, the "fix" is to drop them a bit, especially on the bass side, so there's less difference between one string's distance and the next.

(still don't like it, though. it strikes me as an obvious and easily fixable issue.)

[darkstorm]

Dimarzio model J DP123. Very nice fuller then average sounding J pup & hotter then fender J plus with adjustable pole peices. 3 way winner. Lol

[vistacruiser]

Yep, on my Geddy, with vintage style "A" shape poles, I was able to push the outer poles down even with the cover, using a small "C" clamp and some home made card board "washers" underneath to provide clearance for the poles to move. I even left the p/up wires soldered on. I thought it was easy to control pole movement this way, without risk of dinging the body, just cover it with a towel or news paper. They were not hard to move at all, I'm happy with the results.

[notduane]

Aside from the DiMarzio "J" already mentioned, the only one
comes to mind is the Schaller JBX model. May be hard to find.
Stew-Mac used to carry `em .

[walterw]

Originally Posted by vistacruiser

Yep, on my Geddy, with vintage style "A" shape poles, I was able to push the outer poles down even with the cover, using a small "C" clamp and some home made card board "washers" underneath to provide clearance for the poles to move.

you're very lucky!

the outer-most poles have the coil wire wrapped right against them, and any attempt to push them usually leaves you a dead pickup.

it's the inner two pairs that you can more safely move, as the coil is just laying across them, not tightly around them.

[vistacruiser]

Thanks walterw! I'll keep that in mind in the future, next time the center poles will go UP.