Fender Jazz: 60's position vs 70's position

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.

 

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.

 

To my knowledge, just the bridge pickup is moved.

 

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!

 

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!

 

... 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 ...

 

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.

 

Personally, I like the mellower tone of the 60's spacing.

 

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.

 

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.

 

I'm all about 60s position. I personally can hear a big difference.

 

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.

 

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 ..