Jazz`bass with a MM pickup in the bridge- questions

thedreaded6 · #1 11-15-2009, 01:30 PM

Hey all, I just recently bought a squire vintage modified 70's jazz bass. Incredible bass! love how it plays. However, I saw on this site someone who put a MM style pickup into the bass. basslines brand i believe.

after a little thought, i have decided i wuold liek to do the same, but i do have questions as to how it would work..

-is the basslines pickup active or passive?
-does it have a coil tap? is it possible to add one?
-does it mean i must replace the neck pickup as well?

would love some feedback on this one. Thanks!

__HM__ · #2 11-15-2009, 01:34 PM

Passive,
Yes, Its dual coil humbucking, a coil tap would work fine,
and no, I've dropped a MM pickup into several P basses of mine and my friends, it lines up perfectly, I doubt a J bass would be too much different.

thedreaded6 · #3 11-15-2009, 01:37 PM

awesome

but this leads me to a further question...

this is not the first time i will rewire a bass.. but how do you put in a coil tap?

**line6man** · #4 11-15-2009, 01:49 PM

No, MM pickups do not have coil taps.

A coil tap would require re-winding the pickup.

Unless you are confusing a coil tap with a coil split?

__HM__ · #5 11-15-2009, 01:53 PM

Perhaps I am, what's the difference?

thedreaded6 · #6 11-15-2009, 01:53 PM

what is the difference between a tap and a split?

**line6man** · #7 11-15-2009, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by __HM__

Perhaps I am, what's the difference?

A coil tap would be when a pickup is wound with a tap partway through the winding so that you can use either the full winding of the coil or a portion of the winding.

A coil split would technically be humbucker to single coil switching, though it often refers to series/parallel switching of the coils of a humbucker too.

thedreaded6 · #8 11-15-2009, 02:14 PM

so, if i added a coil split, i could essentially use the humbucker as a single pickup? would it sound like a single coil jazz pickup?

~ignited~wings~ · #9 11-15-2009, 02:22 PM

I'd look into the delano hybrid instead of the basslines for that application. It's an MM style pickup, but one side of the pickup uses Jazz style pole pieces, so when you split the pickup, the tone is closer to an actual jazz pickup.

thedreaded6 · #10 11-15-2009, 02:32 PM

just looked at the delano's. They look awesome! they are passive with a coil tap i assume? how much does that pickup cost?

**line6man** · #11 11-15-2009, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedreaded6

just looked at the delano's. They look awesome! they are passive with a coil tap i assume? how much does that pickup cost?

Passive. You are pretty much only going to see active pickups with brands like EMG or MEC.

They are not tapped, but they are splittable. (That's the whole concept. They split from MM humbucker to J single coil.)

$214 from BBG:
http://www.bestbassgear.com/delano-4-string-pickups.htm

thedreaded6 · #12 11-15-2009, 02:43 PM

ok great... so how do you "split" the pickup?

**line6man** · #13 11-15-2009, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedreaded6

ok great... so how do you "split" the pickup?

http://delano.de/fileadmin/redaktion...ing_3pages.pdf

OriginalCrash · #14 11-15-2009, 02:50 PM

I'm not entirely certain on how it happens. If you can read wiring diagrams, Delano has one on their website. As far as how it's done, though, I believe the pickup includes a switch that does that... switches it from humbucking 'Ray mode to single coil Jazz mode. It's a bit confusion, though, as you can also match one of their Sonar preamps with it, in which case the switch is also supposed to bypass the preamp when in single coil mode... which combined with the special treble pot, turns the boost/cut treble control into a passive tone control. And then they go on to say that the Hybrid is compatible with most other onboard preamps... but how easily that would be done I have no idea.

eastcoasteddie · #15 11-15-2009, 03:31 PM

Usually, a double coil humbucker like the MM-style have 4 conductors. (I don't know how the Delano is wired) if you take the 2 conductors for either coil (the + and - side of that coil) and put them to ground, you cancel the signal to that coil. You then only have the other coil active.

Check the diagram in this .pdf from seymour duncan. It shows a guitar pickup, but it's the same principle.
the red and white wires are for the top coil, green and black are for the bottom coil. If you pull the vol switch (in this case) the red and white wires go to ground through the switch (soldered to the pot). This leaves only the green & blasck wires (bottom coil) in the circuit.
Note: the way this pickup is wired, both coils are in Series with each other.
Parallel wiring would have Red & Black together, green & white together

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...ol_1tone_split

It is actually much simpler than it sounds.

this one is pretty interesting:
on MM pickup, passive circuit, 2 volumes....each vol is controling one coil:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/pdfs/su...sive_2v_1t.pdf

**line6man** · #16 11-15-2009, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eastcoasteddie

Usually, a double coil humbucker like the MM-style have 4 conductors. (I don't know how the Delano is wired) if you take the 2 conductors for either coil (the + and - side of that coil) and put them to ground, you cancel the signal tot hat coil. You then only have the other coil active.

Check the diagram on this .pdf from seymour duncan. It shows a guitar pickup, but it's the same principle.
the red and white wires are for the top coil, green and black are for the bottom coil. Id you pull the vol switch (in this case) the red and white wired go to ground through the switch (soldered to the pot). This leaves only the green & blasck wires (bottom coil) in the circuit.
Note: the way this pickup is wired, both coils are in Series with each other.
Parallel wiring would have Red & black together, green & white together

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...ol_1tone_split

It is actually much simpler than it sounds.

this one is pretty interesting:
on MM pickup, passive circuit, 2 volumes....each vol is controling one coil:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/pdfs/su...sive_2v_1t.pdf

The Delano Hybrid is configured in a different way from most pickups. You need to follow their diagram.

If you guys want regular coil splitting options, here is a diagram:

~ignited~wings~ · #17 11-15-2009, 03:49 PM

It is however worth noting that their normal music man pickup is $100 cheaper, which may make more sense if you're just going to wire it all passive anyway, as I'm fairly certain that the extra 100 goes into all these special preamp options.

**line6man** · #18 11-15-2009, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~ignited~wings~

It is however worth noting that their normal music man pickup is $100 cheaper, which may make more sense if you're just going to wire it all passive anyway, as I'm fairly certain that the extra 100 goes into all these special preamp options.

It looks like just a 4PDT switch and a custom 50K/250K dual ganged pot, probably $30 worth of extra cost.
The main thing is the pickup itself.

**line6man** · #19 11-15-2009, 03:56 PM

Hey, wait a minute, the 250K section of the pot is listed as an A taper and the 50K section is listed as a B taper.

I thought that linear and audio tapers were backwards in Europe so that A was the linear taper and B was the audio instead of A being the audio and B being the linear like in the United States?

Delano pickups come from Germany, right?

SGD Lutherie · #20 11-15-2009, 04:20 PM

I've always heard A as audio and B as linear.