A Jazz pickup to fit the Bridge position on a Squier Standard P Bass Special.

[Pirellithecat]

I've been bad.

I had a "spare" Fender Custom 62 P Pickup and stuck it on my much loved P Bass Special.  

And it's really really good!  

So much better than the outgoing Seymour Duncan SPB1!  

 

So ........ would the addition of a similar spec J Pickup in the Bridge position (to replace the current SJB1), generate more "betterness"? 

I know it's not worth doing from an investment point of view, but this Bass is really rather special - after various set-ups, string changes, upgrades to the Bridge and Tuners etc etc it plays like a dream, the necks great, it's not overly heavy of bulky, it balances well but, until now, its been great for practice but falls short in the band context (doesn't "cut through").   But the addition of the new P Bass Pickup has made a real difference.    

 

Fender Custom Shop  60's J's don't appear to be sold as singles and the bridge version seems a bit too big for the Squier aperture.    

Does any one know whether they are available separately, whether one could use the Neck version (which is a tad smaller) instead of the Bridge version, or if there is a better/cheaper alternative out there which would fit and be a match for the new P Pickup?

 

I only use the J Pickup to add bite to the P and rarely, if ever, solo it so it's in this context that I'm looking for options. 

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

  

 

 

[Dan Dare]

The only way to know whether it would be an improvement is to try, which could, of course, get expensive if you try several. If you use a neck p/u, it will be slightly narrower, which may cause the pole piece spacing to be out of kilter with the string positioning. It may not be by a lot, but you can't know without trying.

 

One thought that occurs is that you could see if the Squier plastic housing (which will be the right size for your bass) will accommodate the replacement p/u. On my J bass, the pickups are not a tight fit in the housing and can be removed easily. It won't work with pickups that are epoxy potted into the plastic cover, but might with those that aren't.

 

Armstrong pickups are good, not expensive and the company is very helpful. May be worth an enquiry to them.

[Pirellithecat]

Thanks Dan Dare!  

I'll check out Armstrong and keep measuring!

 

Anyone have the dimensions for a Fender Custom 62 Jazz pickup or similar?

[AndyTravis]

If it’s any use, I modified a Squier P/J and had no issues fitting a standard EMG P/J set.

 

Most stock j bridge pickups should fit.

[MartinB]

Odd birds, those "Standard" series Squiers - both the Jazz and Special (PJ) model use only the narrower neck-width Jazz pickups. The pole pieces on my Special's Jazz pickup are actually slightly wider than the strings as well, which is the opposite of what you'd expect when using a neck pickup at the bridge. In any case, you'd need to enlarge the route in order to use a normal Jazz bridge pickup. But I imagine most of the audible difference between the neck and bridge pickups on a Jazz is 99% down to their position, not the slightly different width - you'd probably be fine sticking a neck pickup in there.

[Pirellithecat]

Thanks Martin!   
Yep the Standard Series is definitely "an odd bird" - nothing on it is Standard!  But mine is really rather good - I bought it as a "scrap" bass and have tweaked it into a nice-to-play instrument.   I was looking for a slightly smaller pickup for the very reason you identified, but thought I was just being a bit faint hearted about things - so your intervention has probably saved me an expensive mistake (as I'm not going to route out a bit of the bass which lies outwith the pickguard! ).     I've measured up the Armstrong Bridge pickup and it might just fit - the Neck one would fit easily.   However, the combination of (currently) a Fender Custom 62 P Pickup, with the Duncan Seymour bridge pickup leads to a pronounced effect on the volume/tone controls, exacerbating the insertion loss (if that's what it is).   So if I could get a better matched pairing (eg Fender Custom 62 jazz pickup) it might avoid this issue - just need to find out the measurements for these - maybe it's a trip to a guitar shop with my digital calliper to do a bit of sneaky measuring! 
Thanks for you help though... Ta!

[Geek99]

Check the lug spacing - it’s not all about the length 

[Pirellithecat]

Will do!  

[Geek99]

On 04/01/2022 at 06:21, Geek99 said:

Check the lug spacing - it’s not all about the length 

@MartinBthe lugs are slightly further apart on the bridge pickup - I bought a jazz body on eBay that had a routing for rear pickup that fitted perfectly for length but had the lug positions correct for the neck pickup …

[MartinB]

Bloody Squier!
The bridge pickup route on mine isn't even straight - the pickup is closer to the neck on the G side than the E side. This doesn't stop it being a great-looking, -playing and -sounding bass however!