Pickup replacement in early 90s MIM J-Bass

[jschulman]

I was gifted this bass new in 1993 and have been playing it my whole life. I love it, but for years I've found the pickups to be lacking. I'd like to switch them out with Seymour Duncan Antiquity IIs.

However when I got the specs from Fender customer service, the pickup details included this note:

Pickups: Standard Jazz Bass Single-Coil Pickups (Neck & Bridge)

COMMENTS: From 1991 to 7/2001, this bass used the same narrower neck pickup (0036437000) in both the neck and bridge positions. It was the size of the American Jazz neck pickup. One cannot drop-in regular replacement Jazz Bass pickups with a wider bridge pickup into these basses, as the bridge pickup is too big and would not fit in the routed cavity.
The upgraded version which was introduced in 7/2001 used the traditional Jazz Bass pickup arrangement and may be upgraded without mods to the body.
​

Should I just get two replacement neck pickups? Will the poles be aligned with the strings? Is there any significant tonal difference between a neck and a bridge pickup outside of their location on the body?

 

[sikamikanico]

I don’t think the pole misalignment will be too much to cause sound problems, though it would probably drive me nuts visually.

bridge pickups are typically wound hotter to compensate for placement (string vibrates less at the bridge, giving a weaker sound). Not sure how much of a problem this would be, but you can compensate some by adjusting pickup height. If necessary, you could also wire in a trimpot or fixed resistor on the neck pickup to lower its volume, but I think that would change its tone.

the biggest problem would be using two neck single coils, because they wouldn’t buck hum with both pickups on.

option 1: ignore all of the above and rock the bass regardless of all the possible problems

option 2: I’d probably pick two hum cancelling neck J pickups and work with that. Possibly Wilde J45 - they use more poles, which works kinda like a blade. Blade pickups would also work, but I’m not sure if there are humcancelling blade J pickups...

option 3: enlarge the bridge pickup cavity and get a normal pickup set. If done well, it could look fine, and give you all the options to chose from.

option 4: custom J pickups. Some makers might already have sets available that use two neck seized pickups, but properly wound and spaced

 

[Slater]

Just enlarge the bridge pickup cavity to accept “standard” size Jazz Bass bridge pickups. You don’t have to remove that much material, and you won’t have this issue again if you decide to make any pickup changes in the future.

 

[Heavy Blue]

I believe that many pickup makers/wonders can accommodate your situation and wind the bridge spec wire/magnets onto a neck sized pup. There’s a lot of those basses out there.

As I’ve never been in this bind I have no personal experience with it but I believe it has come up before. Maybe others will have more info on specific makers.

 

[jschulman]

I don’t think the pole misalignment will be too much to cause sound problems, though it would probably drive me nuts visually.

bridge pickups are typically wound hotter to compensate for placement (string vibrates less at the bridge, giving a weaker sound). Not sure how much of a problem this would be, but you can compensate some by adjusting pickup height. If necessary, you could also wire in a trimpot or fixed resistor on the neck pickup to lower its volume, but I think that would change its tone.

the biggest problem would be using two neck single coils, because they wouldn’t buck hum with both pickups on.

option 1: ignore all of the above and rock the bass regardless of all the possible problems

option 2: I’d probably pick two hum cancelling neck J pickups and work with that. Possibly Wilde J45 - they use more poles, which works kinda like a blade. Blade pickups would also work, but I’m not sure if there are humcancelling blade J pickups...

option 3: enlarge the bridge pickup cavity and get a normal pickup set. If done well, it could look fine, and give you all the options to chose from.

option 4: custom J pickups. Some makers might already have sets available that use two neck seized pickups, but properly wound and spaced

Option 2 it is! I can't say I had heard much about Wildes before this comment, but I bought a pair of J-45 neck pickups after reading the consistently stellar reviews and talking with the people over there. Since they're hum cancelling it shouldn't be a problem. I'm looking forward to hearing how they sound. And if they don't work out it seems like they hold their resell value pretty well.

Thanks for all the help.