Replacing only P pickup on a P/J bass

[Don Sanders]

Recently purchased a Sire U5 P/J short scale bass. The older I get I find that I prefer the sound of a Precision only pickup configuration. The P pickup on this bass lacks a good clean P bass sound and at times it's a little muttled. Would there be any unforeseen problems with just replacing the P pickup and leaving the original J pickup alone,
Thanks in advance

 

[iiipopes]

There is no issue with just changing the P-pickup so long as that is the only pickup you are using on the bass. After the safari to get a new P-pickup to your liking, then you have several options with the J:
1) The J-pickup may or may not be in the same phase as the P-pickup, so you may or may not have to swap the wires on the J-pickup;
2) If you do get a high-quality P-pickup, you may want to change the J-pickup as well to something like a split-coil humbucker, also to keep the noise down and the tonal quality up.
3) Check the rest of the wiring first to make sure you have good quality pots and tone cap; what you describe as your tonal preference is typical vintage 250 kohm pots and a .047 tone cap.
4) Since you do have a P/J, as I do on a travel bass, I upgraded the pickups and wiring so I always have the option of the pickup combinations, even if I don't use it much.

 

[Don Sanders]

There is no issue with just changing the P-pickup so long as that is the only pickup you are using on the bass. After the safari to get a new P-pickup to your liking, then you have several options with the J:
1) The J-pickup may or may not be in the same phase as the P-pickup, so you may or may not have to swap the wires on the J-pickup;
2) If you do get a high-quality P-pickup, you may want to change the J-pickup as well to something like a split-coil humbucker, also to keep the noise down and the tonal quality up.
3) Check the rest of the wiring first to make sure you have good quality pots and tone cap; what you describe as your tonal preference is typical vintage 250 kohm pots and a .047 tone cap.
4) Since you do have a P/J, as I do on a travel bass, I upgraded the pickups and wiring so I always have the option of the pickup combinations, even if I don't use it much.

Thank you very much for your expertise