AM I just dumb or should a Jazz be like this?

[jtc_hunter]

I got a new wiring harness from Butch at Bayou cables cause the one he made for my P-bass made a big improvement. So, I got one for my jazz. The jazz is MIM and it never really gave me any problems . In fact, it has never made that single coil hum that everyone talks about. I could never even make it hum if I wanted to. So today I installed the new harness from Bayou cables. The diagram that came with the harness only showed one grounding wire, which, like the P-bass went under the bridge. Being careful to look at the Jazzes existing wiring before cutting it, I noticed that the original wiring had a second ground wire coming off the neck pups pot. It then, was mounted into the wood just in front of the pot cavity with a woodscrew. Now, This was weird to me.
A. Butches diagram and harness had no such "second grounding" wire.
B. It was just screwed down into wood? How could that be any kind of a ground?

So I mounted the harness w/o that second ground wire and guess what? I got the single coil hum if the volumes were turned about 50%, or if one was quite a bit less than the other. I took it apart again and soldered that second grounding wire to the back of the front pot and screwed it into the wood like it was from the factory and now there is no single coil hum no matter what I do. Am I dumb or what? I have never seen this second grounding wire on any passive Fender jazz bass diagram before. Is this normal? Did I just miss something and this is on every Jazz? I mean, I am glad it doesnt hum.

[Connor]

... is the bayou harness making it sound better?

[jtc_hunter]

Originally Posted by Connor

... is the bayou harness making it sound better?

Much better. Butch uses the best pots, best jack, best capacitor, and best wire. And he is surely better at soldering than I am. The tone is better I suppose because of the cap., the volume and tone adjust better ( more evenly) with the cts pots. Its worth the $25 . A cheap, but good bang for the buck upgrade.

[Hawaii Islander]

Did you check out the schematic for the bass on Fender's website? They should have tech notes to explain why they did that.

http://www.fender.com/support/wiring...sts.php#basses

[kevin_lindsay]

The original wire screwed into the wood sounds to me like a grounding wire for the pickup cavity - does the cavity have shielding paint in there? Or maybe some sort of copper shielding?

If so, integrating an earth wire like the original should solve your "hum" problem

[jtc_hunter]

Originally Posted by Hawaii Islander

Did you check out the schematic for the bass on Fender's website? They should have tech notes to explain why they did that.

http://www.fender.com/support/wiring...sts.php#basses

The schematic at the fender website is the same one that came the the harness that bayou cables built me. It does not show this wire. Strange, but it is definatly doing some grounding. Also, their is no shielding in the pickup cavity, so for the life of me, i dont know why Fender put it there or why it is even working, but with it, there is no hum.

[Darkstrike]

Don'tr worry about it, enjoy your bass.

[mjolnir]

It's no big deal. This is something I've heard described as a "star ground", something about it making a star shape or something like that. I personally have one in my Marcus Miller, comes stock with every one these days.

EDIT: Upon further research this is not in fact a star ground, though it is somewhat similar.

[jtc_hunter]

Originally Posted by mjolnir

It's no big deal. This is something I've heard described as a "star ground", something about it making a star shape or something like that. I personally have one in my Marcus Miller, comes stock with every one these days.

EDIT: Upon further research this is not in fact a star ground, though it is somewhat similar.

it does have a "star" type washer under the woodscrew. Must be what you are talking about. Thanks

[JackANSI]

"star ground" is actually named for the layout of the wiring involved.

All grounds originate from one location making a kind of "star" pattern if you were to imagine all the wire lengths as equal.. kinda like an "*"

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folder...nd/stargnd.htm