Hello Everyone, Pictured here is my old Fender PJ FrankenBass. The Dimarzio models P and J pickups have never lined up properly. Recently I replaced the old ‘80s 20 fret jazz neck with a new US made D profile Precision neck. Since the new neck is 21 frets I had to modify the neck pocket and I got a really good snug fit. I decided to relocate the bridge about 3/32” to get the strings centered nicely on the neck (the strings on the old jazz neck were never centered correctly either) Moving the bridge actually improved the alignment on the bridge pickup but the neck pickup is still out of alignment.
So my question is: If I rout out the pickup cavities just a bit, relocate the pickups and get them centered nicely will it really make any noticeable difference in pickup efficiency or tone? Are the strings aligned enough that I can just adjust the pole height accordingly and be done?
I could also fuss with the neck pocket and remove some material and add some shims and theoretically get everything lined up but I feel that’s risky and I might not get a snug fit again.
The answer to your question is, no you won’t notice any difference by moving the pickup sideways a millimetre or so. The pickups have two magnets and your strings are already between them.
If it bugs you go ahead and tweek stuff, it can’t hurt.
Have you checked that its not just the pick guard that is 1-2mm off to the right?
When I replaced my pickups and pick guard on my p-bass that I got off ebay 26 years ago I noticed that there was plenty of room already routed out and that the previous owner had 2 to 3 different screw holes for each of the 13 screws holding the pickguard down, probably due to swapping it out a bunch and not all using the same exact layout. With as tight as the tolerances are for the p-pups in the plate, I could see it just needing shifted over slightly. Looking at the full pic, it seems the plate fits around the body edge and neck pretty good but maybe the pickup cutout was made in just slightly the wrong place. You could try a new pick guard plate. They’re cheap and doesn’t involve unreversible cutting out of wood.
Thx for all the replies. The bridge location is good now because having the strings centered correctly on the neck is most important to me and that’s right on target. The intonation is good. I modified the neck pocket very accurately and the 20th fret on the new neck lines up with where the 20th fret on the old jazz neck was. It didn’t need much adjustment after the neck swap. The consensus seems to be that my strings line up well enough with the pickup poles so pickup efficiency and tone won’t noticeable improve if I scoot the pickups over a little bit so I’m gonna leave well enough alone. I definitely don’t want to mess with the neck pocket and I don’t want to put another pickguard on either. Even though it’s a Beater FrankenBass I don’t want to alter it any more than the neck swap. Since it is a Beater I don’t mind if strings and pickup poles aren’t lined up just so long as I’m not losing pickup efficiency.
I gigged with this bass for many years aand it’s the 3rd neck I’ve had on this body. The more modern ‘D’ profile neck is my favorite one. It keeps the same nut width as my ‘72 P Bass but it’s slightly flatter on the backside making it thinner front to back. It’s super comfortable and less fatiguing so I can drive it hard for longer periods of time without wearing myself out. I appreciate all the input very much.
