50s Reissue P pickups

Throw them in and see how they sound before spending money on another pickup.

 

Dimarzio Area J. Vintage tone, noise canceling, and affordable.

 

Any rear (bridge) Jazz PU that fits the existing Jazz slots / lug holes will work fine. 50's P bass pickups were single coil, later came the familiar P humbucking split coil. So you may need a new pick guard cut to accept the new single coil pickup. You will noice more hum than your old P PU. This can be alleviated by dialling in a tiny amount of the Jazz pickup using your bend knob. Not enough to change the P bass sound, but just enough to act as a slight hum buck. It doesn't need much.
If it was my bass I would probably buy a sweet MM pickup and replace the Jazz with the MM. It'll need a routing template made to fit the MM pickup and then use the template to cut the PU hole in the body. I think the old 50's single coil PU pairs really well with a MM, in terms of output and having a wider and brighter tonal pallet.

 

Umm...read the original post again. He's talking about a '50s Road Worn P-Bass (modeled after a late '50s P) which has the "normal" split coil P Pickup. These did not have '51 style single coil pickups.

Any bridge width J pickup will work. A few years back, I had a parts PJ-bass where I threw a $20 Artec AlNiCo Jazz bridge PU into it and it sounded great. Jazz bridge pickups generally measure between 7-8 kOhm resistance, so anything in that ballpark should work just fine. Adjust the pickup height to achieve the balance you desire. Don't overthink it.

 

Fralin makes great drop-in P replacements that are warm. You can get them in a split J if you want something closer to a P bite.

 

Try to find a used Fender Noiseless J bridge on Reverb or ebay. They’re the way to go! Or the Seymour Duncan stuff, just not the Hot Stack. Those are lifeless IMO.

 

Drop in the P pickup and just disconnect the J entirely