Pole Piece location and the effect on tone? Or something else?

[RadioactiveGuy4]

Ok TB I have two Modern Player Jazz Basses. The sunburst is the first production run.

The white is the second production run.

These bass sound different from each other particularly in the mids and highs. Not dramatically different but enough that I prefer the sunburst tone to the white one.

The biggest different that I can think of that would effect the tone would be the difference in pick ups. The pole pieces on the sunburst are basically directly under the strings white the white bass the pole pieces are in between the strings

My question is do the location of pole pieces effect the tone of the bass or is it something else?

 

[Killed_by_Death]

The ones on the white one aren't even real pole pieces. They're fake & under there are blade pickups.

I tried a white one like yours in burst finish. Loved it, so I ordered one with a burst finish, but it showed up with the pickups like in your photo above (the white one).
Didn't like the change at all & returned it. The other issue was the truss rod wheel wouldn't turn.

 

[RadioactiveGuy4]

The ones on the white one aren't even real pole pieces. They're fake & under there are blade pickups.

Well that may be the answer right there. I did not know that the satin one had blades. Honestly I want to just swap the pickups out but no one makes after market pickups for these basses.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Blacktop basses had the same pickups as your gen1:

Fender Blacktop Precision Bass White Chrome Pearl 2013

assuming that your gen1 & gen2 are the same size...

 

[RadioactiveGuy4]

Blacktop basses had the same pickups as your gen1:

I guess that gives me another search option but my guess would be that the pick ups coming up for sale by themselves would be a rare occurrence

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Once upon a time it wasn't that difficult to find Blacktop pickups on Reverb or eBay, but not today.

 

[RadioactiveGuy4]

Once upon a time it wasn't that difficult to find Blacktop pickups on Reverb or eBay, but not today.

I'm going to add blacktop pickups to my google search alerts and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks for the great info. I am slightly more hopeful than when i started this thread.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Just be aware there are two types of Blacktops & their nomenclature is confusing, because the Precision Blacktop has two Jazz humbuckers & the Jazz Blacktop had two Precision pickups

 

[ctmullins]

no one makes after market pickups for these basses.

Sentell Pickups bass guitar pickups

Scroll down past halfway and look at B05, B12, and B22.

Others make them too, I just can’t remember where I’ve seen them...

 

[RadioactiveGuy4]

Sentell Pickups bass guitar pickups

Scroll down past halfway and look at B05, B12, and B22.

Others make them too, I just can’t remember where I’ve seen them...

That B05 looks promising. Thanks for the lead. I'm also checking into any local options for pickups as well.

 

[RadioactiveGuy4]

@Killed_by_Death

I was able to find these on reverb but they are all bridge pickups honestly I wonder if there really is a difference between the bridge and the neck pickups in the modern players.

009-0793-000 Fender Humbucker Dual Jazz Bass Pickup JJ Bridge Position

Fender American Deluxe P Precision J Jazz Bass Humbucker Pickup Black

The first pick up looks like it has more wires coming out of it for coil tapping but its hard to tell from just the picks online. What do you think?

 

[Killed_by_Death]

The first one is a pickup just like what is used in the Blacktop, right down to the yellow wrapper.

Normally bridge & neck pickups are paired so that they hum cancel, one being reverse wound.

Since they're both humbuckers, that shouldn't matter, but the size does. I'm not sure if the bridge pickup is longer than the neck pickup.
Sometimes they are to accommodate the narrowing of the stings as they approach the nut.

The 4-wire pickup also lets you wire it in parallel, which could be a nice way to balance the pickup outputs, in case that 2-wire pickup is lower output.