jazz bass pickup help

[marchisgonebass]

just installed two jazz bass PUPS on an old pbass copy I have and am now ready to wire them but I have a few questions if anyone can help me out.

is there a difference between pots for volume controls and tone controls? i purchased three 250k pots from a local music store but wasnt thinking that there might be a difference.

also in some diagrams I have seen it shows just two wires from from each pickup, black and white, but on my pickups (dimarzio ultra jazz) there are four, black white red and green.

what are these other wires about?
and does anyone know of any good jazzbass wiring diagrams that would help me out??

thanks in advance,
daniel

[Koeda]

DiMarzio website has a plethora of wiring diagrams for you.

Pickup Wiring

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by marchisgonebass

is there a difference between pots for volume controls and tone controls? i purchased three 250k pots from a local music store but wasnt thinking that there might be a difference.

Some people like to use linear taper for volume and audio taper for tone, but otherwise, no, they are the same.

also in some diagrams I have seen it shows just two wires from from each pickup, black and white, but on my pickups (dimarzio ultra jazz) there are four, black white red and green.

what are these other wires about?
and does anyone know of any good jazzbass wiring diagrams that would help me out??

The Ultrajazz pickups are humbuckers, and each has two coils. So that makes four wires. The normal way to use them is connect the black and white wires together, solder it and tape it up. The the green goes to ground and the red it hot.

Wire the pots like this:

http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/defaul...std_series.pdf

[Coolhandjjl]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

Some people like to use linear taper for volume and audio taper for tone.....

I would add that probably 90% of all pots installed in basses and sold at music stores are Audio Taper pots (sometimes referred to Log Taper).

Seems like you have work a bit harder to find Linear Tapers with the right shaft, thread depth, and forget about Linear Taper push/pulls. Given all that, I still prefer Linear Taper volume pots. The extra effort is worth it. Much more control.

[marchisgonebass]

thanks for all the help guys. one more question, in that diagram is shows the tone pot having a cap or something? if mine doesnt have that is it still ok to use?

[mech]

Originally Posted by marchisgonebass

thanks for all the help guys. one more question, in that diagram is shows the tone pot having a cap or something? if mine doesnt have that is it still ok to use?

Nope ...you have to have the cap to roll off the highs for it to be a tone control

mech

[Coolhandjjl]

A starting point for a typical tone cap is either a .05uf or .047uf cap, depending on what your music store stocks. If you want to experiment, going to a .022 cap will allow more mids to stay present when you dial the tone down. Don't waste your time looking at exotic or vintage tone caps, just get what the music store sells.