Pickup size for 2011 Squire Affinity J

[Derndingle]

I've recently added a 2011 Squire Affinity J Bass made in Indonesia to my collection. The bass is fairly playable after new strings and a setup, but I don't like the electronics. There are two issues I'm having with the electronics. One, the output from the E string on the bridge pickup is much higher than any of the other strings. I've lowered that side of the pickup quite a bit, but the output is still much higher on the E string than the A string. The second issue is that when I play aggressively such as a thumb slap or by digging in with my fingers (as I tend to do) it makes a popping noise (like the sound of touching something metal to the pickups).

My plan was to buy an EMG pickup and electronics set for the bass, but I'm not clear on what size would work in this bass. As far as I can tell from my measurements, the total pickup width is about 92mm and the distance between the screw holes is about 41.5mm on both pickups. This doesn't seem like a standard J bass pickup size for either neck or bridge. The width seems like a neck size, but the screw holes seem closer to a bridge size. I thought maybe what I needed was the MJ set Invalid Link Removed but when I emailed EMG the reply was that those are pretty rare and probably not what I need for this bass.

I know there are a million J bass pickup threads on this forum, and I've read though a bunch of them, but I think I might be getting myself more confused on what I need to get. So, I figured I'd just ask and see if anyone had any experience or suggestions with this particular combination. Thanks!

 

[Slater]

Since a Squier Affinity is essentially a budget instrument and there is no great risk of losing value, I would purchase the standard sized Jazz pickups of your choice, then modify the pickup cavities to accept them (if necessary). That way, going forward, you can install any standard sized Jazz pickups if you decide to make a change.

 

[Derndingle]

Since a Squier Affinity is essentially a budget instrument and there is no great risk of losing value, I would purchase the standard sized Jazz pickups of your choice, then modify the pickup cavities to accept them (if necessary). That way, going forward, you can install any standard sized Jazz pickups if you decide to make a change.

That's a really good suggestion, thank you. I own a Dremel tool but am not super handy. It doesn't seem like it should be too difficult to increase the pickup cavities by a few millimeters on each side. And you're right, I'm not too worried about losing value. I've paid more for a set of strings than I have invested in this bass so far.

 

[Derndingle]

Since a Squire Affinity is essentially a budget instrument and there is no great risk of losing value, I would purchase the standard sized Jazz pickups of your choice, then modify the pickup cavities to accept them (if necessary). That way, going forward, you can install any standard sized Jazz pickups if you decide to make a change.

Thought I'd post an update in case anyone finds this thread in the future and is curious. I did buy a set of standard dimension Jazz pickups (ended up getting a used set from the classifieds here, rather than the EMGs I was considering). I did have to modify the cavity slightly for them to fit. On the bridge pickup, I had to touch the screw spots a bit with the Dremel to get them to go in, which is barely noticeable. For the neck pickup, I had to take a little bit off of each side of the pickguard opening, but I didn't have to modify the body itself at all. The pickguard modification is slightly more noticeable if I look closely, but on this instrument I don't necessarily care. I suppose I could replace it with a stock pickguard down the road if I ever want to.

The good news is that the bass sounds much better with the replacement pickups. It resolved both the issues I was having with the popping noise and the E string having a higher output than the rest of the strings.