P Bass Pickup Position

[pariah223]

Hey, im building my first bass, and im going with P style pickups. No J for now, but maybe in the future if all goes well. anyway, what is the best way to decide where to position the pickup? is there a certain distance from the bridge/neck that i should use? thanks.

[Mickguard]

Hey, im building my first bass, and im going with P style pickups. No J for now, but maybe in the future if all goes well. anyway, what is the best way to decide where to position the pickup? is there a certain distance from the bridge/neck that i should use? thanks.

One way to do it would be take a P-bass pickguard, line it up with your neck pocket ...if that's to the same spec as a Fender, then that'll tell you where to put the pickups. And you'll have a template for routing the cavities.

[pariah223]

ah thats not a bad idea at all.. i actually have an old squire p bass in my closet i could use, tottally forgot i had that until u said that.. haha. now, say in the future i would possibly want a j pickup in there, is that going to affect the p position, and ill be doomed if i do it that way now? or can i just add a J under it

[Mickguard]

ah thats not a bad idea at all.. i actually have an old squire p bass in my closet i could use, tottally forgot i had that until u said that.. haha. now, say in the future i would possibly want a j pickup in there, is that going to affect the p position, and ill be doomed if i do it that way now? or can i just add a J under it

I think you can just add the J under it -- Fender already makes models with this mix of pickups, the precision pickups have the pickguard, the Jazz pickup is next to the bridge.

[pariah223]

yea, im not doing a pickguard tho, so i dont have to worry about all that. thanks again!