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I recently got an AVRI Jazzmaster and noticed that the bridge pickup sounds significantly weaker than the neck one.
Neck pickup sounds very full and chimey, I am so satisfied with its sound, but eventhough I've put the bridge pickup very high
and the neck very low, still neck sounds louder and with more body. I know that bridge pickups tend to sound like that
but since i've never played a jazzmaster before i wonder if this is more or less normal.
if yes, please suggest some replacement pickup that wont alter the character of jazzmaster, just add a bit of body to the bridge position.

dont let the longscale haet take over.give me some advice

Antiquity II's seem to get a lot of people's vote around here

Welcome to the world of the Jazzmaster. I find that all of my Jazzmasters have a full sound booming out of the neck pickup, with the middle position on toggly offering a nice tonal balance. My bridges sound more sterile when jamming by myself but do cut through when playing with a band. If you want a roaring bridge pup though, the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders are perfect. They're like humbuckers without the boring.

Yeah I had a 1/4 pounder in mine before I sold it that I bought off Fran or Hurb, I forget. Anyway, it was loud as all hell but I actually didn't like it at all. It was far too hot.

nah, i'm not necessarily looking for a roaring sound.
i was quite happy with the sound of the bridge pickup in the tele '72 deluxe which has the wide-range fender humbuckers whatever that is.
do you reckon the antiquity will go to that direction?

Well I believe it is more of a classic/vintage sound so I would say so.

I have Seymour Duncans in my MIJ Jazzmaster and am very pleased with them...they definately sound better than the stock ones. I went for the Hot SJM2 in the neck and the SJM3 Quater Pounder in the Bridge.

Have you set it up properly? Its height to the strings may not be matched properly with the neck pickup.

in order to try to match them, i've set the bridge quite high and the neck quite low.
but besides the volume of each pickup, the bridge sounds like through a high-pass filter if you know what i mean. not a lot of body but excess of squealing freqs, not very juicy

may be a stupid question, but how do you change Pickup height on an Jazzmaster? Do you put higher rubber bars under the PUs? Or do you try to get the screws so tight that the rubber is pressed thinner?

kypdurron wrote:may be a stupid question, but how do you change Pickup height on an Jazzmaster? Do you put higher rubber bars under the PUs? Or do you try to get the screws so tight that the rubber is pressed thinner?

It's not the best system for pickups I have seen. there are four screws and two strips of rubbery weather stripping under the pickup to push against the pickup. it tends to loose it's bounce after a while. same with the jaguar cept with 2 scews.

yeah I know how they are attached. Just didn't try to change height in any way ... But maybe I can work something out to compensate the different output of the PUs . I was just about to throw the SD back out again, because it really sounds bad at the moment.