Is there a right/wrong way round for J pickups?

[Disco_Gee]

I'm switching the pups in my Squier VM Jazz and I thought I should check before continuing. Is there a right way to install the pickup? I know that the bridge pickup is a little wider so it has to go in the bridge space, but what I mean is does it matter which pole pieces go under the E string, and which ones go under the G string? Can you put the pickup in either way around?

[dannster]

The wires coming out of the pickup should be closest to the hole you feed them through. I've never seen it otherwise.

[line6man]

like dannster said, the leads exit from one side (more specifically, from the treble side of the pickup), but hypothetically, if you were to reverse the pickups, i think that it would have a profound effect on your tone.

Jimi Hendrix got a different sound out of his strat because he strung up backwards,which is the equivalent of flipping the pickups around.
of course, strat pickups are staggered, and jazz bass pickups are not, so who knows.

[()smoke()]

Originally Posted by line6man

like dannster said, the leads exit from one side (more specifically, from the treble side of the pickup), but hypothetically, if you were to reverse the pickups, i think that it would have a profound effect on your tone.

Jimi Hendrix got a different sound out of his strat because he strung up backwards,which is the equivalent of flipping the pickups around.
of course, strat pickups are staggered, and jazz bass pickups are not, so who knows.

also, i think hendrix' sound differed moreso because of the slanted bridge pickup rather than the pickups being turned around--ie, his low e polepiece was closer to the bridge and high e further

[4Mal]

As long as you are consistent as to which side you use it doesn't matter at all if the leads are long enough. If you have super long leads, flipping the pickup around and running the wires under the foam works fine. Biggest issue I see is the potential for taking out a lead with a mounting screw if you aren't careful. That is why 'under the foam'.

I used that routing with a custom set of vintage J style pickup that had super stiff cloth leads. Too much stress on the lead snapped one off at the pickup end when trying to mount them the first time. I got lucky and was able to re-solder the lead. There was just enough length to install with the wires on the 'high' side which relieved the angle and the stress.

odd scenario buit in that case it worked fine.

[Bassamatic]

The pickup is one coil with several pole pieces - mounting direction doesn't make a difference since the pup is symmetrical. I have also seen it mounting instructions from DiMarzio, etc. that the direction makes no difference - sound wise. Of course you should mount them so the leads are not stressed.

[Disco_Gee]

Thanks guys. I was installing some Fender SCN pickups and the leads come from out of the middle of the pickup, not either of the ends. I mounted them yesterday and they are working fine. They are dead quiet (no hiss) which is great, but I'm not entirely happy with the sound as they lack some of the growl of the stock ones. I think I'm going to install a preamp as well.

[#include <MK>]

Originally Posted by line6man

like dannster said, the leads exit from one side (more specifically, from the treble side of the pickup), but hypothetically, if you were to reverse the pickups, i think that it would have a profound effect on your tone.

On a set of jbass pickups where the magnet rods are all the same length and not staggered, it won't make a difference. There are ways to make that kind of difference, but jbass pickups have a very simple design.

()smoke() is correct. The difference with Hendrix's Strat tone compared to a right hander playing right handed, was the bridge pickup slant though the staggered poles will also have an effect (very minor compared with the slant).