Question about early single coil P-bass pickups...

[ndukane65]

Based on information I've read online and various books, the single coil pickup in the 1951 Precision had flat magnetic poles. Around a year later in late '52 Leo began making the pickups with staggered A and D poles which continued thereafter. I'm confused as to why my new American Vintage ll 1954 Precision has the flat flush poles. Is this accurate or did Fender forget their own history? Please clarify.

 

[LoveThatBass]

Call them Phone: 800.856.9801

 

[Lo-E]

If I had to venture a guess (and it’s only a guess) I’d say that Fender was already tooled up to make pickups for ’51 reissue basses and didn’t want to spend the time or money to re-tool for a detail of a single model that MOST people wouldn’t notice.

It’s not the first time that Fender (and a lot of other brands) made a reissue that wasn’t 100% true to the original.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

Reissues sometimes seem to be a "greatest hits" from the era more so than "vintage correct".

I'm guessing they decided a reissue with a contour body and a SB option would sell better than a slab, so they decided to call it a '54 - and the rest is "close enough". (interesting that they chose fiber saddles, which started to be replaced with steel saddles in '54)

My Fullerton '57 has a hootenanny button, my Custom shop '57 does not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have my buddy's CS '55 in my shop right now with raised pole piece version as well.

BTW; I find it's a bit "trickier" to get an even string response with the raised pole piece version of an SCPB vs. flat.

 

[ardgedee]

Around a year later in late '52 Leo began making the pickups with staggered A and D poles which continued thereafter. I'm confused as to why my new American Vintage ll 1954 Precision has the flat flush poles.

If the fingerboard radius of the reissue is flatter than the original Precision bass, non-staggered poles might better replicate the distance-to-strings of the original.

 

[bassdude51]

I'm the lucky owner of an all original March 1953 P Bass and it has flush poles.

I'm no expert but as far as I know, Fender went staggered poles with the 1968 to '71 Telecaster Bass. 1951 through early 1957 SCPBs were flush magnets. After early '57 Ps, Fender started making the split coil P Bass.

S. Duncan's Antiquity SCPB pickup is flush and the Antiquity II (for the Tele Bass) are staggered.

 

[2saddleslab]

I much prefer flat pole pieces [or blades, in the case of TV Jones] because it sets the E & G strings a little hotter, which is what I want. Nothing more uninspiring than having an anemic E when you want to deliver the thunder. Others prefer more even volume across all strings.

I think my friend @bassdude51 is correct on the pole piece height change timeline.

 

[KevInDaBassment]

My Fullerton '57 has a hootenanny button...

Immediately came to my mind upon reading that...

 

[ndukane65]

Thank you for all of your replies. @bassdude51 I also own an American Vintage 1958 Precision that has a raised A pole piece on the split pickup.
From the Bareknuckle Pickups website "P'52 Stagger Towards the end of 1952 the Tele bass pickup design was changed slightly to incorporate staggered magnetic poles." P Bass - '52 Stagger P p-bass

I was considering swapping out the flat '54 pickup for this staggered one but I suppose I'll leave well enough alone. Still a little confused.

 

[mikecd1]

That 52 Stagger P is the best Precision pickup I ever heard. Wish I had one!

 

[iammr2]

My notes show single coil P bass picks were flat until late '54, when they came with raised A and D poles. I've got pics of flat 53s and raised A and D '55s and '57s.

 

[J Wilson]

It's a decision to make when you decide how authentic you want a modern version to be, especially as most of your customers were born well after this bass' original introduction, and ultimately how much authentic gets reflected in the MSRP.

 

[pbassnut]

Based on information I've read online and various books, the single coil pickup in the 1951 Precision had flat magnetic poles. Around a year later in late '52 Leo began making the pickups with staggered A and D poles which continued thereafter. I'm confused as to why my new American Vintage ll 1954 Precision has the flat flush poles. Is this accurate or did Fender forget their own history? Please clarify.

A "vintage correct" '54 Precision should have staggered pole pieces. This thread gives me an opportunity to stage a mild rant about some of the aftermarket '54 to '56 single coil Precision pickups. Not only did Fender stagger the height of the A and D pole pieces, but they made the A pole piece considerably higher than the D pole piece. According to Fender lore I've heard, that was done because the A strings in a typical set of strings of the era, were weak and they made the A string pole piece higher to compensate for it. Even in '57 when they redesigned the Precision to have a split coil pickup and a Stratocaster like headstock, they continued to raise the A string pole pieces to compensate for the problematic A strings until '58. This is all fine and good ... they did what they had to do to make it work right. Fast forward to the modern era of reissues and replacement parts ... many of the available reissue or replacement single coil pickups STILL have the A pole piece raised higher than the D ... only there is no weak A string issue with modern string sets so the extra height of the A string pole piece becomes problematic because it's too loud compared to the other strings and is not individually adjustable. Lindy Fralin and Seymour Duncan still make them with the higher A string pole pieces. I don't understand why they prioritize "vintage correct" over what is going to work the best. I have a Warmoth parts '54 Precision that has a Nordstrand 51P4S Hum Cancelling pickup like this ...

51P4S Hum-Cancelling

The 51P4S is a split coil version of an original P style pickup. It delivers the vintage tone, but has a quieter operation with hum-canceling split coil.

nordstrandaudio.com

... where the A and D pole pieces are raised but are the same height. They match up perfectly with the 10" radius of the Warmoth Jazz width TeleBass headstock neck on my '54 Precision partscaster bass and the string to string balance is el-perfecto.