Precision Bass Pickup Swap Position

[dwhitworth]

A friend of mine swapped the positions of the split coil pickups on his P-Bass and swears by it (a new pickguard has to be cut to do this). Basically it moves the lower string pickup closer to the bridge and the higher string pickup closer to the neck (pic attached). Or maybe a better visual, looks like a lefty pickup configuration on a right handed bass. He says it rounds out the higher strings and brightens up the lower strings ever so slightly.

He's trying to evangelize me on this and lent me his bass to try it out. I haven't gigged with it and it's hard to tell at bedroom volumes. Is this a common mod for P Basses?

 

[Brad Easley]

He's not wrong, and there are manufacturers who use this configuration (I think the first non-custom/modified bass I saw with this was Ibanez). BUT... it depends on what you want out of a pbass. If you're trying to get as close as possible to vintage pbass tone, this wouldn't be a recommended mod. Also worth mentioning, it would requiring routing the pickup cavity in addition to a new pickguard.

 

[JW56789]

It's a mod that some feel will make the E & A a little clearer (as it's closer to the bridge) and the D & G a bit warmer (as it's closer to the neck). It does make a small difference that seems more obvious to some than others. I've had both, and for me it was certainly a minor difference. For me, on a single pickup bass like a Precision, I found far more range of tone simply by where I plucked / picked the strings either back towards the bridge (brighter) or more towards the fingerboard (rounder or fatter).

If you've never experienced this, once you have your rig dialed in, play the same things between the pickup and the bridge, then again between the pickup and the neck, and you'll hear it. And the closer you get to either end, the more pronounced the tone change.

 

[bass40hz]

Reverse is how I prefer them, you get more mids out of your lower strings and more bass out of your higher strings.
Rock on.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

DiMarzio & B.C. Rich were doing this a long time ago:

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Ibanez & Nordstrand are still doing it: