J-Retro installation question...
 

Hello fellas, I got a pre-wired J-Retro a couple of days and was going to put it on my Lakland skyline JO4. But I am a bit confused to install it so probably need some advice please. :help:

It looks quite simple and just a couple of solder jobs might be done that. However, I saw a old thread about buzz/noise from improper installation so a bit hesitate here.

I took off the original plate and there are 5 wires in it, I suppose they're: 2 (red/black) for neck pup, 2 (green/black) for bridge and 1(black) is cavity ground. Would anyone please indicate how should I connect them to j-retro as solder them to hot/cold wire which are already there and solder cavity ground to the power jack?

My question is, should I

1. either connect red/black wires to hot/cold wire of preamp then put single ground wire to the jack?

2. or tie three black wires together and solder them to jack?

Some photos for the reference:

The pre-wired J-Retro looks like:


From John East installation guide:


And Lakland current circuit:


Thanks in Advance.
MH

I installed mine few years ago and don't remember exactly what I did but works.

Hi Depalm: cheers for that. Great reference, I'm gonna give it a shot later and update this thread.

Remember that with Lakland pickups, black is wired as hot on one of them, cold on the other.

I'm thinking of getting one also isn't there a model that you can charge a built in battery through the input jack?

ehhhh...

Hello John: I did it hours ago without seeing this reply and solder black wire as cold wire. Seems both pups working under active/passive, should I re-do it?

Cheers

Sorry I should mention that j-retro already installed as John' guide. Pretty easy job and perfectly fit with Lakland.

Now the bass sounds awesome, Hugh volumn, endless tonal possibilities, in particular the mid sweep. Now this bass is real versatile weapon.

It's an excellent upgrade I got say.

Aww man,,,
 

I've got a Skyline Joe Osborn 5 w/Lakland pups '07 model. And I'm thinking this is what this bass needs for me to keep it and not post it in the classifieds here soon. I just can't dial this bass to cut thru in band mix.

Then again, I do have some older Sadowsky flats on it. Maybe new strings, nickels/SS, may be a quicker cheaper route to see if it'll spring to life. Though I did remove some litely used DR orange coated strings for these Sads, so dunno, they weren't great on this bass either. Grrrr...:hmm: