Raised pole pieces for the A string ?

[Hoyt]

Howdy!

I may as well resurrect this thread as it's relevant to my question...

I have a brand new Player Precision with just one of the A-string pole pieces raised on the pickup. Like this:

View attachment 5266754

So my question is: is it possible to lower this single piece or will it break the pickup? It makes the A string sound louder than others. That is easily remedied by lowering the pickup from that side, I know, but it is also visually unpleasant. First stages of OCD, you might ask...

Any help is appreciated.

I might as well mention it has a Tort Pickguard...

I had that same pickup in my Player Precision!

Well, it’d be the third pole in that’s raised on mine. maybe that was a happy accident.

I ended up swapping it out with a DiMarzio DP122 because I started playing in a punk band and wanted a more mids forward sound, BUT I saved them and ended up using them in this parts build I did recently.
I left everything soldered together (although I did change out the tone cap) and accidentally flipped that part of the pickup with the raised pole when I installed it in the new bass.
That put that single raised pole piece in position for the E string instead of the A.
It wasn’t anything I planned, just an oversight as I was putting things together.
What I’ll say is that with the pickups angled as they should be, the raised pole on the E seems to help articulate it a little bit and eliminate some of the “mush”.
I’m still on the fence about keeping them in my parts build and I’m sort of interested in installing a G&L MFD SB-1 pickup for a stronger output, but that Player pickup sounds really decent.

I made a vid. It’s just crappy phone audio, but this is with that raised pole part of the Player Precision P “reversed”. The bass is a soft maple carved body with a maple/rosewood fleabay neck. Naturally bright sounding. Plus, new DR Hi-Beams. Tone knob buried to keep some of the new string zing under control.
Altogether I think it sounds really well balanced.

 

[Hoyt]

I might as well mention it has a Tort Pickguard...

I also suspect that our “Player” Precisions were made around the same time as they were rebranding/swapping the lines.

Mine has a vintage tint high gloss neck, whereas a friend of mine who bought the same bass later has a natural satin finished neck on his Player Precision. Both are the same Ocean Turquoise that they made for GC.
On my neck there’s just a serial number and MIM, and on his there’s a limited special edition decal.
I asked around about the raised pole Fender pickup when I first got it and it seemed like I was the only one who got them in my bass.
For a while I thought maybe I was unique and special, lol


It is a great sounding bass. Played it stock with some D’Addario XL Chrome Flatwounds in a 60’s cover band before the pandemic hit and it sounded perfect for it.

 

[BassoSaku]

I also have the satin neck and sticker version. This really is a very nice bass. After some time playing this bass, I can safely say it is one of the best Precisions I ever laid my hands on—dynamic, responsive, and great sustain.

As per a private message from a fellow TBer I got information that I could just push the pole pieces down if they are raised. As a backup, I did get Seymour Duncan QP pickups for it thinking I change them if I broke the pickups while doing this adjustment. Indeed, with some light force applied, I was able to align the pole pieces. Didn't break the pickups!

While I had the Quarterpounds I decided to make a comparison recording with the original pickups.

Can you tell which pickups are which? The first sample played tone wide open, the second all the way down, and then repeated with the other set of pickups. Signal chain is bass directly into Scarlet 8i6 (3rd gen) without any tone shaping.

Without spoiling the outcome, I must say I was really surprised by the result.

 

[Killing Floor]

It’s a stupid design that surely an aficionado is entitled to wrongly believe it’s not poorly designed. Fender made a mistake. They discontinued it quickly. And even today you can still find these on reissue era appropriate Fender P Basses. This is from my 2020 MiA that was immediately replaced with a Fralin. If I ever sell the bass (I love it so not likely) I’d replace this dumb pickup.
It made basses completely unplayable, that’s why Leo discontinued it.

 

[Hoyt]

I also have the satin neck and sticker version. This really is a very nice bass. After some time playing this bass, I can safely say it is one of the best Precisions I ever laid my hands on—dynamic, responsive, and great sustain.

As per a private message from a fellow TBer I got information that I could just push the pole pieces down if they are raised. As a backup, I did get Seymour Duncan QP pickups for it thinking I change them if I broke the pickups while doing this adjustment. Indeed, with some light force applied, I was able to align the pole pieces. Didn't break the pickups!

While I had the Quarterpounds I decided to make a comparison recording with the original pickups.

Can you tell which pickups are which? The first sample played tone wide open, the second all the way down. Without spoiling the outcome, I must say I was really surprised by the result.

Unfortunately my iPhone won’t let me play the link.

 

[bassdude51]

The raised A magnets are a head scratcher for me mainly because, in terms of logic, the D magnets should be raised also (to follow the neck contour).

I used to have a '58 reissue with the raised A magnets and when I adjusted the E - A part of the pickup for proper distance from the top of the magnets to the bottom of the string, the E - A part of the pickup was level while the D - G part was slanted.

I could not hear any difference with the raised A pickup. But, I did find that the '58 raised A, P pickup was in the 10K ohm region and thus had a slightly clearer and better definition sound. IME IMHO

 

[BassoSaku]

Unfortunately my iPhone won’t let me play the link.

I uploaded the file to Soundcloud and embedded it to the previous post.

 

[Hoyt]

I uploaded the file to Soundcloud and embedded it to the previous post.

Thanks!

I’m going to guess that the first clip is the stock pickup? Seems more balanced while the second clip seems more aggressive and scooped.

 

[Hoyt]

It’s a stupid design that surely an aficionado is entitled to wrongly believe it’s not poorly designed. Fender made a mistake. They discontinued it quickly. And even today you can still find these on reissue era appropriate Fender P Basses. This is from my 2020 MiA that was immediately replaced with a Fralin. If I ever sell the bass (I love it so not likely) I’d replace this dumb pickup.
It made basses completely unplayable, that’s why Leo discontinued it.
View attachment 5319363

The single raised pole on my pickup isn’t nearly as high as what is pictured.
It only sticks up maybe 1/16th of an inch above the others and doesn’t interfere with anything at all.

 

[BassoSaku]

Thanks!

I’m going to guess that the first clip is the stock pickup? Seems more balanced while the second clip seems more aggressive and scooped.

The first one was Seymor Duncan QP.
The second was the stock pickup!

The differences were quite minimal. I tried to play them with as same touch and feel as possible. I overlaid the samples and at times the waveforms were so similar that they canceled each other out.

I decided to keep the stock ones on because I liked the more dynamic response and aggressiveness.