Single coil in bridge position?

[BlackFenderBass]

Hey all,

I have an old Squier P/J that's rotting away in my closet. I've decided to try out some new things with it. One of the combinations I've been contemplating is putting an old 51 RI single coil pickup that I have in the bridge position. Has anyone ever heard this done before? I can't imagine it sounding much different than the jazz it's replacing, but I've never seen it done before.

 

[sloppy_phil]

Can't comment on the sound at all with any accuracy, but I can't see it being all that different than a standard p'up.

That said, I imagine there'd be a pretty large gape on either side of the p'up because a jazz p'up is a fair bit larger than a '51-style coil

 

[bassbenj]

Hey all,

I have an old Squier P/J that's rotting away in my closet. I've decided to try out some new things with it. One of the combinations I've been contemplating is putting an old 51 RI single coil pickup that I have in the bridge position. Has anyone ever heard this done before? I can't imagine it sounding much different than the jazz it's replacing, but I've never seen it done before.

I would not put a single coil J in the bridge position on a P/J. The reason is the P pickup is humbucking and the single coil J will not be and will add hum no matter what you do.

I'd recommend some sort of humbucking J pickup. I used a Dimarzio ultra J on my Squier special 5er P/J and it works GREAT! No hum at any setting! (Note: also did copper shielding at the same time) And I really love the tone range you get with the P/J going from straight P-bass sound to a kind of P-Jazz bass hybrid to the straight Jazz bass bridge sound. Which is really nice because I enjoy the wide P-bass feel much more than that of my jazz basses.