Fender Custom Shop 62 P-Bass Pickup

I've had a Japanese-made Fender '62 Reissue Precision bass for 20-odd years. Japanese Fenders are great instruments, but often let down (on purpose, allegedly, so they don't make US Fenders look bad) by having inferior pickups and electrics installed. So, a few months back, I upgraded mine with a vintage-style tone-harness (Emerson Custom), and one of these pickups.

And the bass now sounds exactly the way it should. The sound quality has improved markedly, the balance of frequencies is just right, the dynamics and responsiveness are great, it's easy to dial in whatever flavours of classic Precision tone you want (whether it's Motown, heavy rock or something else entirely - you can get a tremendous Stranglers sound with new strings on the bass, for example...), and it sits great in the mix every time.

Overall it's turned a decent/affordable type of bass into a seriously useful instrument. In fact, when I'm recording there's usually a Rickenbacker 4003 and a nice G&L L-2000 around, and I tend to try them first. But I end up going with the Precision anyway because it's the one that just works...

Was customizing a P-Bass fitted with a DiMarzio Split P (DP127), which was way too dark for my taste.

After listening to almost every sound comparison out there, decided on the CS62 as it seemed to be the best bang for the buck.

Can't say I'm dissappointed. Plenty of clear highs (WAY more than the Split P) if I so choose and a close enough vintage sound with flats once I roll the tone off.

Can play with the amp EQ flat and still find the sounds I need.
Also seems to have more output than I expeceted from a 'vintage' pickup as I had to screw them quite a way down.

If I remember correctly, Fender recommends a 1µf cap. Went with the 047uF Sprague and it's plenty for my taste as I hardly ever used it with the tone all the way off.

The only complaint is that the Fender could really have done a better job with the foam. Being the least expensive part of this, they could have put some bigger pieces under there as mounting the pickups was a bit of a balancing act.

As a bonus – as the bass is a put together from parts and therefore a no-name, the 'Custom Shop' in the name is probably going to do a lot of heavy lifting should I choose to sell it :)

I use this pick up in my mid 80's Fender Jazz Special and I use it in a Hard Rock band playing a lot of 80's tunes, GnR that type of thing.

To me these pickups are medium output and work well with the stock J pick up in the bridge with no jump in volume when soloed. They are P pickups so they do that the classic P sound very well and were a big improvement on the stock pickups. A smooth and versatile P bass tone that would work on most genres. Very clean sound that works well with a chorus pedal.

The pickups themselves fitted the bass perfectly, but there was an issue with the grounding plate being too large for the rout on my bass. Its fits a standard P bass fine, I tried it, but would need to b adjusted to fit the Jazz special or similar like an Aerodyne Jazz bass

Overall highly recommended and a great upgrade for any bass.