Pole Piece location and the effect on tone? Or something else?

Ok TB I have two Modern Player Jazz Basses. The sunburst is the first production run.




The white is the second production run.



These bass sound different from each other particularly in the mids and highs. Not dramatically different but enough that I prefer the sunburst tone to the white one.

The biggest different that I can think of that would effect the tone would be the difference in pick ups. The pole pieces on the sunburst are basically directly under the strings white the white bass the pole pieces are in between the strings

My question is do the location of pole pieces effect the tone of the bass or is it something else?

 

Well that may be the answer right there. I did not know that the satin one had blades. Honestly I want to just swap the pickups out but no one makes after market pickups for these basses.

 

I guess that gives me another search option but my guess would be that the pick ups coming up for sale by themselves would be a rare occurrence

 

I'm going to add blacktop pickups to my google search alerts and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks for the great info. I am slightly more hopeful than when i started this thread.

 

That B05 looks promising. Thanks for the lead. I'm also checking into any local options for pickups as well.

 

@Killed_by_Death

I was able to find these on reverb but they are all bridge pickups honestly I wonder if there really is a difference between the bridge and the neck pickups in the modern players.

009-0793-000 Fender Humbucker Dual Jazz Bass Pickup JJ Bridge Position

Fender American Deluxe P Precision J Jazz Bass Humbucker Pickup Black

The first pick up looks like it has more wires coming out of it for coil tapping but its hard to tell from just the picks online. What do you think?