pickup magnets not in same plane

[spellonyou]

Hi,

Both the neck and bridge pups on my bass have magneta that are not sitting at the same height; the difference in height is quite large, like half a centimeter or so.
The magnets of the A and the G string pop out; the E and D magnets sit more or less flush with the top plane of the pups.
It is an Aria Diamond fender jazz copy from the early seventies; the magnets were like this when i acquired the bass. I notice no big loudness difference between the strings;

Were the magnets placed like this intentionally? If not; is it possible and advisable to put them back in the same plane so that they are all flush with the top of the pup?
If so, I would like to know how I could do this; i'd just whack them with a hammer but that might not be the best cause of action in this case :-)

Cheers,
Sandor

[lettsguitars]

Plastic hammer will do the trick. Modern strings are designed in such a way that they balance fine with 'flat' poles. It does sound like they are just wrong though. Push em in.

[mart]

Plastic hammer will work on some pickups, and on others it may kill the pickup. There was recently some brief discussion on this (in the context of Strat pickups) on MusicRadar:
[url="http://forum.musicradar.com/showthread.php?121285-Strat-warble&p=1398797&viewfull=1#post1398797"]http://forum.musicradar.com/showthread.php?121285-Strat-warble&p=1398797&viewfull=1#post1398797[/url]

[lettsguitars]

[quote name='mart' timestamp='1357820960' post='1928873']
Plastic hammer will work on some pickups, and on others it may kill the pickup. There was recently some brief discussion on this (in the context of Strat pickups) on MusicRadar:
[url="http://forum.musicradar.com/showthread.php?121285-Strat-warble&p=1398797&viewfull=1#post1398797"]http://forum.musicra...l=1#post1398797[/url]
[/quote]You are right of course. If the coil wire has slipped beneath the poles you could well break the wire. Having said that I've pushed a few strat magnets around in my time with no problems. Your call spellonyou. If it sounds ok then why bother. Just dont look at it. After all it is for listening to.

[Roland Rock]

You could pretend it's a deliberate and highly desirable feature, like on the '57 P Bass

[spellonyou]

Thanks guys!

I think I'll have a little look on the underside of those pups to see if the bottom of the pole pieces are clearly visible.

[Protium]

Do the pickup cases come off? If they do then you can even the pole heights out my putting a layer of card between the bobbin and the casing at the high end of the poles. Easy job and 100% reversible

Edited January 10, 2013 by Protium