hybrid Jazz Bass / Musicman bass possible??

[kramer.j]

Hi,

I have this Squire 5-string Precision with Jazz Bass pickups, that I "activated" with a simple preamp. It has a nice "Marcus Miller" sound. Recently a friend gave me a 5 string Musicman pickup with a broken coil. Now I'm thinking of (almost) rebuilding this pickup so that it matches the string spacing of the Squire. As far as I can see, I can almost put it on the Musicman's standard position without removing the Jazz Bass pickups. So, the next logical thought is to make some kind of switching so that I can either have a Marcus Miller sound or the typical Musicman sound (or even a mix).
Here's my question: the Musicman pickup will be quite close to the bridge pickup, and the bass will have 4 magnets per string. Will this have a noticable influence on the sustain?? And will the magnetic fields influence each other soundwise???
Anyone have a clue???
Thanks!!!
Regards,
Jaap

[luknfur]

FWIW:

Jumping the gun a bit - the coil's still broke. At any rate, as long as the strings are within in the magnetic field they don't need to be aligned with the poles. May just be an outside winding that's broke. If that's the case, it's my understanding that winding can just be reconnected. The chances of the pup surviving any tampering beyond that is remote at best unless done by a pro.

In my experience there won't be an issue with interaction of the mags (after all the MM coils are right next to each other) unless there's a polarity conflict. I would check that out. What's most likely to happen is the MM may have to be dropped some distance from the strings if there's too much pull on the strings - which would effect sustain and tone.

I've had a single MM pup suck a string down and hold it fast.

[kramer.j]

Hi,

thanks for your reply! The string spacing of the Squire is so much wider than the pickup that the B and G string are completely outside the outer magnets. So I'm planning to take the pole pieces and the bar magnets, and some "printed circuit board material" and build a new one. Luckily I have a fair amount of pickup winding experience :-)
About the polarity: what would be the prefered placement of the coils? Suppose the bridge pickup has north facing up, would the adjacent coil of the MM pickup need to be north or south?? Or would the sound difference be small??
By the way, I THINK this pickup comes from an OLP bass. Do the original Musicman basses have magnetic pole pieces, or do they also have bar magnets beneath the coils???
Regards,
Jaap

[luknfur]

Originally Posted by kramer.j

Hi, thanks for your reply!
Regards,Jaap

The string spacing of the Squire is so much wider than the pickup that the B and G string are completely outside the outer magnets.

I assumed you were talking about an original MM. I've seen an OLP, don't recall it being any wierd spacing but it is what it is regardless.

So I'm planning to take the pole pieces and the bar magnets, and some "printed circuit board material" and build a new one.

That's sort of how the Bongo pups made.

About the polarity: what would be the prefered placement of the coils?

I would just place the MM so it sucks towards the other pup when they're aligned and placed side by side. That will also give you some idea of how much they'll effect each other at what distance. You don't want the pups repelling each other.

Do the original Musicman basses have magnetic pole pieces, or do they also have bar magnets beneath the coils???

Original MM's have alnico 5 magnets.

[kramer.j]

Hi Luknfur,

Thanks again. The string spacing on my MM pickup is fairly narrow - just above 15 mm string-to-string, whilst the spacing on my Squire is quite wide for a 5-string (around 18 mm at where the MM pickup would be). But the big bar magnets are a bit longer than necessary, so I'm lucky :-)
Regards,
Jaap