Jazzmaster AV65 pickup volume balance

[boza]

Hi all,

Forum newbie here. After owning a Squier VMJM which I loved - I took the plunge and bought a new(-ish) Vintage 65 Reissue Jazzmaster which I got a great deal on. However, I'm having an (non?)-issue which has been driving me a bit mad. The bridge pickup is significantly quieter than the neck pickup, which feels almost twice as loud and much fuller. Of course I am aware that the strings vibrate less over the bridge PU. However, I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong with my PU or the wiring. Adjusting the heights I can somewhat balance the volume outputs, but this means lowering the neck PU significantly while the bridge PU is extremely close to the strings. Looking at pics and Youtube reviews it seems that other Jazzmasters with these pickups (Pure Vintage '65) don't exhibit this behaviour.

I did replace the pickguard a few weeks ago, and I think I may have messed up something during the process. But what? Switching it back doesn't change anything. The problem is that I'm not even sure if this behaviour was there to begin with.

So two/three questions:

How balanced is the volume of your PUs and how are the heights differences? If it's not normal, what could be causing the issue? I measured the resistance, which yields 6.75KOhm and 6.85KOhm for the neck and bridge PUs, respectively. How could I troubleshoot this issue?

I'd be very thankful for any useful hints!

[Danley]

You measured the resistance at the output? Or at the pickup leads?

Anyway, I find that Jazzmaster neck pickups can tend to be very, very loud; there's just some extra punch to that fat pickup in that position. In your Squier, the Duncan Designed neck pickup would have been I think half resistance vs. the bridge? Even then, to my ears those pickups sound a bit unbalanced. I have a Duncan SJM-2 Hot set in one of my guitars, and the neck pickup is also relatively still a good deal louder than the bridge, and I've taken it as a Jazzmaster quirk, as it's the same way on both of mine, with any pickup combo.

[O Drones]

I have a 65. Same thing. Just the way they are.

[boza]

Hi all,
thank you for the replies! I'm very relieved that this is the normal behaviour.
@Danley how are you finding the SJM-2 Hot pickup? I may consider upgrading down the road?

Thanks again!

[Francer]

Yes, me too, i have see the same thing with my AV65 stock pickups.

[chemattstry]

Same issue here! I have the PV 65 pickups in my partscaster. I'm thinking of throwing a hotter pickup in the bridge, but really like the middle position and the noise cancelling.

[Jestapali]

it's very common to have / see the neck pickup much lower than the bridge, if you want to balance volumes. you can even see it clearly on most youtube reviews.

[fisonic]

The neck often seems louder but in a band setting it's usually the bridge that cuts through the mix. You might be greatful for a higher neck output in that dynamic.

[Embenny]

The neck often seems louder but in a band setting it's usually the bridge that cuts through the mix. You might be greatful for a higher neck output in that dynamic.

This is absolutely true.

On a related note, I notice that the more bass I have in my tone, the worse those imbalances seem...but I always try to keep bass under control in a band context, since it just gets lost in the mix anyway. Most of the time I aim for an almost high-passed tone with not much under 100 Hz. That cuts through so much better, but is slightly less fun solo/at bedroom volumes. I find a lot of guitarists use really bassy tones and that really accentuates the apparent loudness advantage of the neck pickup.

[O Drones]

It's definitely not just an apparent loudness though. It is actually louder.