Well, I took the plunge! That I didn't sell the bass as standard also pushed me into converting it from active to passive.

As standard, and IMHO of course, this bass had a poor sound with a marked inablilty to cut through unless the middle was well up. This produced loads of string noise (TI Jazz Flats) and pops and the like. This seemed to shut down the amp so that the note was unheard.

The convertion.

I adopted the policy to do the absolute minimum of modding to the bass in case I wanted to put the actives back at any time. Modding also included reducing to a minimum the number of wires I had to cut. I took photos to help me with the rebuild, and took notes and made drawings as I thought nesc.

PIC 1 shows the batteries removed along with the jackplate cover. The nut and washers shows the order in which they were removed.

PIC 1a shows the jack socket having been pushed back inside the body and, therefore, out of the batt compartment. To do this I had to take off a few shavings of wood with a craft knife, from the internal routing of the jack compartment.

PIC 2 shows the Fender active unit upside down next to the bass. I knew from examining this that there would be 4 wires to cut. 1) Black to the Jack Skt. 2) Black to PCB. 3) Yellow, neck PUP 'live'. 4) White, Bridge PuP 'live'.

PIC 3 shows the wires cut and with labels attached so that I could easily identify which to join back together should the need arise. Aslo shown are the batt clips and jack skt still wired-up. These parts are easily pulled through the routings and out of the top side routing.

PIC 4 and 5 shows the new control plate. It is a standard Jazz style control plate loaded with the correct components and came pre-wired. I bought this quite cheaply from Ebay as an after-market part simply because this project was an experiment.

PIC 6 and 7 shows the new plate ready for connecting the wires. Yellow to the R/H pot, White to the middle pot according to the standard Fender Jazz wiring plan as found onn the support pages of Fender.com. Finally, the two black wires to the pot bodies. Job done. PIC 7 shows the finished job.

That's it. The job took about an hour, but that doesnt include 'thinking time', looking for the parts, etc. I should add that I'm very experienced with electronics, soldering, etc, so that it might take someone else longer than the hour. But not so much longer, perhaps.

The end result is a passive sounding, passive bass. It is very early days yet, and there are a couple of issues to sort out with tone capacitor value, but I'm thrilled with the difference. It's made a great sounding bass.

John

PIC 2 and PIC3

PIC 4 and PIC5

PIC 6 and PIC 7

Cool... Are your pickups the "Noiseless" or the "SCN"? I'm curious because some people here have said they thought the SCN's were optimized for use with a preamp, so I have wondered how they would perform/sound without a preamp.

Well... yes, they are noiseless. (Samarium Cobolt Noiseless).

For a long time I was of the mistaken belief that these PuPs were active or, as you say, in some way matched to the preamp.

Research / questions with Fender and TB suggest they are to all intents and purposes ordinary passive pickups. When I was satisfied enough of that I went ahead with the conversion. They behave as ordinary passive PuPs with the new controls when amplified, though don't sound like a classic 60s Jazz, I don't think. But that's fine for me! Neither have they buzzed (yet!) under the flourescent lights in the rehersal room.


Like I say, I'm thrilled at the new sound though I admit it's early days.

John

I have an american deluxe jazz 4 string.Did you consider just putting in a active /passive switch? or is this possible to do as I would like to do that to mine.Any suggestions would be grand

I had a kill switch put in my 06, Am Dlx J V. As I recall, the
sound was just about the same with the preamp flat, and
with the preamp bypassed. I usually run my bass flat anyway.

No I never considered putting a act / pass switch in circuit, and for the opposite reason to B String's experience. My bass sounds nothing like it does (now) passive to when it was active but the controls were mid point. I didn't like the mid position active sound.

The actives on mine clearly alter the sound even when the controls are set to give flat output. As I understand it, the opinion amongst players is that this bass can't really be made to sound like a passive instrument. Anyway...

You could fit a switch that will disconnect the pickups from the actives input(s) and feed them straight to the jack socket. Naturally you would have to break the connection between the actives output and the jack socket, too. This would require a 3pole, Double Throw switch. The work might be a bit tedious depending on how experienced you are at this sort of thing. There would be no control of either Vol or Tone doing that but at least, if the actives failed, you could still play the show albeit with reduced tonal capability.

John

i installed an active/passive switch in my AmDlx Jazz V eons ago, and had a thread about it in this very forum that nobody gave a shite about...:)
it was cool for playing with fuzz-faces or woolly mammoth and the like, which don´t really work with actives.
i sold the bass quite some time ago, found the neck too wide at the nut.

cheers,
lowstar

and p.s. you don´t need a 3pdt, a dpdt is enough if you take the signal AFTER the blend pot before it goes into the active circuitry.

cheers,
lowstar

OK Lowstar, that's fair enough. Without knowing the circuit exactly I jumped for breaking both PuP hots and the output from actives to the jack socket.

STOP PRESS.....
I've just heard from Bill Lawrence. For running his SCNs in passive mode he recommends using standard Jazz Bass wiring. That is, 250K pots and the 0.05uF tone cap.
..........

Best.

John

I dont mean to hijack the thread but,Seeing as though I just picked a an AM DLX J 4,I have a few questions for those who own them,Will the badass 3 bridge really make an audible difference?Will standard jass pickguards fit?If not where can I get them ?Thanks Guys ,Marty

Don't worry about hijacking the thread.

As far as I understand these things, for maximum sustain, the issue revolves around having as good as possible transfer of the strings' vibrations into the body of the bass. I suppose that means that (say) a badly fitting original Fender bridge is about as much use as any other badly fitting bridge, Badass included. Going on from that, it seems logical that simply fitting another bridge may not make any difference and could, in fact, make matters worse.

FWIW, I've never thought that aftermarket products such as this have any real value and I personally would not buy a Badass (or any other) bridge. The Fender one seems just fine for me.

Can't say about the pickguard. But as the standard control plate appears to be a direct fit, I presume the pick guard may be, too.

Just my thoughts....

Best.

John