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12-16-2012, 02:06 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The Motor City | | | Fender Jazz: 60's position vs 70's position
Asking this question because I've seen a number of folks ask about J-basses they consider buying "are the pickups 60's position or 70's position?"
I never really knew what that meant or how one might visually discern the difference. Anybody have an example of both that they can post side by side so that I can see the difference? Also please describe what tonal differences you notice between the two.
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12-16-2012, 02:07 PM
| | | | The 70's position pickup is about 1/2" closer to the bridge than the 60's position. The pickup being closer to the bridge makes it a bit brighter sounding. |
12-16-2012, 02:09 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The Motor City | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Stone Soup  The 70's position pickup is about 1/2" closer to the bridge than the 60's position. The pickup being closer to the bridge makes it a bit brighter sounding. | Both pickups or just the bridge pickup?
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Politics PA-luh tiks; from the Greek word Poly , meaning many and the English word Tick , a small bloodsucking pest.
(saw this on a board in an office in Lansing, MI) |
12-16-2012, 02:10 PM
|  | There are some who call me.......Sactobass | | Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Sacramento California | | | I don't have pics handy to show the difference, but the 70's model has the bridge pickup a half inch closer to the bridge. This gives the tone a bit more bite.
After you've seen a few of the 60's and the 70's models, you can tell right away by looking since the space between the pickguard and the bridge pickup is greater on the 70's model.
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12-16-2012, 02:11 PM
| | There are some who call me.......Sactobass | | Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Sacramento California | | Quote:
Originally Posted by malthumb Both pickups or just the bridge pickup? | To my knowledge, just the bridge pickup is moved.
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12-16-2012, 02:14 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The Motor City | | | Stone Soup......SactoBass......
Thanx guys.
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Politics PA-luh tiks; from the Greek word Poly , meaning many and the English word Tick , a small bloodsucking pest.
(saw this on a board in an office in Lansing, MI) |
12-16-2012, 02:19 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Northern CA | | | Subscribed - when I had a PJ set of Alembic Activators put in my MIJ '70s P-Bass, the issue of the spacing came up - not sure what we came up with, I wanted to go for '70s spacing. I know this doesn't help much, but I would be interested in seeing a pic of examples of the two, side-by-side would be great! |
12-16-2012, 02:41 PM
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12-16-2012, 04:59 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The Motor City | | | THanks again Stone Soup.
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Politics PA-luh tiks; from the Greek word Poly , meaning many and the English word Tick , a small bloodsucking pest.
(saw this on a board in an office in Lansing, MI) |
12-16-2012, 08:45 PM
| | | | We should also consider that in the 70's they used different materials for the pickups too, but i don't know for sure how much that influenced the tone!
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12-16-2012, 08:54 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Minnesota | | | ... as Stones perfect illustration shows, the easiest way to tell on a Fender bass by glance is that the bridge pup is directly over the tone knob on 70's spacing, and positioned between the tone knob and the bridge volume knob for 60's spacing ... sometimes the different bridges used can make it a bit confusing if you try to gauge spacing ... |
12-17-2012, 10:19 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Chester, Pa.,USA | | | From what I understand, it was more of an aesthetic consideration than anything to do with tone (Althought that was indeed the final result), the 60's pickup stuck out from underneath the bridge cover, they moved it back so the cover would hide it better.
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12-17-2012, 10:37 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: European Mainland | | Quote:
Originally Posted by C.Linton From what I understand, it was more of an aesthetic consideration than anything to do with tone (Althought that was indeed the final result), the 60's pickup stuck out from underneath the bridge cover, they moved it back so the cover would hide it better. | True story. Heard it in a custom shop demo on YT.
Personally, I play a Classic 70's RI J. Love the bright tone, but still maintaining that low end vibe.
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12-17-2012, 01:59 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Chester, Pa.,USA | | | Personally, I like the mellower tone of the 60's spacing.
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You can call me ...Cliff.
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12-17-2012, 02:01 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Purple Mountain Majesties | | | I'll be darned if I could hear enough difference for it to matter. I'm normally kind of sensitive to that kind of thing, but I've usually been able to get a variety of almost identical tones from either placement.
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12-17-2012, 05:44 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The Motor City | | Quote:
Originally Posted by C.Linton From what I understand, it was more of an aesthetic consideration than anything to do with tone (Althought that was indeed the final result), the 60's pickup stuck out from underneath the bridge cover, they moved it back so the cover would hide it better. | That makes more than a little bit of sense.
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Politics PA-luh tiks; from the Greek word Poly , meaning many and the English word Tick , a small bloodsucking pest.
(saw this on a board in an office in Lansing, MI) |
12-17-2012, 06:26 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Coeur D'Alene,Idaho | | | Marcus Miller, Alex Al 70s position
Jaco, Larry Graham,Victor Bailey 60s position
To me that difference is huge.
Which one is right for you? You need to make that decision on your own. |
12-17-2012, 06:33 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2002 Location: Los Angeles | | | I'm all about 60s position. I personally can hear a big difference.
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12-17-2012, 07:02 PM
| | | | I own both. I like both. I lean toward the more popular 60's position for general playing, but I think the 70's position has a bit more of an edge for hard rock and for slap sounds. Either will get the job done, regardless of the style you're playing. |
12-17-2012, 09:01 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Minnesota | | | I had both, either at different times, or at the same time, but on basses with different pups/strings/etc ... I never noticed that big of a difference ...
...when the difference became noticable to me, was when I had both my Classic Series 60's Jazz, and the Classic Series 70's Jazz side by side with the same strings, pups, and set up... the difference was clear .. | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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