pickup hole in pickguard widened

[greyshark]

Hi guys! I have been playing bass for around 4 years now and I bought my first bass guitar last year (I played a borrowed one before). It's a MIM Fender Jazz Bass made in 95. One of the previous owners installed a noiseless neck pickup on it and it's not parallel with the bridge pickup that's why he had to widen the hole in the pickguard I removed the neck pickup and it doesn't look like someone messed with the holes. So I am wondering if it's possible that they screwed this up at the factory or what else could have happened? I want to change the pickups and the pickguard that's why I am asking if anyone else had a similar problem. And yes I know older MIMs have pickups the same size. Thanks for your help in advance.
Cheers 😊

[Muppet]

Sorry, I'm not quite understanding what it is that you're wanting to achieve, can you elaborate a bit more on your problem or maybe post some photos? If the pickups aren't parallel then it could be that the screw holes in the body when the original pickups were installed were drilled wonky, but modifying the pickguard suggest to me that the replacement pickup that was fitted wasn't the correct size or was fitted badly.

[mcnach]

[quote name='Muppet' timestamp='1436429314' post='2817981']
Sorry, I'm not quite understanding what it is that you're wanting to achieve, can you elaborate a bit more on your problem or maybe post some photos? If the pickups aren't parallel then it could be that the screw holes in the body when the original pickups were installed were drilled wonky, but modifying the pickguard suggest to me that the replacement pickup that was fitted wasn't the correct size or was fitted badly.
[/quote]

+1

[Grangur]

Fender instruments are manufactured on a modern production line. All fitting of pickups will be done using a jig that decides precisely the position of the pickup. The pickguards will all be identical.

If this is a genuine Fender there is no way the pups would be out of line. If it is a Fender and the pups are out of line this will because someone has modded it badly.

[HowieBass]

I'm not sure there's a problem here if you're going to change both the pickups and the pickguard and you buy replacements suitable for a MIM Jazz unless you believe the mounting screw holes for the bridge pickup aren't accurately placed... in which case follow the standard wood glue and cocktail stick method of filling the existing holes before mounting the new pickup. Note that you may have to do a little bit of filing/sandpapering of the new pickguard just in case it's a tight fit over the pickups - it depends where you buy it from (and how well it's been made).